RBSE VU Sahitya Shastra cheat sheet

Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE): Ṛgveda, Sāmaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda; Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas, Upaniṣads.

Epic period: Rāmāyaṇa (Vālmīki) and Mahābhārata (Vyāsa) grew through oral transmission; core dates c. 400 BCE–400 CE.

Classical period: Aśvaghoṣa (Buddhacarita) and Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th c. CE) mark the height of kāvya.

Purāṇas: eighteen Mahāpurāṇas compiled c. 300–1000 CE; contain cosmology, genealogy, and bhakti.

Court epic (mahākavya) line: Kālidāsa → Bhāravi (Kirātārjunīya) → Māgha (Śiśupālavadha) → Śrīharṣa (Naiṣadhīya).

Prose romance (gadya kāvya): Bāṇa's Kādambarī and Harṣacarita; Daṇḍin's Daśakumāracarita.

Drama: Bhāsa (c. 3rd c. CE) → Kālidāsa (Abhijñānaśākuntala) → Bhavabhūti (Uttararāmacarita) → Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa (Veṇīsaṃhāra).

Regional Sanskrit: Jayadeva's Gītagovinda (12th c.); Śaṅkaradeva's Assamese Sanskrit works; Kerala's Śākta literature.

Four Vedas: Ṛg (hymns), Sāma (melodies), Yajur (sacrificial formulas), Atharva (spells and charms).

Ṛgveda: 10 maṇḍalas, 1028 sūktas; maṇḍalas 2–7 are the oldest family books; 1 and 10 are later.

Vedic accent (svara): udātta (raised), anudātta (lowered), svarita (circumflex); preserved in Śākala śākhā.

Vedic Sanskrit features: subjunctive mood, injunctive, reduplicated aorist, and pitch accent lost in Classical Sanskrit.

Brāhmaṇas: prose ritual manuals (e.g., Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa) explaining yajña; Āraṇyakas are transitional esoteric texts.

Upaniṣads: 108 traditionally; principal 13 include Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chāndogya, Kaṭha, Īśa, Śvetāśvatara.

Vedāṅgas: six auxiliary disciplines-śikṣā (phonetics), kalpa (ritual), vyākaraṇa (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chandas (meter), jyotiṣa (astronomy).

Sūtra style: aphoristic, elliptical prose; Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī is the model for classical sūtra composition.

Mahākāvya (court epic): 8+ cantos, heroic or romantic theme, descriptions of cities, oceans, seasons, and battles.

Khaṇḍakāvya (minor poem): shorter, often devotional or descriptive; e.g., Kālidāsa's Meghadūta, Ṛtusaṃhāra.

Kālidāsa's mahākāvyas: Raghuvaṃśa (genealogy of Raghu) and Kumārasambhava (birth of Kumāra).

Māgha's Śiśupālavadha is famed for grammatical display; Bhāravi's Kirātārjunīya for heroic sentiment (vīra).

Bhaṭṭi's Bhaṭṭikāvya simultaneously narrates Rāma's story and illustrates Pāṇinian grammar.

Meghadūta: 111 stanzas in Mandākrāntā meter; a yakṣa sends a cloud messenger to his beloved.

Sarga-bandha (continuous narrative) vs. muktaka (single-stanza) and śatakas (centuries) e.g., Bhartṛhari's Śatakatraya.

Alaṃkāra in poetry: upamā (simile), rūpaka (metaphor), utprekṣā (poetic fancy), śleṣa (pun), and yamaka (alliteration).

Nāṭya Śāstra (Bharata, c. 200 BCE–200 CE): 36 chapters on drama, dance, music, and aesthetics.

Rasa theory: eight rasas-śṛṅgāra, hāsya, karuṇa, raudra, vīra, bhayānaka, bībhatsa, adbhuta; later ninth śānta.

Nāṭaka: 5–7 acts, heroic or romantic plot, king as hero, maṅgala at start and end.

Prakaraṇa: 10 acts, invented plot, middle-class hero; e.g., Mṛcchakaṭika (Śūdraka).

Other rūpakas: prahasana (farce), bhāṇa (one-act monologue), vyāyoga, aṅka, ḍima, īhāmṛga, samavakāra, vīthī.

Nāṭikā: 4 acts, heroine-centered; e.g., Ratnāvalī (Harṣa).

Sandhi (plot junctures): mukha, pratimukha, garbha, vimarśa, nirvahaṇa.

Sanskrit drama uses Sanskrit for high characters, Prakrit for women and low characters; stage manager (sūtradhāra) opens with nāndī.

Gadya kāvya types: kathā (narrative), ākhyāyikā (historical or heroic narrative), and prose romance.

Bāṇa (7th c. CE): Harṣacarita (ākhyāyikā on King Harṣa) and Kādambarī (romance with elaborate compounds).

Daṇḍin (7th c. CE): Daśakumāracarita (adventures of ten princes) and Avantisundarīkathā.

Subandhu (7th c. CE): Vasavadattā, known for śleṣa (pun) and long compounds.

Campū: mixed prose and verse; e.g., Bhoja's Rāmāyaṇacampū, Jīvandhara Campū.

Prose style (gadya) features: samāsa (compound), anuprāsa (alliteration), and yamaka; difficult (kaṭhora) vs. easy (sarala) prose.

Kathāsaritsāgara (Somadeva, 11th c.) and Pañcatantra (Viṣṇuśarman) are narrative prose collections.

Bāṇa's prose is a benchmark for ornate (alaṃkṛta) style; Kādambarī has a sequel by his son Bhūṣaṇabhaṭṭa.

Alaṃkāra school: Bhāmaha and Daṇḍin (7th c.) emphasize figures of speech as the essence of poetry.

Rasa theory: Bharata's Nāṭya Śāstra; rasa arises from the combination of vibhāva, anubhāva, and vyabhicāribhāva.

Dhvani school: Ānandavardhana's Dhvanyāloka (9th c.)-suggestion (vyañjanā) is the soul of poetry.

Abhinavagupta's Abhinavabhāratī and Locana comment on Bharata and Ānandavardhana; he refines rasa realization.

Vakrokti: Bhāmaha and later Kuntaka (Vakroktijīvita) see oblique expression as the core of poetic language.

Rīti (style): Daṇḍin's Kāvyādarśa defines Vaidarbhī and Gaurī styles; Vāmana's Kāvyālaṃkārasūtra adds Pāñcālī.

Aucitya (propriety): Kṣemendra's Aucityavicāracarcā holds propriety as the highest poetic principle.

Mammaṭa's Kāvyaprakāśa (11th c.) synthesizes dhvani and alaṃkāra; Viśvanātha's Sāhityadarpaṇa defines kāvya as word and meaning together.

Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī (c. 4th c. BCE): 3,959 sūtras in 8 chapters, describing Sanskrit with algebraic brevity.

Three sections: Śivasūtras (phoneme inventory), dhātupāṭha (verbal roots), and gaṇapāṭha (word lists).

Meta-language: pratyāhāra (abbreviated phoneme sets), anuvṛtti (inheritance), and adhikāra (governing rules).

Kāraka theory: six semantic roles-kartṛ, karma, karaṇa, sampradāna, apādāna, adhikaraṇa-mapped to case endings.

Pāṇini's grammar is generative: rules (sūtra) apply in order with vipratiṣedha (conflict resolution) and paribhāṣā (meta-rules).

Kātantra and Cāndra schools simplified Pāṇini for learners; later Jainendra and Śākaṭāyana grammars.

Bhartṛhari's Vākyapadīya: sphoṭa theory-meaning is a whole (sphoṭa) revealed by sounds (dhvani).

Modern linguistics: Pāṇini's rule ordering and recursion anticipate formal grammar; Saussure and Chomsky acknowledged influence.

Ādikāla (c. 1000–1350): Siddha and Nātha poetry; Prithvīrāj Rāso attributed to Candbardāī.

Bhakti kāla (c. 1350–1700): divided into Nirguṇa (Kabīr, Nānak, Raidās) and Saguṇa (Sūrdās, Tulsīdās, Mīrābāī).

Rīti kāla (c. 1700–1900): courtly poetry; Bihārī Satsaī, Keśavadās, and Bhūṣaṇ; emphasis on alaṃkāra and śṛṅgāra.

Ādhunika kāla (1850–present): Bhāratendu Maṇḍala (1850–1900) pioneered Hindi drama and prose.

Dvivedī yuga (1900–1918): Mahāvīr Prasād Dvivedī promoted standard Hindi and literary criticism.

Chāyāvāda (1918–1938): Jayśaṅkar Prasād, Sūryakānt Tripāṭhī 'Nirālā', Sumitrānandan Pant, Mahādevī Varmā.

Prayogvāda and Pragativāda (1930s–40s): age of experiment and progressivism; influenced by Marxism.

Nayī Kahānī (1950s–60s) and Samakālīna (contemporary): Mohan Rākeś, Nirmal Varmā, and Dalit/feminist writing.

Genres: kāvya (poetry), kahānī (short story), upanyās (novel), nāṭak (drama), nibandh (essay), ātmakathā (autobiography), and rekhācitra (sketch).

Chāyāvāda features: mysticism, nature, individualism, and musical language; influenced by Romanticism.

Pragativāda: progressive writers' movement (1936); social realism and anti-colonial themes.

Nayī Kahānī: psychological depth, urban alienation, and technical experimentation; Mohan Rākeś's 'Uṣā' as manifesto.

Hindi criticism: Rāmacandra Śukla's Hindi Sāhitya kā Itihās (1929) and Ācārya Rāmcandra Śukla as foundational critic.

Hazārī Prasād Dvivedī's Sāhitya aur Sāṃskṛti and Nand Dulāre Vājpeyī's Śabda aur Sāhitya are key critical texts.

Dalit literature: emergence in 1970s; Omprakāś Bālmīkī's Jūṭhan and Dalit Chetnā movement.

Feminist Hindi writing: Mahādevī Varmā, Krishna Sobtī, and Mannū Bhaṇḍārī.

Comparative literature: study of literature across languages and cultures; French school (influence) vs. American school (parallels).

Russian Formalism: defamiliarization (ostranenie) by Viktor Shklovsky; literature as autonomous system.

New Criticism: close reading, intentional fallacy (Wimsatt and Beardsley), and the verbal icon.

Structuralism: Saussure's sign (signifier/signified); Lévi-Strauss and Barthes apply to literature.

Post-structuralism: Derrida's deconstruction; meaning is deferred (différance).

Reader-response: Iser's implied reader and Jauss's reception aesthetics.

Postcolonial theory: Said's Orientalism, Spivak's subaltern, Bhabha's hybridity.

Comparative method in Sanskrit: influence of Indian poetics on global rasa and dhvani studies; translation studies.