RBSE SS Punjabi Literature flashcards

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

Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu

Amrita Pritam's Partition elegy addressed to the 18th-century poet Waris Shah, lamenting the violence of 1947 through the Heer-Ranjha frame. It became the defining Punjabi poem of Partition grief.

Birha tradition

The Punjabi poetics of separation and longing, central to Shiv Kumar Batalvi's verse. Birha treats absence as both personal grief and spiritual striving, drawing on Sufi and folk song conventions.

Pragatishil poetry

Progressive Punjabi poetry, associated with Prof. Mohan Singh and the Progressive Writers' Association. It foregrounds peasants, labourers, and Partition displacement, often using free verse instead of strict metre.

Yamak alankar

A word-based poetic device in which the same word recurs with a different meaning each time. It is classified as a Shabdalankar, unlike meaning-based devices such as Upma or Roopak.

Ghazal matla and maqta

The matla is the opening couplet of a ghazal, both lines sharing the radif and qafiya. The maqta is the closing couplet, often containing the poet's takhallus or pen name.

Bhai Vir Singh

Called the father of modern Punjabi literature. His poetry fuses Sikh spiritual devotion with nature mysticism, and his 'Sundari' is generally treated as the first Punjabi novel.

Bawa Jito

An early Punjabi short story by Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, often cited for its psychological character study rather than plot-driven action. It marks the shift toward interiority in Punjabi fiction.

Kahani conflict structure

Punjabi short-story analysis traces Sthiti (setting), Ghatna-kram (plot), Patar (characters), Sangharsh (conflict), Charam (climax), and Ant (resolution). Examiners expect each element tied to textual evidence.

Partition short story

Post-1947 Punjabi fiction on the Vand (Partition), by Kartar Singh Duggal and Amrita Pritam among others. It centres displaced women, fractured villages, and the collapse of neighbourly trust.

Antahkaran in fiction

Punjabi term for inner monologue or interiority. Writers such as Kulwant Singh Virk compress plot time and use objects symbolically to render a character's inner life rather than external events.

Ikangi (one-act play)

A Punjabi one-act play with a single setting, limited cast, and one dominant conflict. The unities of time, place, and action are compressed, and resolution comes through exposure rather than victory.

Gursharan Singh

Known as the father of Punjabi street theatre (Nukkad Natak). He used drama as social protest against land injustice, caste exclusion, and communalism, performing outside conventional proscenium stages.

Swang folk theatre

A Punjabi folk dramatic form mixing verse and prose narrative, performed by travelling troupes. Swang staging conventions, along with Nautanki and Ras, feed into modern Punjabi drama.

Manchan-Nirdesh

Punjabi term for stage directions in a play script. These instructions specify setting, lighting, movement, and tone, and are analysed separately from the spoken Sanvaad (dialogue).

Sundari

An 1898 historical romance by Bhai Vir Singh, generally treated as the first Punjabi novel. Set amid Mughal-era persecution of Sikhs, it blends history, devotion, and heroic romance.

Marhi Da Deeva

Gurdial Singh's 1964 novel on Dalit landlessness. Protagonist Jagsir's attachment to the ancestral hearth dramatises caste, dispossession, and the loss of rooted identity in rural Punjab.

Pavitar Paapi

Nanak Singh's 1942 novel, a landmark of reformist Punjabi fiction. It combines social critique with melodrama and exemplifies the widely read Nanak Singh tradition of novel writing.

Drishti-kon (point of view)

The narrative perspective from which a Punjabi novel is told, either Sarvagyani (omniscient) or Seemit (limited). Identifying it is a prerequisite for judging narrator bias in essays.

Bulleh Shah

Foremost Punjabi Sufi Kafi poet of the 17th–18th centuries. His verse explores the Murshid–Murid bond and ego-annihilation, most famously in the 'Bullah ki jaana main kaun' motif.

Waris Shah's Heer

The definitive Punjabi Sufi romance, completed in 1766. It retells the Heer-Ranjha legend as an allegory of the soul's longing and sets a benchmark for literary Punjabi diction.

Singh Sabha movement

A late 19th-century reform movement that drove Punjabi print standardisation, prose development, and the Gurmukhi revival. It is treated as the hinge into the modern literary period.

Baramah

A Punjabi poetic genre describing the twelve months, usually mapping seasonal change onto the lover's longing. It is one of the classical forms tested alongside Vaar, Kafi, and Siharfi.

Painti alphabet

The 35 primary Gurmukhi letters, supplemented by six extra letters for Perso-Arabic sounds. Ten vowel signs (Laga Matra) carry vowel values rather than independent vowel letters.

Ergative ne agreement

In Punjabi perfective transitive sentences the subject takes ਨੇ and the verb agrees with the object, not the subject. This ergative alignment is a frequent grammar examination trap.

Bindi versus Tippi

Both mark nasality in Gurmukhi but are not interchangeable. Tippi is used before specified consonants such as ਕ, ਖ, ਗ, ਚ, ਜ, ਤ, ਦ, ਬ; Bindi appears elsewhere and at word end.

Punjabi case postpositions

Punjabi marks case with postpositions rather than inflection: ਨੇ (agent), ਨੂੰ (dative/accusative), ਦਾ/ਦੀ/ਦੇ (genitive), ਤੋਂ (ablative), ਵਿੱਚ (locative), ਨਾਲ (instrumental).

Formal letter skeleton

An Aupcharik Patra contains sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, a Vishay subject line, formal salutation, body, and signature. Informal letters omit the subject line.

Precis rules

A Sankshepan reduces the source to roughly one-third, keeps only the central idea, writes in the third person, and adds no opinion or examples absent from the original passage.

Dialogue writing conventions

Sanvaad Lekhan alternates named speakers, keeps each turn to one or two sentences, and advances a single conflict or exchange of information rather than drifting across topics.

Rasa categories

Punjabi criticism names nine rasas including Shringar (love), Karun (pathos), Veer (heroic), Hasya (comic), Raudra (fury), Bhayanak (fear), Bibhats (disgust), Adbhut (wonder), Shant (peace).

Shabdalankar versus Arthalankar

Shabdalankar devices depend on word form, such as Anupras, Yamak, and Shlesh. Arthalankar devices depend on meaning, such as Upma, Roopak, Utpreksha, and Atishyokti.

Loona

Shiv Kumar Batalvi's verse play reworking the Puran Bhagat legend to challenge patriarchal authority. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1967 and is central to his Birha poetics.