A five-sentence Sanskrit letter: task fulfilment versus accuracy
A 6-mark guided-writing question asks for a five-sentence Sanskrit letter inviting a friend to the school's Sanskrit Day, using at least three words from the list utsavaḥ, āmantraṇam, kṛpā, sahāyaḥ, ānandaḥ, and keeping the conventions of an address and a signature. The rubric gives 2 marks for conventions, 3 for the required words (one each) and 1 for grammatical accuracy. Among 52 scripts, one boy signs bhavadīyaḥ and one girl signs bhavadīyaḥ too; eleven write kṛpaya āgaccha without the final ā; fourteen use sukhena āgaccha where they mean 'please come happily'; and nine write tvāṃ āmantrayāmi. One candidate uses only two required words but makes no grammatical mistake; another uses all three with patram in the wrong vibhakti. The teacher has to write the model letter, decide which errors are spelling, which are grammar, and which are failures of the task itself.
1. Write the five-sentence model letter and mark where each required word enters.
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प्रिय मित्र, श्रीः। अस्माकं विद्यालये श्वः संस्कृतदिनोत्सवः भविष्यति। (utsavaḥ) त्वाम् आमन्त्रये। (āmantraṇam - if the rubric demands the exact noun,
āmantraṇaṃ karomi) कृपया समये आगच्छ। (kṛpā → instrumentalkṛpayā) तव सहायेन उत्सवः सफलः भविष्यति। (sahāyaḥ) आनन्देन त्वां द्रष्टुम् इच्छामि। (ānandaḥ) भवदीयः / भवदीया
Five sentences, an address in the vocative, the conventional śrīḥ opening, and a signature whose ending agrees with the writer's gender. Each required word appears in the case the sentence actually needs - kṛpayā and sahāyena are instrumental because that is their function here. The rubric is paying for use, not for insertion; a list of words dropped between full stops would score 0 on that line however many appear.
2. A girl signs her letter bhavadīyaḥ. Classify the error as convention, grammar, or task failure - and rule on kṛpaya without the final ā and on sukhena āgaccha.
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bhavadīyaḥ is a masculine form meaning 'your honour's (servant)'; a female writer signs bhavadīyā. The ending agrees with the writer, not with the addressee, which is exactly what learners miss: they see 'your' and look at the friend. Classification: grammar, i.e. the 1 accuracy mark - not the 2 convention marks, because the letter still opens and closes in the right places in the right order.
kṛpaya without the final ā: kṛpā is a feminine ā-stem and the instrumental singular is kṛpayā. The missing ā leaves a form that does not exist, so this is an accuracy error rather than a spelling nicety - that same ending is what carries the 'please'.
sukhena āgaccha, 'come comfortably', is grammatical but wrong for the intention: sukha is ease or absence of discomfort, ānanda is joy at an occasion. Where the rubric requires ānandaḥ, sukhena does not count, however smoothly the sentence reads.
3. Candidate A uses two required words with no grammatical error; Candidate B uses all three with patram in the wrong vibhakti. Award both under the 2+3+1 rubric and defend the resulting order.
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A: 2 + 2 + 1 = 5. B: 2 + 3 + 0 = 5. Same total, different profile, and the rubric is right to produce that.
The 3 marks are task fulfilment: the instruction says 'at least three words', so each omitted word costs exactly one, and polish cannot buy them back - otherwise the instruction stops meaning anything. The 1 mark is accuracy, and a single wrong vibhakti is one error, not a tariff per word.
In feedback, give A the missing requirement ('you have written a clean letter; now make it satisfy every condition') and give B the case rule (patram is neuter; check what the verb governs before adding endings). If a school's scheme ever lets a fluent two-word letter outscore a complete one, the rubric needs revising, not the candidate.