Prose (Gadyam): Reading, Anvaya and Explanation
What the prose section asks
The Gadyam section tests close reading of a prescribed prose passage: giving the anvaya (prose order), explaining a sentence in Sanskrit or in the medium of instruction, answering comprehension questions on characters and cause and effect, and identifying the source and author. Passages come from narrative Sanskrit - fable collections such as the Pañcatantra and Hitopadeśa, kathā-style retellings, and ornate ākhyāyikā prose in the manner of Bāṇa's Harṣacarita and Kādambarī, where long compounds carry the description.
Reading method
- Locate the finite verb first; every other word hangs from it.
- Split long compounds and give the vigraha before translating.
- Mark absolutives in -tvā and -ya: they share the subject of the main verb and show an earlier action.
- Treat iti as a quotation marker - it closes reported speech or thought.
- Check case endings, especially ṣaṣṭhī (possession) and saptamī (place, time).
Worked example
tatra kaścit kṛṣīvalaḥ rājñā saha virodhaṃ prāpya nagaraṃ parityajya grāmam agacchat.
- Main verb: agacchat - laṅ, 3rd singular, root gam, "he went".
- prāpya, parityajya: -ya absolutives, both belonging to kṛṣīvalaḥ.
- rājñā saha: saha governs the instrumental.
- Order and sense: "A certain farmer there, having fallen into a dispute with the king, abandoned the city and went to a village."
Traps that cost marks
Translating compounds word by word and losing track of the subject; treating an absolutive as the main verb; ignoring iti so that quoted speech merges with the narrator's voice; and answering an "explain" question with a bare translation, without naming the character, the moral or the tone the passage is building.