RBSE Praveshika Sanskrit flashcards
RBSE Praveshika Sanskrit · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Savarna-dirgha sandhi
- When a simple vowel is followed by an identical simple vowel, both merge into the corresponding long vowel: a + a = ā, i + i = ī, u + u = ū. Example: rāma + agacchat → rāmāgacchat.
- Guṇa sandhi
- a or ā followed by i/ī gives e, by u/ū gives o, by ṛ gives ar. Example: upa + indra → upendra; nara + uttama → narottama.
- Vṛddhi sandhi
- a or ā followed by e/ai gives ai, by o/au gives au. Example: eka + eka → aikya; tava + ojas → tavaujas.
- Rāma śabda rup
- Puṃliṅga a-kānta declension: prathamā rāmaḥ/rāmau/rāmāḥ; dvitīyā rāmam/rāmau/rāmān; tṛtīyā rāmeṇa/rāmābhyām/rāmaiḥ.
- Latā śabda rup
- Strīliṅga ā-kānta declension: prathamā latā/late/latāḥ; dvitīyā latām/late/latāḥ; tṛtīyā latayā/latābhyām/latābhiḥ.
- Kāraka vibhakti mapping
- Seven kārakas map to vibhaktis: kartā prathamā, karma dvitīyā, karaṇa tṛtīyā, sampradāna caturthī, apādāna pañcamī, sambandha ṣaṣṭhī, adhikaraṇa saptamī.
- Dvandva samas
- A compound in which both members are equally important; the compound is plural and takes the gender of the last member. Example: rāmaś ca lakṣmaṇaś ca → rāmalakṣmaṇau.
- Bahuvrīhi samas
- A compound whose meaning points to an outside referent, not to either member. Example: dīrghabāhuḥ means 'one who has long arms', not 'a long arm'.
- Taddhit apatya pratyaya
- Suffixes forming descendant nouns: putrasya apatyaṃ pāutraḥ; manu + ya → mānavaḥ. Similarly strī-pratyaya forms like upādhyāyā.
- Rāmāyaṇa kāṇḍas
- Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa has seven kāṇḍas: Bāla, Ayodhyā, Araṇya, Kiṣkindhā, Sundara, Yuddha, Uttara. It is called Ādikāvya.
- Kālidāsa's works
- Three nāṭakas: Abhijñānaśākuntalam, Vikramorvaśīyam, Mālavikāgnimitram. Epics: Raghuvaṃśa, Kumārasambhava. Also Meghadūta and Ṛtusaṃhāra.
- Pañcatantra
- Viṣṇuśarman's nīti text in five tantras, using animal fables in a frame narrative. It teaches political wisdom through prose stories interspersed with verses.
- Mahābhārata structure
- Attributed to Vyāsa; 18 parvans and about 100,000 ślokas. The Bhagavadgītā occurs in the Bhīṣma parvan; it is called the Pañcamaveda.
- Nava rasa
- Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra lists eight rasas: śṛṅgāra, hāsya, karuṇa, raudra, vīra, bhayānaka, bībhatsa, adbhuta. Śānta is added later as the ninth.
- Karmavācya prayoga
- Passive construction uses past participle plus √as: rāmeṇa granthaḥ paṭhyate, 'the book is read by Rāma'. The agent takes tṛtīyā; the object becomes the subject.
- Ṇijanta dhatu rup
- Causative verbs add -aya before endings: paṭhati → pāṭhayati, 'causes to read'; kṛ → kārayati, 'causes to do'. The causal sense must be shown in translation.
- Translation word order
- Sanskrit places the verb last and allows free word order. When translating into English, reorder to subject–verb–object and translate the final verb first.
- Technical term transliteration
- Grammar terms such as sandhi, samāsa, pratyaya, vibhakti are transliterated, not translated, in anuvāda. Ordinary nouns are translated by meaning.
- Anuṣṭubh metre
- Four pādas of eight syllables each, the standard śloka metre of the epics. The fifth syllable of each pāda is light and the sixth heavy in the odd pādas.
- Vasantatilakā metre
- A metre of fourteen syllables per pāda with yati after the eighth syllable. It is common in classical kāvya for descriptive and reflective verses.
- Upamā alaṅkāra
- A figure of comparison using words such as iva, yathā, sadṛśa. Example: mukhaṃ candra iva, 'the face is like the moon'. It must be identified in padya explanation.
- Gadyāṃśa explanation method
- Split sandhi and compounds first, then identify subject, verb, and main clause. Paraphrase the sense rather than translating word-for-word.
- Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī
- Pāṇini's grammar in eight adhyāyas containing about 4,000 sūtras. Kātyāyana's Vārttika and Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya are its chief commentaries.
- Four Vedas and priests
- Ṛgveda for hotṛ, Sāmaveda for udgātṛ, Yajurveda for adhvaryu, Atharvaveda for brahmā. Each Veda has its own saṃhitā and ritual function.
- Bāṇa's prose works
- Bāṇa wrote Kādambarī, a romance in prose, and Harṣacarita, a biography of King Harṣa. Subandhu's Vāsavadattā and Daṇḍin's Daśakumāracarita are other prose kāvyas.
- Daśarūpaka
- Dhanañjaya's treatise on dramaturgy defining ten nāṭya types: nāṭaka, prakaraṇa, bhāṇa, vyāyoga, samavakāra, ḍima, īhāmṛga, aṅka, vīthī, prahasana.
- Nibandh structure
- Three-part essay: prārambha of two to three sentences, viṣaya-vistāra in two or three paragraphs, and upasaṃhāra of two to three sentences. Each part must connect logically.
- Aupacārika patra opening
- A formal Sanskrit letter opens with respectful address such as pūjyavaryāḥ or ādarṇīyāḥ, then states sthāna and dināṅka before the subject matter.
- Patra closing formula
- Formal letters close with bhavadīyaḥ for a male writer or bhavadīyā for a female writer, followed by the writer's name and date.
- Paryāya shabda
- Synonyms in Sanskrit: aśva = haya, turaga, vājin; jala = udaka, ambu, pānīya; pṛthvī = bhūmi, vasundharā, dharā.
- Upasarga meaning change
- Prefixes alter root meaning: √gam 'go' → āgam 'come', vigam 'depart', upagam 'approach', nigam 'enter'. The prefix must be reflected in translation.
- Viśeṣaṇa agreement
- An adjective must match its noun in liṅga, vacana, and vibhakti. Example: sundaraḥ bālaḥ, sundarau bālau, sundarāḥ bālāḥ.