Synopsis s book has the rare distinction of being both an introductorybook and a new ground-breaking study. It is an introductorybook because the reader gets an accurate overview ofthe language, and it is also a ground-breaking study becauseFilliozats approach harmonizes two different and complementarystands that often have been at war: the Western historicaland comparative approach and the indigenous pa!Çitatradition. Sanskrit is described here from these two points ofview: what the native speakers knew and felt about theirlanguage, and what the foreign scholars discovered in theirhistorical and comparative quest.