UPMSP High School Pali case studies
UPMSP High School Pali · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The UPMSP High School Pali paper is the Sanskrit-family elective offered under the Uttar Pradesh Board of High School and Intermediate Education (UPMSP) at the Class 10 stage. Candidates choose Pali as one of their elective subjects alongside the compulsory core; it suits students who want a classical-language option with a manageable script (Devanagari) and a compact grammatical core, and it is often taken by those aiming at later work in Buddhist studies, Indology, or language teaching. The UPMSP High School Pali case studies are 5 cases and about 2,945 words.
1Three Forms, Three Functions
At a Saturday revision class, a student preparing a Hindi rendering of an unseen prose sentence marks three forms in the same clause: tena, āyasmatā Ānandena, and bhikkhūnaṃ. The sentence is: 'Tena kho pana samayena āyasmatā Ānandena Bhagavato santike dhammaṃ sutvā bhikkhūnaṃ ārocitaṃ hoti.' The first draft renders all three with the Hindi postposition se, so 'by that time' appears to be an instrument, Ānanda appears to be a means rather than a person, and bhikkhūnaṃ is left vague.
598 words, about 3 min2Tena Hi and the Plural Aorist
A translation workshop is working on an unpublished Jātaka-style prose passage. The central sentence reads: 'Atha kho rājā mantī ca āhaṃsu: "tena hi, samma, tvaṃ gantvā taṃ purisaṃ ānāhi"ti.' One student renders tena hi as 'therefore' and samma as 'same', producing 'therefore, same, you having gone...' Another student treats tena hi as a discourse marker ('well then') and samma as a vocative ('friend').
530 words, about 3 min3Canonical, Commentary, or Sub-commentary?
A student is handed an unattributed Pali paragraph from a manuscript anthology. It opens with a verse line, then repeats part of the line and glosses a word with 'katvāti karaṇaṃ', adds 'tatrāyaṃ atthavaṇṇanā', and quotes a Buddha-word with 'vuttaṃ hetaṃ'.
584 words, about 3 min4Eight Syllables or Nine?
A metre exercise gives a four-line verse in transliteration. The student's worksheet records line 1 and line 2 as eight syllables each, with the even syllables heavy - a standard siloka cadence.
635 words, about 3 min5One Gloss, Four Occurrences
A vocabulary exercise gives a single gloss, 'saṅkhāra = formation', and asks students to apply it to four occurrences in a short anthology. The occurrences are: (1) 'sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā'; (2) 'avijjāpaccayā saṅkhārā'; (3) 'kāyasaṅkhāraṃ abhisaṅkharoti'; (4) 'saṅkhārapaccayā viññāṇaṃ'.
598 words, about 3 min