UPMSP High School Kannada cheat sheet

Gadya = prose. Prescribed prose lessons fall into kathe (short story), prabandha (essay), jīvani (biography), atmakathana (autobiography) and smaraṇa (reminiscence); each type needs a different answer frame.

Theme (mūla bhāvane) formula: subject + what the author asserts about it + one incident that proves it - keep it to one sentence.

Character answer frame: name and role, then two actions taken directly from the text, then one trait word (dhairya, tyāga, satya-niṣṭhe, karuṇe, paropakāra).

Value-based answers must name the value, cite the character's decision that shows it, and state the consequence the lesson presents.

Extract (gadyāṃśa) questions inside the prose section are answered only from the quoted lines; bringing in plot details from elsewhere loses marks.

Author and work are asked separately as 'rachayita' (author) and 'rachanā/kruti' (work) - never swap the two.

'Why did X do Y' questions take a cause → action → result order, one short sentence per step.

Title words signal genre: -charite (life story), -purāṇa (traditional religious narrative), -vijaya (conquest), -darśana (philosophical exposition).

Padya = verse. Identify the form first: kanda (four padas), shatpadi (six lines), saptapadi (seven lines), ragale (blank verse), tripadi (three lines, Sarvajña), sangatya (musical verse used by Pampa).

Rasa is fixed by the dominant emotion, not the topic: navarasa = shringara, hasya, karuna, raudra, vira, bhayanaka, bibhatsa, adbhuta, shanta.

Upama test: an explicit comparison word (iva, ante, oppa, hāge) is present → upama (simile).

Rūpaka test: no comparison word and the image is asserted directly → rūpaka (metaphor).

Anuprāsa = repetition of the same consonant within a line; yamaka = same syllable group repeated with a different meaning; śleṣa = one word yielding two meanings.

Utprekṣā = imagined 'as if' fancy (enno, emba); atiśayokti = deliberate hyperbole; svabhāvokti = plain description without ornament.

Poet-introduction answers carry four fixed items: period, patron, title (birudu) and two works.

Prasa is the matching initial sound of successive padas; yati is the internal pause - examiners ask them as two separate features.

Sandhi = junction of a word-final sound with a word-initial sound; three types - svara (vowel), vyanjana (consonant), visarga.

Savarṇa dīrgha joins like vowels into the long vowel: namma + ūru = nammūru. Lopa drops the final vowel (ūru + alli = ūralli); āgama inserts a consonant (mara + alli = maradalli).

Samāsa = compound. Split it and restore the missing vibhakti: rāja + bhavana = rājara bhavana → ṣaṣṭhī tatpuruṣa.

Dvandva test: insert 'matthu' (and) - tāyi + tande = tāyitande. Karmadhāraya: members stand in apposition (adjective + noun).

Bahuvrīhi names a third entity (caturmukha = 'four-faced one' = Brahma); dvigu begins with a numeral (trimūrti).

Eight vibhaktis with their suffixes: prathamā (-∅), dvitīya (-annu), tṛtīya (-inda), caturthī (-ge/-ige), pañcamī (-inda/-dinda), ṣaṣṭhī (-a/-na), saptamī (-alli), sambodhana (-e/-o).

Kāraka mapping: kartṛ→prathamā, karma→dvitīya, karaṇa→tṛtīya, sampradāna→caturthī, apādāna→pañcamī, sambandha→ṣaṣṭhī, adhikaraṇa→saptamī.

Vachana: ekavachana vs bahuvachana, plural markers -gaḷu/-aru (mara→maragaḷu, mane→manegaḷu). Liṅga: pulliṅga, strīliṅga, napuṃsaka shown by avanu/avaḷu/adu and verb agreement.

Kāla: bhūta, vartamāna, bhaviṣyat. Transformation tasks shift tense, voice (kartari ↔ karmani) or direct ↔ indirect speech while keeping the sense unchanged.

Essay (prabandha) skeleton: introduction with definition or context → two or three body paragraphs, one example each → conclusion with opinion or suggestion.

Essay types: varṇanātmaka (descriptive), vichārātmaka (reflective), kathanātmaka (narrative); the verb in the question decides which type to write.

Formal letter (aupachārika patra) parts in order: sender address, date, receiver's designation, viṣaya (subject) line, salutation, body, signature.

Informal letter: address, date, 'priya ____', personal body, closing line, name; address elders with nīvu/tāvu, never nīnu.

Prashasti parts: title, person's name and position, achievements as separate points, praise adjectives, good wishes, issuer's name and date.

Notice (vijñāpana/sūchane) must answer 5W - what, when, where, who, why - plus a contact line and the issuer's name.

Marks are split between content, structure and language; keep about 60% of the space for content and concrete examples rather than ornamentation.

Register rule: formal writing uses written Kannada verb forms (-uttāne, -iddāre) and avoids spoken-only forms and avoidable English loanwords.

Read the questions before the passage; underline the keyword in each question, then locate the matching line in the passage.

Answer in one or two complete sentences; a copied full paragraph is rejected where 'svataḥ āgi bareyiri' (in your own words) is asked.

Title question: choose the option that covers the whole passage; an option true of only one paragraph is a distractor.

Inference question: the answer must be traceable to a specific line - cite or quote that line inside your answer.

Vocabulary in context: read the surrounding sentence first, then pick the synonym (samānārthaka) that fits that sentence, not the commonest meaning.

Unknown-word strategy: strip prefixes (a-, ni-, vi-, su-, dur-) and suffixes (-tva, -ta, -ike, -gāra) to reach the root.

Time rule: passage reading ≤4 minutes, roughly 1 minute per mark for writing; attempt the unseen passage after the grammar section.

Viruddhārthaka answers need one word only - the exact antonym as used in the passage's own sense.

Period order: Pūrva Halagannada (to 10th c.) → Halagannada (10th–12th: Pampa, Ponna, Ranna, vachanas) → Nadugannada (13th–15th: Janna, Harihara, Kumaravyāsa) → Hosagannada (16th–19th) → Ādhunika (20th onward).

Kavirājamārga (c. 850), a poetics treatise attributed to Srivijaya/Nṛpatuṅga, is the earliest extant Kannada work; Vaddārādhane by Śivakoṭi Ācārya is the earliest Kannada prose.

Halmidi inscription (c. 450 CE) is the earliest known Kannada inscription; the Kannada Sāhitya Pariṣat was founded in 1915 at Bengaluru.

Pampa = Ādikavi, 10th century, Ādipurāṇa and Vikramārjuna Vijaya (Pampabhārata), champu style, patron Arikesari II.

Ranna = Kavichakravarti, Gadāyuddha (Sāhasabhīma Vijaya) and Ajitapurāṇa; Ponna = Śāntipurāṇa and Bhuvanaika Rāmābhyudaya.

12th c. vachanakāras: Basavanna, Allama Prabhu, Akkamahādevi; 15th c. Kumāravyāsa - Karṇāṭa Bhārata Kathāmañjari; 16th c. Ratnākaravarṇi - Bharateśa Vaibhava in shatpadi.

Haridāsa tradition: Purandara Dāsa (Karṇāṭaka Saṅgīta Pitāmaha) and Kanaka Dāsa (Rāmadhānya Charite); Sarvajña composed tripadi.

Jñānapīṭha: Kuvempu 1967 (Śrī Rāmāyaṇa Darśanam), Bendre 1973, Shivarama Karanth 1977, Masti 1983, Gokak 1990, Ananthamurthy 1994, Kambara 2010.

Modern work–author pairs: Girish Karnad - Tughlaq, Hayavadana; U. R. Ananthamurthy - Samskara; Karanth - Mookajjiya Kanasugalu; Masti - Chikkavīra Rājendra.

Translate sense for sense: read the whole passage first, then render clause by clause; word-for-word output loses marks for broken grammar.

Keep the source register - a formal Kannada notice stays formal in Hindi or English and is not turned into conversation.

Names, places and technical terms are transliterated, not translated: Karnataka → कर्नाटक in Hindi, ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ in Kannada script.

Tense mapping: Kannada past -ida/-tu ≈ Hindi simple past; -uttāne/-uttāre ≈ present habitual or continuous; -tāne/-uva ≈ future.

Idioms take an equivalent idiom in the target language; a literal gloss of a Kannada idiom is marked wrong.

Convert numerals into the target script (Devanagari for Hindi); keep dates, units and currency values unchanged.

Honorifics: Kannada nīvu/tāvu → Hindi āp; English 'you' must be resolved from context before rendering into Kannada or Hindi.

Final check: gender-number agreement in Kannada (liṅga/vachana) and in Hindi, with no information added or omitted.

Aksharamāle: 14 svara (ಅ ಆ ಇ ಈ ಉ ಊ ಋ ಎ ಏ ಐ ಒ ಓ ಔ), 34 vyanjana and 2 yogavāhaka (anusvāra ಂ, visarga ಃ).

Vyanjana form five vargas of five - ಕ ಖ ಗ ಘ ಙ; ಚ ಛ ಜ ಝ ಞ; ಟ ಠ ಡ ಢ ಣ; ತ ಥ ದ ಧ ನ; ಪ ಫ ಬ ಭ ಮ - plus ಯ ರ ಲ ವ ಶ ಷ ಸ ಹ ಳ.

Vowel signs (kagunita) attach to the consonant: ಾ ಿ ೀ ು ೂ ೃ ೆ ೇ ೈ ೊ ೋ ೌ; the bare consonant already carries the inherent 'a'.

Halanta (್) cancels the inherent 'a'; it is required for clusters (ಕ್ + ಷ = ಕ್ಷ) and for word-final consonants.

Kannada numerals: ೦ ೧ ೨ ೩ ೪ ೫ ೬ ೭ ೮ ೯ stand for 0–9 and may replace Arabic digits in dates and numbering.

Spelling traps: keep ಶ/ಷ/ಸ distinct, ಳ distinct from ಲ, and geminate consonants after short vowels (kanna vs kana) - the meaning changes.

Vocabulary sources: tatsama (Sanskrit unchanged, e.g., dharma), tadbhava (altered Sanskrit, e.g., rāja → rāya), dēśya (native, e.g., nīru, mane), anyadēśya (loanwords).

Anusvāra may be written as the class nasal before a consonant (santoṣa/saṃtoṣa); both are accepted, but keep one style throughout the answer.