Kerala +2 Sanskrit Sastra key terms

Sanskrit court poetry composed in ornate verse or prose, judged by qualities such as suggestion, ornament, and emotional flavour rather than by information alone. Genres include mahakavya, khandakavya, and prose forms like katha.

A long narrative epic poem in Sanskrit with a heroic or legendary hero, sargas (cantos) of varying metre, descriptions of cities, mountains, seasons, and battles, and a prevailing rasa. Famous examples are Kumarasambhava and Kiratarjuniya.

Sanskrit dramatic art as systematised in the Natyasastra, combining acting, dance, music, and poetry. It is treated as a fifth Veda and aims at aesthetic pleasure and moral instruction through performance.

The ancient treatise on dramaturgy attributed to Bharata, covering play construction, acting, gesture, music, and rasa theory. It is the foundational text for classical Indian theatre and the earliest source of rasa doctrine.

The four modes of theatrical expression in Sanskrit drama: bodily gesture (angika), speech and delivery (vacika), costume and make-up (aharya), and inner emotional enactment (sattvika). Together they communicate the play's moods to the audience.

The aesthetic relish or emotional flavour savoured by a spectator when a stable emotion is awakened by the performance. Classical theory recognises eight, later nine, rasas such as sringara, karuna, and vira.

The theory of poetic suggestion, holding that the highest poetry communicates a meaning beyond the literal and figurative senses. Associated with Anandavardhana's Dhvanyaloka, it treats suggestion as the soul of poetry.

Poetic ornament or figure of speech, such as upama (simile) or rupaka (metaphor), that heightens the beauty of expression. Later theorists debated whether ornament is merely external or essential to poetry.

In poetics, the qualities or excellences of poetic expression, traditionally three: madhurya (sweetness), ojas (vigour), and prasada (lucidity). They are distinguished from ornaments as residing in the diction itself.

Poetic style or diction, classified by Vamana as vaidarbhi, gaudi, and pancali according to the arrangement and qualities of sounds and words. It treats style as the distinctive soul of poetic composition.

Literally 'crooked speech': poetic deviation from ordinary expression, elaborated by Kuntaka as the essence of poetry. It covers phonetic, lexical, grammatical, and semantic turns unique to the poet.

An emotional state in drama and poetry. Sthayibhavas are the stable emotions such as love and anger, while vyabhicaribhavas are transient feelings like jealousy or joy that accompany and develop them.

In dramaturgy, one of the five junctures or turning points that structure a Sanskrit play's plot, from the opening seed to the final resolution. The term is also used in grammar for sound combination.

The most common Sanskrit epic metre, a couplet of four quarter-lines of eight syllables each, also called anustubh. It is used throughout the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas for narrative verse.

Sanskrit prosody, the science of metres determined by syllable count and pattern of light and heavy syllables. One of the six Vedangas, it governs verse composition in poetry and drama.

Sanskrit grammar, the systematic analysis of word formation, inflection, and syntax. Panini's Astadhyayi is its foundational text, and grammar is traditionally counted as the most important Vedanga.

Panini's grammar of Sanskrit in roughly four thousand aphorisms, arranged in eight chapters. It describes derivation with algebraic brevity and is regarded as a masterpiece of formal linguistic description.

An aphoristic statement that states a rule with extreme economy of words. In Paninian grammar sutras are combined with meta-rules and technical devices so that maximum information is conveyed in minimum syllables.

A verbal root in Sanskrit grammar, listed with its meaning and grammatical properties in the Dhatupatha. Verbs and many nouns are derived from dhatus by adding suffixes and applying rules of sound change.

A suffix added to a root or stem to form a new word or inflected form. Examples include tin endings for verbs, sup endings for nouns, and krt and taddhita suffixes for derived words.

A grammatical case ending in Sanskrit, of which there are eight including the vocative. Each vibhakti expresses relations such as agent, object, instrument, and location, and is introduced by sup suffixes.

The set of verbal endings in Sanskrit, eighteen in number, marking person, number, and voice. They are divided into parasmaipada and atmanepada sets and are added to roots to form finite verbs.

The set of nominal case endings in Sanskrit, twenty-one in number, added to nominal stems to express case and number. The term comes from the first suffix of the list in Panini's grammar.

In grammar, the euphonic combination of sounds at word or morpheme boundaries, such as vowel merging, consonant assimilation, and visarga changes. Rules of sandhi explain why written Sanskrit words often differ from their underlying forms.

A compound word formed by combining two or more stems into a single grammatical unit. Major types include tatpurusa, dvandva, bahuvrihi, and avyayibhava, each with distinct rules of analysis.

The theory that meaning is grasped from an indivisible, meaningful unit of speech that is revealed by uttered sounds rather than produced by them. Associated with Bhartrhari and debated by Mimamsakas and Naiyayikas.

Verbal cognition, the process by which a hearer understands meaning from a sentence. Grammarians, logicians, and Mimamsakas offer competing accounts of how word meanings combine into sentence meaning.

Syntactic expectancy, the first condition for sentence meaning: words must await other words to complete the sense, as a noun awaits a verb. It is discussed alongside yogyata and sannidhi.

Semantic compatibility, the second condition for sentence meaning: the words must be fit to be connected, as fire and wetness are not. Without it a grammatically well-formed sentence yields no coherent sense.

The grammarian-philosopher author of the Vakyapadiya, who held that the sentence is the primary unit of meaning and that the word-principle underlies reality. His work bridges grammar and Advaita thought.

A system of Indian philosophical thought. Six orthodox schools are traditionally counted: Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta, alongside heterodox systems such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Carvaka.

The school of logic and epistemology founded by Gautama, teaching valid means of knowledge, inference with a five-membered syllogism, and liberation through correct understanding. It later merged with Vaisesika metaphysics.

A valid means of knowledge. Standard lists include perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony, with schools disputing the number and reliability of each. Pramana study is central to Indian epistemology.

The school centred on interpretation of Vedic ritual texts, stressing injunction, ritual action, and the authority of scripture. Its linguistic discussions of sentence meaning strongly influenced Sanskrit hermeneutics.

The system based on the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita, teaching that ultimate reality is Brahman. Major subschools include Advaita, Visistadvaita, and Dvaita, differing on the relation of self and world.

The non-dual Vedanta of Sankara, holding that Brahman alone is real and the individual self is ultimately identical with it. Empirical plurality is explained as ignorance, removed by knowledge of scripture.

A dualist system explaining the world through two ultimate principles, purusa (consciousness) and prakrti (matter). It analyses reality into twenty-five categories and is closely linked with the Yoga school.

The atomist school of Kanada, classifying reality into categories such as substance, quality, action, generality, and particularity. It teaches that the world arises from combinations of eternal atoms.

The school systematised in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, defining yoga as stilling the fluctuations of the mind. Its eight limbs progress from ethical restraints through posture and breath control to meditation and absorption.