[bhasi]

The Valmiki Ramayanam is a much more accessible document than the Gita to learn Sanskrit from as an advanced learner after completing the basics. There's the aspect of a story that unfolds progressively which is nice and engaging, as opposed to the deep metaphysical stuff in the Gita.

The first section of the Ramayanam is the Sankshepa Ramayanam, or, the Ramayanam in summary. This gives the outline of the whole story which then is expounded in detail in the subsequent sections.

[sieve]

What sounds nice, and works, in poetry may not work when narrated in prose.

So, I am avoiding the first four sargas of the Balakanda entirely in my guide. The story starts with a description of Ayodhya and then moves on to Dasharatha and his family. I want to keep things simple and linear so that the story has momentum and readers feel like continuing the story.

I will have to find a way to incorporate all the side stories without damaging the momentum. Will probably add them as "side quests" at the appropriate juncture.

> after completing the basics

I have to disagree here. Best to jump in directly using glosses (will start with an English one. Might add a Hindi one at a future date). This fetish for basics is a big hurdle that I have personally experienced.

You will never be confident enough to start reading the Ramayana no matter how much you study the language because it is a game of vocabulary.

You need vocabulary to understand things. And the only way to acquire vocabulary is to read a lot.

[bhasi]

In my experience of having learnt Sanskrit via what I now realize is the comprehensive input method (thank you for introducing that term to me via your comments on this thread), I absolutely think that the "basics" - enough to recognize the seven (eight if you count the sambodhana) vibhaktis (declensions) and the simple past, present, future and the subjunctive tenses - are required in order to get past the huge roadblock of parsing a word.

Once parsed, I can look up the meaning of the word on ashtadhyayi.com or elsewhere, but not before.