AP Intermediate Sanskrit (BIEAP) cheat sheet

Prescribed BIEAP prose selections come from classical narrative works such as Pañcatantra, Hitopadeśa, Kathāsaritsāgara, Daśakumāracarita and Bāṇabhaṭṭa's prose; identify the source work and author for each passage.

Comprehension answer structure: state the gist (bhāvārtha), then support it with a short Sanskrit quotation from the passage, then explain in the exam's language.

Distinguish direct narration (pratyakṣa kathana) from embedded stories (kathāntara); Pañcatantra frame stories nest a sub-tale inside a dialogue between the framing characters.

Anuvāda of prose requires matching tense and person: Sanskrit present tense (laṭ) usually maps to present/continuous, past narrative (laṅ) to simple past.

Watch for śleṣa and virodhābhāsa in ornate prose (gadya-kāvya); explanation must name the figure and unpack both meanings.

Common prose vocabulary items: iti (thus, quotation marker), kila (reportedly), tataḥ (then), atha (now/thereupon), eva (emphasis), api (even/though).

In prose explanation questions, mark sandhi-split (vigraha) of long compounds first; a single compound may carry a whole clause of meaning.

Identify speaker and addressee before translating dialogue; Sanskrit prose frequently omits the subject pronoun, so track the verb ending (parasmaipada/ātmanepada and person).

Know the metre by gaṇa pattern: anuṣṭubh = 8 syllables × 4 pādas; indravajrā = ta-ta-ja-ga-ga; upendravajrā differs only in the first gaṇa (ja instead of ta); śārdūlavikrīḍita = ma-sa-ja-sa-ta-ta-ga (19 syllables).

Vasantatilakā: 14 syllables per pāda, pattern ta-bha-ja-ja-ga-ga; Mālinī: 15 syllables, na-na-ma-ya-ya-yā.

Appreciation (rasāsvādana) answer order: anvaya (prose word order), padaccheda, meaning, alaṅkāra, rasa, then comment on the poet's skill.

Standard alaṅkāras to identify: upamā (simile, with iva/vat/yathā), rūpaka (metaphor), utprekṣā (as-if fancy, with iva implying imagination), arthāntaranyāsa (general maxim appended), śleṣa (double meaning), anuprāsa (alliteration).

Nīti verses from Bhartṛhari's Nītiśataka, Cāṇakya's Nītiśāstra and Pañcatantra are frequent selections; link the verse's moral to a concrete situation in the explanation.

Yamaka = repetition of identical syllable groups with different meaning; identify it only when the repeated group spans more than one word.

In verse translation, preserve the finite verb's person and the verse's tense; Sanskrit verses often use participle constructions (ktvā, kta) where English uses a clause.

Sandhi in verse is heavier than in prose; split pāda-final and word-internal sandhi before scanning metre, since syllable count depends on the joined form.

Rāma (a-stem, masculine) endings: -aḥ, -am, -ena, -āya, -āt, -asya, -e, -āt (abl.), -asya (gen.), -e (loc.), voc. -a; dual -au, -au, -ābhyām, -ābhyām, -ābhyām, -ayoḥ, -ayoḥ, -ayoḥ; plural -āḥ, -ān, -aiḥ, -ebhyaḥ, -ebhyaḥ, -āṇām, -eṣu.

Kavi (i-stem) singular: kaviḥ, kavim, kavinā, kavaye, kaveḥ, kaveḥ, kave, kau, kavīn.

Guru (u-stem) plural: guravaḥ, gurūn, gurubhiḥ, gurubhyaḥ, gurūṇām, guruṣu.

Phala (a-stem neuter): nom./acc. singular phalam; nom./acc. plural phalāni; other cases follow rāma.

Pronoun aham: aham, mām, mayā, mahyam, mat, mama, mayi; dual āvām; plural vayam, asmān, asmābhiḥ, asmabhyam, asmat, asmākam, asmasu.

Present-tense (laṭ) personal endings, parasmaipada: -mi, -si, -ti, -maḥ, -tha, -anti; ātmanepada: -e, -se, -te, -mahe, -dhve, -ante.

Six kārakas: kartā (nominative), karma (accusative), karaṇa (instrumental), sampradāna (dative), apādāna (ablative), adhikaraṇa (locative); genitive is not a kāraka.

Sandhi types: savarṇa-dīrgha (a+a→ā), guṇa (a+i→e, a+u→o), vṛddhi (a+e→ai, a+o→au), yaṇ (i+u→y/v), visarga sandhi (aḥ + voiced → o before voiced, r before vowel except a).

Compound classes: tatpuruṣa (case relation, head last), dvandva (coordinate), bahuvrīhi (possessive, refers to an outside noun), dvigu (numeral-first), avyayībhāva (indeclinable first member, whole compound indeclinable).

Anuvāda is meaning transfer, not word-for-word substitution; preserve Sanskrit's case relations using the target language's word order and postpositions.

Sanskrit passive (karmani prayoga) with instrumental agent: tena granthaḥ paṭhyate = 'the book is read by him' - recast as active where the target language prefers it.

Sanskrit absolutives: ktvā (same subject, prior action: 'having done'), lyap (after a prefix), tumun ('to') and periphrastic future differ in meaning.

Causals end in -aya: kārayati 'causes to do'; passive of causal kāryate. Desiderative (san) expresses 'wish to': didṛkṣati 'wishes to see'.

Translate Sanskrit duals explicitly as 'two' in Telugu/English, since neither language marks dual on the noun.

Sanskrit gerundive (kṛtya, -ya/-tavya/-anīya) is obligational: kartavyaṃ = 'must be done'; do not translate as a past passive.

Telugu-to-Sanskrit: render Telugu verbs in the tense matching Sanskrit laṭ (present), laṅ (past), lṛṭ (future); keep honorific plural (Telugu mīru) as Sanskrit bhavān/bhavatī, not vayam.

Idioms do not translate literally: śiraḥ kampayati = 'shakes the head' meaning refusal; siṃhāvalokana ('lion's glance') means reviewing what was already covered.

Formal Sanskrit letter (patra) opening: priya-mitrāya / pūjya-gurave namaḥ, then 'asmadīyaṃ ... ' or 'atra kṣemaṃ ...' for well-being; closing: bhavadīyaḥ / āpkaḥ with name and date.

Essay (nibandha) skeleton: prastāvanā (introduction), viṣaya-vistāra (body with 2–3 points), upasaṃhāra (conclusion); keep to one tense per paragraph.

Common essay topics with ready vocabulary: vidyā (education), paropakāra (helping others), deśabhakti (patriotism), paryāvaraṇaṃ (environment), vijñānam (science).

Sambodhana (vocative) rules: a-stem singular -a (rāma), plural -āḥ (rāmāḥ); i-stem kave, u-stem guro.

Numerals 1–10: eka, dvi, tri, catur, pañca, ṣaṣ, sapta, aṣṭa, nava, daśa; compounds use dvigu (trayodaśa = 13).

Time and date phrases: adya (today), śvaḥ (tomorrow), hyas (yesterday), prātaḥ (morning), sāyaṃ (evening); samaye (at the time of).

Sandhi is obligatory inside a Sanskrit sentence: write rāmo'gacchat, not rāmaḥ agacchat, in continuous prose composition.

Use iti to close quoted speech and to mark definitions; Sanskrit composes reported speech as '... iti' before the reporting verb.

Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE): Ṛgveda, Sāmaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda; Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas, Upaniṣads.

Rāmāyaṇa by Vālmīki, 7 kāṇḍas, ~24,000 verses; Mahābhārata by Vyāsa, 18 parvas, ~100,000 verses, contains the Bhagavadgītā in Bhīṣma-parvan.

Classical period: Aśvaghoṣa (Buddhacarita, Saundarananda), Kālidāsa (Abhijñānaśākuntalam, Meghadūta, Raghuvaṃśa, Kumārasambhava), Bhāsa's thirteen plays discovered in 1912.

Kālidāsa is dated c. 4th–5th century CE, likely at the court of Candragupta II; his Meghadūta is a mandākrāntā-metre messenger poem.

Bāṇa: Harṣacarita (biography of Harṣa) and Kādambarī (prose romance); Daṇḍin: Daśakumāracarita and Kāvyādarśa.

Bhartṛhari: Śatakatraya (Nīti, Śṛṅgāra, Vairāgya śatakas); Amarasiṃha: Amarakośa lexicon; Pāṇini: Aṣṭādhyāyī, c. 4th century BCE, 8 chapters of sūtras.

Kāvya theory: Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra, Ānandavardhana's Dhvanyāloka (dhvani), Abhinavagupta's Abhinavabhāratī; nine rasas: śṛṅgāra, hāsya, karuṇa, raudra, vīra, bhayānaka, bībhatsa, adbhuta, śānta.

Modern period: Sanskrit revival with Śrī Aurobindo, paṇḍit-period journals; BIEAP selections often draw on these classical names rather than modern authors.

Nīti = ethical wisdom literature; core texts: Cāṇakya-nīti, Bhartṛhari's Nītiśataka, Pañcatantra, Hitopadeśa, Viduranīti (Mahābhārata, Udyoga-parvan).

Pañcatantra's five tantras: Mitrabheda (loss of friends), Mitrāpti (gaining friends), Kākolīya (crows and owls), Labdhapraṇāśa (loss of gains), Aparīkṣitakāraka (rash action).

Cāṇakya's maxims to cite: 'na hi jñānena sadṛśaṃ pavitraṃ' (nothing as purifying as knowledge); 'vidyā dadāti vinayaṃ' (knowledge gives humility).

Hitopadeśa's four sections: Mitralābha, Suhṛdbheda, Vigraha, Sandhi; its frame is Viṣṇuśarman teaching the king's sons.

Key ethical terms for answers: dharma (duty), satya (truth), ahiṃsā (non-violence), dāna (giving), kṣamā (forgiveness), saṃtoṣa (contentment), aparigraha (non-possession).

Pañcatantra stories to name: 'The Lion and the Rabbit' (cleverness over strength), 'The Monkey and the Crocodile' (trust misplaced), 'The Blue Jackal' (false identity exposed).

Rājadharma and prajāhita (welfare of subjects) recur in Mahābhārata's Śānti-parvan; cite these when a question asks for a ruler's duty.

Cultural values embedded in prescribed verses: guru-śiṣya respect, mātṛ-pitṛ devotion, atithi-sevā (guest hospitality), and vāk-saṃyama (control of speech).

BIEAP internal assessment for languages typically combines a project/report and a record of assignments; confirm the exact split with the school's academic calendar, not with generic guides.

Project structure expected: title page, objective, sources consulted, content chapters, conclusion, bibliography; write the project in Sanskrit or the medium the school prescribes.

Acceptable project topics: a prescribed author's life and works, an alaṅkāra survey with examples, sandhi classification with 20 self-made examples, a nīti-verse collection with Telugu translation.

Assignment marking usually rewards accuracy of sandhi-split and anvaya over length; keep handwritten work neat with pāda-numbered verses.

Cite the prescribed textbook's lesson and verse numbers for every quoted passage; examiners check that quotations match the syllabus.

Record-keeping: maintain a dated log of assignments and viva questions; internal marks often include a viva component on the project.

Originality: present your own translation and explanation; copying printed translations verbatim is penalised.

Submit the project before the school's internal deadline; BIEAP practical/internal marks are forwarded to the board before the theory exam.