RBSE VU Sanskrit Vangmaya key terms

The historical study of Sanskrit literature from the Vedic hymns through the classical period to later courtly and devotional writing, covering major authors, works, periods and genres in chronological order.

The oldest layer of Sanskrit literature, comprising the four Vedas, the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads, composed in Vedic Sanskrit and transmitted orally with marked accent and ritual context.

Classical or worldly Sanskrit literature that follows Paninian grammar, including the epics, Puranas, court poetry, drama and scientific treatises, as distinct from the older Vedic corpus.

Valmiki's epic of about 24,000 verses in seven kandas, telling the story of Rama, Sita and Ravana; traditionally regarded as the adi-kavya, the first work of Sanskrit poetic art.

The vast epic attributed to Vyasa, containing the Kuru war narrative, the Bhagavadgita and extensive didactic material; traditionally recited as the fifth Veda and the largest Sanskrit poem.

A body of eighteen major and numerous minor compendia in verse, treating cosmology, genealogy, sacred places and devotion, mainly to Vishnu, Shiva or the Goddess, and shaping later literary imagery.

A long ornate narrative poem in cantos, with a heroic or divine plot, formal descriptions of cities, seasons, battles and love, and a defined set of conventions; Ashvaghosha and Kalidasa are early masters.

A shorter narrative or descriptive poem in Sanskrit, less bound by the formal conventions of the mahakavya, often centred on a single episode, theme or devotional subject.

The most celebrated classical Sanskrit poet and dramatist, author of Abhijnanashakuntala, Meghaduta, Raghuvamsha and Kumarasambhava, admired for simile, restraint and emotional depth.

A seventh-century court poet of king Harsha, author of the prose romance Kadambari and the biographical Harshacharita, known for elaborate ornate prose and long compound sentences.

Ornate literary prose in Sanskrit, including courtly romance, biography and narrative tales, marked by long compounds, rich description and rhetorical display rather than plain narration.

Author of the prose romance Vasavadatta, a courtly tale famous for its dense, punning compounds and elaborate description; his date is debated, often placed before Bana.

A collection of animal fables framed as a course in political wisdom for princes, traditionally attributed to Vishnusharman; its simple prose and embedded verses make it a standard early prose text.

Narayana's later Sanskrit adaptation of Panchatantra material, arranged in four chapters on friendship, discord, war and peace, widely used as a first reader for simple narrative prose.

Kalidasa's seven-act drama in which king Dushyanta marries Shakuntala, loses her through a curse, and recognises her by a ring; praised for its lyric tenderness and dramatic construction.

The principal Sanskrit dramatic form, typically in five to seven acts, with a heroic or noble hero, a heroine, a comic companion, and a plot drawn from epic or legend, ending in union or resolution.

Bharata's encyclopaedic treatise on drama, dance and music, treating dramatic genres, acting, gesture, costume, rasa and audience response; the foundational text of Indian performance theory.

The aesthetic relish or emotional flavour that a well-performed drama or poem evokes in the receptive spectator; classical theory recognises eight or nine rasas, from shringara to shanta.

Shudraka's ten-act drama of urban life, love and political intrigue, unusual for its middle-class hero Charudatta and its realistic portrayal of courtesans, thieves and revolution.

A Sanskrit dramatic genre with an invented plot and ordinary, non-royal characters, often involving merchants, courtesans and legal or political conflict; Mrichchhakatika is the leading example.

The grammatical combination of sounds at word or morpheme boundaries, producing changes such as tat + iti becoming taditi; rules are classified as vowel, consonant and visarga sandhi.

Compound formation in which two or more stems combine into a single word, classified by relation into tatpurusha, dvandva, bahuvrihi, avyayibhava and dvigu types.

The semantic role a noun plays in relation to a verb, described in six categories: agent, object, instrument, recipient, source and locus, expressed in Sanskrit by specific case endings.

A nominal case ending, one of eight in Sanskrit (nominative through vocative), each with singular, dual and plural forms; the same ending may serve several karaka roles.

The full declension pattern of a noun or pronoun, listing its stem and all case-number forms, such as rama, ramau, ramah; a core memorisation task in Sanskrit grammar.

The conjugation pattern of a verbal root, showing its class, tense and mood forms and its person and number endings, for example bhu, bhavati, babhuva, bhavishyati.

Sanskrit prosody, the system of metres based on counted syllables and their light or heavy weight; major metres include anushtubh, indravajra, vasantatilaka and shardulavikridita.

In prosody, a group of three syllables classified into eight patterns such as ya, ra, ta and ma, used to describe the feet of metres in the shastra and to scan verses.

A figure of speech or poetic ornament that heightens expression; divided broadly into shabd-alankar, based on sound such as alliteration, and arth-alankar, based on meaning such as simile.

The figure of simile, in which one thing is explicitly compared to another of a different class using words such as iva or yatha, on the basis of a shared quality.

The figure of metaphor, in which the subject and the image are identified without an explicit word of comparison, so that one is presented as the other.

Translation, the rendering of a passage from Hindi or English into Sanskrit or the reverse, requiring correct grammar, appropriate vocabulary, compound handling and preservation of the original sense.

Creative composition in Sanskrit, such as an essay, letter, dialogue or story, assessed on grammatical accuracy, range of vocabulary, coherence and use of idiomatic Sanskrit style.

An unseen prose passage followed by comprehension questions; the candidate must read unfamiliar Sanskrit, identify the main idea and answer precisely using the passage's own wording where possible.

An unseen verse passage with comprehension questions, testing the ability to parse metre, resolve compounds and sandhi, and explain the sense of unfamiliar lines without prior study.

Devotional Sanskrit poetry praising a chosen deity, often expressing surrender, longing or humility; important in later literature and in regional devotional traditions influenced by Sanskrit models.

A hymn of praise addressed to a deity, often in simple or ornate verse and meant for recitation; many are attributed to famous authors and are widely memorised.

Kalidasa's lyric poem in mandakranta metre, in which an exiled yaksha asks a cloud to carry a message of love to his distant wife; a model of the sandesha-kavya genre.