WBCHSE HS Sanskrit flashcards

38 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Pañcāṅga of Nāṭya

The five sandhis of a Sanskrit play: mukha (opening), pratimukha (progress), garbha (complication), vimarśa (crisis), and upasaṃhāra (resolution). Examiners ask which sandhi a prescribed act belongs to.

Nāndī and Sūtradhāra

Nāndī is the opening benediction of a Sanskrit drama invoking deities for success. The sūtradhāra, stage-manager, then enters with the naṭī in the prastāvanā to introduce the play and its author.

Vidūṣaka's function

The vidūṣaka is the hero's comic companion who speaks Prakrit, distorts Sanskrit, and provokes hāsya (laughter). He often advances the plot by his blunders or by carrying messages between the hero and heroine.

Nāyaka types

Four hero types in Sanskrit poetics: dhīrodātta (noble, restrained), dhīroddhata (haughty, energetic), dhīralalita (playful, charming), and dhīraśānta (calm, detached). Identify the prescribed hero by his dominant quality.

Sthāyībhāva to rasa

Rasa arises from a permanent emotion: rati yields śṛṅgāra, utsāha yields vīra, śoka yields karuṇa, hāsa yields hāsya, krodha yields raudra, bhaya yields bhayānaka, jugupsā yields bībhatsa, vismaya yields adbhuta.

Prakrit in Sanskrit drama

Women, children, and low-born characters speak Prakrit dialects such as Śaurasenī and Māgadhī, while high-born males speak Sanskrit. This linguistic coding signals social status and is a frequent examination question.

Vigraha of a compound

Vigraha is the analytical splitting of a samāsa into separate words with restored case endings. It must be written before naming the compound type, since the case relation reveals whether it is tatpuruṣa or another class.

Bahuvrīhi samāsa

A compound whose whole denotes a person or thing other than its members; the first member qualifies the second, and the compound functions as an adjective. Example: dīrghabāhuḥ means 'one whose arms are long'.

Tatpuruṣa samāsa

A compound in which the first member stands in a case relation to the second, and the compound's meaning centres on the second member. Example: rājaputraḥ equals rājñaḥ putraḥ, a ṣaṣṭhī tatpuruṣa.

Dvandva samāsa

A copulative compound joining two or more members that could be linked by 'and' (ca). Each member retains equal importance, and the compound may take dual or plural number accordingly, as in rāmalakṣmaṇau.

Avyayībhāva samāsa

A compound whose first member is an indeclinable preposition or adverb and whose whole behaves as an indeclinable. Example: yathāśakti, 'according to ability'; pratyaham, 'day by day'. It never takes case endings.

Karaṇa and Apādāna kāraka

Karaṇa is the instrument of action, expressed in tṛtīyā vibhakti (sa khaḍgena hanati). Apādāna is the source or point of separation, expressed in pañcamī (grāmāt āgacchati).

Sampradāna and Adhikaraṇa

Sampradāna is the recipient of an action, taking caturthī vibhakti (gurubhyaḥ dadāti). Adhikaraṇa is the locus or occasion, taking saptamī (pustake likhati, grāme vasati).

Savarṇa dīrgha sandhi

When a simple vowel is followed by an identical simple vowel, both merge into the corresponding long vowel: a + a becomes ā, i + i becomes ī, u + u becomes ū. Example: rāma + agniḥ becomes rāmāgniḥ.

Guṇa and Vṛddhi sandhi

Guṇa: a or ā followed by i, u, or ṛ becomes e, o, or ar. Vṛddhi: a or ā followed by e, o, or ai becomes ai or au. Example: rāma + īśaḥ becomes rāmeśaḥ.

Visarga sandhi

Final -aḥ before a voiced sound usually becomes -o, and before a vowel the -o may contract: rāmaḥ gacchati becomes rāmo gacchati; rāmaḥ api becomes rāmo'pi. Before voiceless consonants the visarga remains or changes to s.

Laṭ and Laṅ endings

Laṭ is the present tense: pathati, likhati, bhavati. Laṅ is the imperfect past, marked by the augment a- before the root: apathat, alikhat, abhavat. Both retain the same personal endings.

Vidhiliṅ (potential mood)

Vidhiliṅ expresses injunction, possibility, or polite request, formed with -ey- suffixes: paṭhet, likhet, bhavet, kuryāt. It often renders 'should' or 'may' in translation exercises.

Ātmanepada verbs

Verbs taking ātmanepada endings (-te, -ete, -ante) rather than parasmaipada. Examples: sevate, labhate, paṭhate, bhajate. Some roots are ubhayapada, taking either set depending on sense.

Karmani prayoga (passive)

In the passive voice the object becomes the grammatical subject in prathamā, the agent takes tṛtīyā, and the verb uses the past passive participle or -ya- form: rāmeṇa granthaḥ paṭhyate.

Causative formation

Causatives add -aya- to the strengthened root, often with vṛddhi of the vowel: kṛ becomes kārayati, paṭh becomes pāṭhayati, bhū becomes bhāvayati. They mean 'cause someone to do'.

Anuṣṭubh metre

The most common Sanskrit metre, with four pādas of eight syllables each. Its pattern is flexible but the fifth syllable of even pādas is usually laghu and the sixth guru. Used throughout the epics.

Vasantatilakā metre

A metre of fourteen syllables per pāda, with the pattern ta-bha-ja-ja-ga-ga, i.e. –⏑–⏑, –⏑⏑, ⏑–⏑, ⏑–⏑, –⏑, –. It is common in Kālidāsa and in prescribed anthologies.

Śārdūlavikrīḍita metre

A nineteen-syllable metre per pāda, pattern ma-sa-ja-sa-ta-ta-ga: –––, ⏑⏑–, ⏑–⏑, ⏑⏑–, –⏑–, –⏑–, –. Its name means 'tiger's play' because of its rolling rhythm.

Indravajrā and Upendravajrā

Both have eleven syllables per pāda; Indravajrā follows ta-ta-ja-ga-ga, while Upendravajrā follows ja-ta-ja-ga-ga. A verse mixing both pādas is called Upajāti.

Upamā alaṃkāra

A comparison requiring four elements: upameya (subject), upamāna (object compared), sādhāraṇa dharma (shared quality), and an indicator such as iva, yathā, vat, or sadṛśa. Missing the indicator usually changes the figure.

Rūpaka alaṃkāra

A metaphor that identifies the subject directly with the object of comparison, without any word such as iva. Example: 'the moon-faced girl' treats the face as the moon, not merely like it.

Utprekṣā alaṃkāra

A figure in which the poet fancies something to be another thing, as though it were actually so. It often uses iva but expresses imaginative supposition rather than plain comparison, as in 'the cloud, as it were, a drum'.

Śleṣa alaṃkāra

A pun in which one word or phrase yields two distinct meanings, both relevant to the context. It differs from upamā because the double sense rests on identical sound, not on comparison.

Anuprāsa alaṃkāra

Alliteration: the noticeable repetition of the same consonant or consonant group within a verse or quarter. It is a śabdālaṃkāra, an ornament of sound rather than of sense.

Kālidāsa's works

Three plays (Abhijñānaśākuntalam, Mālavikāgnimitram, Vikramorvaśīyam), two mahākāvyas (Raghuvaṃśa, Kumārasambhava), and lyrics including Meghadūta and Ṛtusaṃhāra. He is the classical age's central poet.

Pañcatantra and Hitopadeśa

Pañcatantra, attributed to Viṣṇuśarman, is a Sanskrit fable collection teaching nīti through animal stories. Hitopadeśa, by Nārāyaṇa, draws on it and on the Mahābhārata for political instruction.

Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata

Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa has seven kāṇḍas and about 24,000 verses. The Mahābhārata, attributed to Vyāsa, has eighteen parvas and contains the Bhagavadgītā in the Bhīṣmaparvan.

Bāṇa and Daṇḍin

Bāṇabhaṭṭa wrote Kādambarī, a romance in ornate prose, and Harṣacarita, a biography of King Harṣa. Daṇḍin wrote Daśakumāracarita and the poetics text Kāvyādarśa.

Letter-writing format

A Sanskrit letter opens with place and date, then the addressee in sambodhana, a praṇāma, the body in two or three sentences, and a closing such as bhavadīyaḥ or śubham.

Sanskrit word order rule

Sanskrit normally places the finite verb last, with the subject first and objects before the verb. Participles and relative clauses precede the noun they qualify, and word order otherwise serves emphasis rather than grammar.

Prose answer structure

For prescribed prose questions, give a direct answer in Sanskrit, support it with a short quoted phrase from the text, and add one sentence of context. Each component typically carries separate marks.

Verse explanation sequence

Write the anvaya (prose word order), then padārtha (word meanings), then bhāvārtha (overall sense), and finally note the alaṃkāra and the metre. Omitting the metre loses marks.