RBSE SS Gujarati Literature flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Akho's deh-nagar metaphor

Akho's padyas compare the human body to a walled city whose gates are the senses; control of the gates is self-mastery, and the image carries his Vedantic moral teaching.

Khandkavya

A short narrative poem of moderate length, longer than a lyric but shorter than an epic. Kalapi's romantic and nature poems are standard Gujarati examples of this form.

Upama versus rupaka

Upama is simile, using a comparison word such as 'jevo' between two things. Rupaka is metaphor, identifying them directly with no comparison word.

Anuprasa

A sound-based figure in which the same consonant is repeated in nearby words to create musical effect. It belongs to the shabd-alankara class, not the meaning-based class.

Narmad's literary status

Narmadashankar Dave is called the father of modern Gujarati literature. He pioneered the modern essay, autobiography, and patriotic lyric, including 'Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat'.

Saraswatichandra

Govardhanram Tripathi's four-part novel, published 1887-1901, is the first major Gujarati novel. It examines reform-era ideals of duty, love, and self-culture through its characters.

Round versus flat character

A round character shows conflicting traits and changes under pressure; a flat character has one consistent trait. Evidence comes from speech, others' remarks, and narrator comment.

Vyangya in prose

Vyangya is satire: criticism delivered through irony, mock praise, or understatement. To analyse it, first identify the target, then name the device producing the comic or critical effect.

Saransh rules

A prose summary keeps the main argument in its original order, drops examples and repetition, converts dialogue to reported speech, and stays near one-third of the source length.

Himalayano Pravas

Kaka Kalelkar's travelogue of his Himalayan journey combines scenic description with moral and spiritual reflection, written in simple, direct Gandhian prose.

Father of Gujarati drama

Ranchhodbhai Udayram Dave is given this title. His play 'Lalita Dukhdarshak', staged in 1874, is a landmark social drama of the early Gujarati stage.

Ekankika features

A one-act play uses a single setting, few characters, and one central conflict resolved in a compressed climax. Exposition arrives through dialogue rather than narration.

Nirdesh

Nirdesh are stage directions, printed in brackets in the script. They control entries, exits, gestures, and lighting, and serve as evidence for character motivation.

Parsi theatre influence

Parsi theatre companies from the 1850s onward shaped early Gujarati drama, bringing musical interludes, elaborate spectacle, and mixed-language dialogue to the commercial stage.

Vidushak legacy

The vidushak is the comic companion of classical Sanskrit drama. Gujarati comedy inherits this figure through dialect humour, exaggeration, and mistaken-identity plots.

Adikal of Gujarati

The early period, roughly the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, produced Jain devotional and didactic verse. Hemchandracharya's grammar is its major linguistic monument.

Bhakti period poets

The bhakti period, roughly the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, is dominated by Akho, Premanand, and Dayaram, who wrote devotional and narrative verse in Gujarati.

Narmad-Dalpat era

The mid-nineteenth-century phase named for Narmad and Dalpatram, when modern Gujarati prose, print culture, and social reform writing took shape.

Re Math movement

A 1950s Gujarati literary grouping that rejected both sentimental romanticism and rigid progressivism, favouring experimental form and frank treatment of urban experience.

Navarasa list

The nine rasas are shringara, hasya, karuna, raudra, veera, bhayanaka, bibhatsa, adbhuta, and shanta. Shanta, peace, is the ninth rasa added to Bharata's original eight.

Rasa components

Rasa arises from vibhava, the cause; anubhava, the outward response; and vyabhichari bhava, the transient emotions. These activate the sthayi bhava, the permanent emotion.

Dhvani theory

Anandavardhana held that suggested meaning, dhvani, outranks literal meaning in poetry. The function vyanjana conveys it, and a good critic reads for suggestion.

Atishayokti

Atishayokti is hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or comic effect. It is an arth-alankara, since the effect depends on meaning rather than sound.

Poetic dosha

Dosha are faults in poetry. Standard examples are punarukti, needless repetition, and asangati, incoherence. Critics weigh these against the poem's gunas.

Bahuvrihi samasa

A compound that names a third entity described by its parts, such as 'lambodar' meaning the one with a long belly. Neither member alone is the head.

Dvandva samasa

A compound joining two co-ordinate members that both retain importance, such as 'ma-bap'. It can usually be expanded with 'and' between the members.

Gujarati sandhi: a + i

When a word ending in 'a' meets a word beginning with 'i', the two vowels combine into 'e'. Thus 'Him' plus 'alay' yields 'Himalay'.

Rudhiprayog

An idiom whose meaning cannot be derived from its words. 'Aankhe dhola purvani' means to deceive, so translate the sense rather than the literal words.

Case markers in Gujarati

'Ne' marks dative and accusative, 'thi' marks instrumental and ablative, and 'ma' marks locative. Choosing the wrong marker is a common grammatical error.

Formal letter order

Sender address, date, receiver designation and address, subject line, salutation, body, closing, and signature. Omitting the subject line is a standard mark-losing error.

Sutra-vistar

Expansion of an idea: restate the given line, explain it in a few sentences, support it with one example, and close by linking it to a general truth.

Paragraph unity

Every sentence in a paragraph must support its topic sentence. A sentence introducing a new topic should be deleted or moved to a new paragraph.