RBSE SS Rajasthani Literature cheat sheet

Rajasthani belongs to the Indo-Aryan family, descended from Apabhramsha and ultimately from Sanskrit through Shauraseni Prakrit.

Old Gujarati-Rajasthani (also called Maru-Gurjari) is the common ancestor stage, roughly 8th to 14th century CE, from which both Gujarati and Rajasthani branched.

Tessitori and later Grierson classified Rajasthani as a distinct Western Indo-Aryan language; Grierson's Linguistic Survey placed it under 'Rajasthani' with Marwari as the principal variety.

Standard literary-historical periodisation commonly runs: Adi kala (early, up to about 1400), Bhakti kala (roughly 1400-1700), and Adhunik kala (modern, after about 1700/1850).

Major dialects: Marwari, Dhundhari (Jaipuri), Mewati, Hadoti, Mewari, Bagri, Shekhawati, and Malvi (borderline with Hindi); Marwari has the largest speaker base.

The Dingal and Pingal registers are literary, not regional dialects; Dingal is associated with Charan poets and Pingal with Brahmin and Jain scholarly poets.

Key early texts: Bharateshwar Bahubali Rasa, Hammir Rasa, and Kirtilata show the transitional Apabhramsha-to-Rajasthani stage.

Rajasthani was recognised in the Eighth Schedule debate but is not currently a scheduled language of the Indian Constitution; it is taught at university level in Rajasthan.

Dingal is the heroic, martial register of Rajasthani poetry, cultivated chiefly by Charan poets; its diction is terse, allusive, and rich in Sanskrit-derived vocabulary.

Pingal is the smoother, more Sanskritised register used for devotional, didactic, and narrative verse, associated with Brahmin and Jain writers.

Charan tradition: poets attached to Rajput courts who composed praise-poetry (biruda), genealogies, and battle narratives; they functioned as bards, chroniclers, and diplomats.

Bhat tradition: genealogists and panegyrists who maintained vamshavali (lineage records) and recited heroic and ritual verse.

Dingal metres include chhand forms such as savaiya, matta-gaj, and various dhuva and jhulana patterns; prosody is counted by matras rather than syllables in many forms.

The Charan poet's characteristic forms are the kavitta, the chhappaya, and the short heroic muktak (couplet or quatrain) celebrating a warrior's death or valour.

Early narrative works include Hammir Rasa (about Hammira of Ranthambore), Beesaldev Rasa, and Prithviraj Vijay, blending history with legend.

Suryamall Mishran (19th century) is a landmark Pingal scholar-poet, author of Vansh Bhaskar and Padmavat commentary work, and a key figure in systematising Rajasthani poetics.

Five principal devotional streams in Rajasthani: Nirguna (Kabir-panthi and Dadu-panthi), Krishna/Raadha bhakti, Rama bhakti, Devi/Mata worship, and Sant poetry.

Mira Bai (16th century) composed Krishna-bhakti padas in Marwari-Mewari mixed with Braj; her signature themes are viraha, surrender, and defiance of social norms.

Dadu Dayal (1544-1603) founded the Dadu-panth; his Sakhi and Pada collections express nirguna bhakti with strong ethical and anti-ritual content.

Sundardas (1596-1689), a Dadu-panthi, wrote Sundar Vilas, Sundar Granthavali, and Ram Charitra, blending nirguna devotion with Rama narrative.

Surdas's Braj-based Krishna poetry influenced Rajasthani padas, but the native Rajasthani Krishna poets include Kanhaiyalal and the Charan poets of the Vallabha sampradaya.

Jaswant Singh's and Man Singh's courts patronised devotional poetry; the Nathdwara and Kankroli temples fostered Rajasthani Krishna kirtan literature.

Sant poets of the Nirguna stream include Dhanna, Pipa, and Ravidas, whose padas circulated in Rajasthani collections alongside Marathi and Hindi versions.

Bhakti poetry uses the pada and the bhajan forms; rasa is predominantly shringar (viraha and milan) or shanta and dasya in nirguna compositions.

Khyat literature is dynastic chronicle-prose; the Nainsi ri Khyat by Munhot Nainsi (17th century) is the foundational Rajasthani prose chronicle.

Nainsi ri Khyat covers Marwar's rulers and also records castes, customs, land measures, and administrative detail, making it a social document as well as history.

Vigat is another prose-chronicle genre; Nainsi's Vigat describes the parganas of Marwar with revenue and topographical data.

Bankidas ri Khyat, by Kaviraj Bankidas (early 19th century), continues the khyat tradition with a more literary, anecdotal style.

Characterisation in khyat prose is typological: rulers are depicted through vikram (valour), dan (generosity), and niti (statecraft), with stock epithets rather than psychological depth.

Thematic constants of prescribed prose include Rajput martial ethics, lineage prestige, royal patronage of Brahmins and Charans, and moral exemplarity.

Modern Rajasthani prose begins with figures such as Vijaydan Detha (prose fiction) and Sitaram Lalas (lexicography), though these belong to the modern rather than khyat period.

When answering prose-text questions, identify the author, the patron/ruler addressed, the genre (khyat, vigat, vamshavali), and the central exemplary figure.

For each prescribed poem, fix the poet, the metre (chhand), the rasa, the principal alankara, and the bhavartha in one line each before elaborating.

Shringar rasa dominates Krishna and Mira padas, with sambhoga (union) or viyoga (separation) as sub-type; viyoga shringar is the most common in Mira.

Veer rasa governs Dingal heroic verse; raudra and bibhatsa appear in battle descriptions; karuna appears in elegiac verse on a fallen warrior.

Common alankaras: upama (simile), rupaka (metaphor), utpreksha (poetic fancy), anuprasa (alliteration), yamaka (repetition), shlesha (pun), and atishayokti (hyperbole).

Bhavartha is the prose paraphrase of meaning; a correct answer states the literal sense, then the implied devotional or heroic sentiment.

Dingal metres to identify by name: savaiya, chhappaya, kavitta, jhulana, and matta-gaj; each has a fixed matra-count pattern.

Muktak in Rajasthani are self-contained couplets or quatrains, often with a 'turning' second line (like the Hindi doha's second-line twist).

In rasa analysis, the sthayi bhava (permanent emotion) determines rasa: rati for shringar, utsaha for veer, shoka for karuna, hasya for comedy.

Khyat: dynastic prose chronicle, biographical and administrative, exemplified by Nainsi ri Khyat.

Vigat: pargana-wise revenue and topographical prose record, also by Nainsi.

Kavya: full-length narrative poem; khanda-kavya is a shorter, single-episode narrative poem (a 'section' poem) rather than a full epic.

Muktak: independent short verse, usually a couplet or quatrain, complete in itself without narrative context.

Doha, soratha, chaupai, and savaiya are the workhorse metres; doha is a two-line couplet with 13 and 11 matras per line in the standard reckoning.

Folk forms: geet (seasonal and ritual songs), ghoomar and gair dance-songs, kagal (wedding songs), and the panihari and kurjan songs of Mewar and Marwar.

Prosimetric forms include the rasa (narrative with verse and prose) and the vachanika (recitation piece).

Narrative sub-genres: premakhyan (love tale, e.g., Dhola-Maru), vamshavali (lineage chronicle), and birudavali (praise-chain).

Rajasthani retains three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) in many dialects, unlike standard Hindi's two-gender system.

Postpositions follow the noun and govern oblique case forms; common ones are ro/ri/ra (of), ne (to/object marker), and me (in).

The genitive agrees with the possessed noun in gender, number, and case: mharo beta (my son), mhari beti (my daughter), mhara ghar (my house).

Verb conjugation marks person, number, gender (in perfective forms), and honorific level; the present habitual uses -e/-ai endings.

Common vocabulary correspondences: ghar (house), pani (water), khambha (pillar), dhadho (bullock), chhori (girl), chhoro (boy), mano (mind).

Idioms must be translated by sense, not word-for-word: 'aankh ro andho' means blind by choice or wilfully blind, not literally eyeless.

Translation direction rule: Rajasthani to Hindi requires converting three-gender agreement to two-gender and expanding contracted verb forms.

Honorifics: aap/tam/thu mark politeness levels; thu is intimate or derogatory and must not be used for elders in translation exercises.

Major folk epics: Dhola-Maru (love and elopement), Pabuji ki Phad (heroic, performed with the phad scroll), and Tejaji ki Phad (snake-bite cure legend).

The Bhopa and Bhopi are the hereditary performers of the Pabuji phad, singing to the ravanhatta fiddle.

Dhola-Maru is sung in the ghoomar-style and is classed as a premakhyan; its heroine Maru and hero Dhola are archetypes of Rajasthani romance.

Folk deities: Pabuji, Tejaji, Gogaji (snake god), Ramdevji (Kamad, protector of the downtrodden), and Harbhuji.

Fairs and festivals: Pushkar cattle fair (Kartik Purnima), Nagaur cattle fair, Tejaji fair at Parbatsar, and the Gangaur and Teej festivals for women's rituals.

Folk arts: mandana wall painting, phad painting, kavad (foldable shrine), and the kalbeliya dance of the Kalbeliya community.

Proverbs (kahavat) and riddles (paheli) are core folk-literary genres tested for meaning, not literal translation.

Cultural geography: Marwar (Jodhpur), Mewar (Udaipur), Dhundhar (Jaipur), Hadoti (Kota-Bundi), Shekhawati (Sikar-Jhunjhunu), and Mewat (Alwar-Bharatpur).