Shortest path for beginner

[Xarcade! Outreach]

Hello all,

I am a beginner in sanskrit, but have some intuition of some words such as names of gods, etc as I am hindu. What books do I need to go through till I will be able to read texts such as Puranas and Upanishad Bhashya By shankaracharya using a dictionary? I’ve heard of A first book in sanskrit and second book in sanskrit by  Bhandarkar, are these sufficient? I’m also interested in reading kavyas such as Ramodantam and raghuvamsa, can I read these direcly with a dictionary? What else would i need to read these? I want to learn Sanskrit in the traditional way. Would greatly appreciate a response to any of these questions .Thanks!