UPHESC Assistant Professor Sanskrit 2025 PYQs

Concept: Note: the question asks about the colour of threads (tanturūpa) as the cause of the colour of cloth (paṭarūpa).

1. Tarkasangraha: tanturūpaṃ paṭarūpasya asamavāyikāraṇam – it inheres in the samavayi cause (threads) of the cloth and produces cloth-colour.
2. Threads themselves are samavayi karana of the cloth; loom etc. are nimitta.

Short trick: Quality of the cause → quality of the effect = asamavayi.

Concept: Nyaya Sutra 1.1.4 and Tarkasangraha: indriyārthasannikarṣajanyaṃ jñānaṃ pratyakṣam.

1. Anumana arises from paramarsha, upamana from similarity, shabda from words of a reliable person.

Short trick: Sense + object contact = pratyaksha.

Concept: Kautilya: four vidyas – anvikshiki, trayi, varta, dandaniti.

1. Arthashastra 1.4: ānvīkṣikī-trayī-vārtānāṃ yogakṣemasādhano daṇḍaḥ – the first three prosper through danda.
2. Hence danda (governance/punishment) sustains the other three.

Short trick: Danda protects the other three vidyas.

Concept: Mimamsa Sutra 1.1.2 of Jaimini: codanālakṣaṇo ’rtho dharmaḥ – dharma is that good which is known through Vedic injunction.

1. Sutra 1.1.1 is “athāto dharmajijñāsā”.

Short trick: Jaimini 1.1.1 → jijnasa, 1.1.2 → definition.

Concept: Sankhya Karika 47: pañca viparyayabhedā bhavanty aśaktiś ca karaṇavaikalyāt…

1. Five basic viparyayas: tamas, moha, mahamoha, tamisra, andhatamisra (= avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, abhinivesha).
2. With subdivisions they become 62 (SK 48), but basically five.

Short trick: 5 viparyaya, 28 ashakti, 9 tushti, 8 siddhi.

Concept: Vedantasara: prāyaścittāni pāpakṣayamātrasādhanāni cāndrāyaṇādīni.

1. Kamya – for desired goals (jyotishtoma); nitya – sandhya; naimittika – jatyeshti; upasana – mental worship (shandilya-vidya).

Short trick: Chandrayana = expiation (prayashchitta).

Concept: Vaibhashika (Hinayana) is the Sarvastivada school – it holds that dharmas exist in all three times.

1. Sautrantika – external objects inferred; Yogachara – only consciousness; Madhyamika – shunyata.

Short trick: Vaibhashika = “sarvam asti”.

Concept: uktānuktaduruktānāṃ cintā yatra pravartate, taṃ granthaṃ vārttikaṃ prāhur vārttikajñā manīṣiṇaḥ.

1. A varttika considers what is said (ukta), unsaid (anukta) and ill-said (durukta).
2. “Sadukta-chintana” is not part of it.

Short trick: Ukta – Anukta – Durukta.

Concept: Paribhashendushekhara is by Nagesha Bhatta (also Laghu-shabdendushekhara, Vaiyakarana-siddhanta-manjusha).

1. Kaunda Bhatta – Vaiyakarana-bhushana(sara); Mukula Bhatta – Abhidhavrittimatrika; Rangoji – Bhattoji’s brother.

Short trick: “Shekhara” books = Nagesha.

Concept: “aco yat” (3.1.97): after a vowel-ending root, yat. ci + yat → ceyam (guna).

1. Edhanīyam – anīyar; kāryam – ṇyat (ṛhalor ṇyat); sāhityam – taddhita ṣyañ.

Short trick: Vowel-final root → yat (ceya, jeya, deya).

Concept: Vidvān is a present participle of √vid (to know): vid + śatṛ, and by Pāṇini 7.1.36 “videḥ śaturvasuḥ” the śatṛ after vid is replaced by the substitute vasu.

1. vid + śatṛ → vid + vas (vasu-ādeśa) → vidvas → nom. sg. vidvān; the meaning is present (“one who knows”).
2. By sthānivadbhāva the substitute is still treated as śatṛ, so the pratyaya of the word is śatṛ.
3. Kvasu (3.2.107 “kvasuś ca”) is a different suffix, a substitute of liṭ (past), giving forms with reduplication such as jagmivān, cakṛvān; from vid it would give vividvān. Kānac/śānac give -āna forms.

Short trick: Vidvān = śatṛ with vasu-ādeśa (videḥ śaturvasuḥ), not kvasu.

Concept: “bhuvaḥ prabhavaḥ” (1.4.31): the source of origin of the verb bhū (prabhavati) is apadana.

1. So Himavat gets apadana-sanjna; then “apādāne pañcamī” (2.3.28) gives the ablative.
2. Dhruvam apaye is the general rule; the specific one here is 1.4.31.

Short trick: Prabhava (source of a river) → bhuvaḥ prabhavaḥ.

Concept: “dhruvam apāye ’pādānam” (1.4.24): the fixed point from which separation takes place is apadana.

1. Sādhakatamam – karana (1.4.42); karmaṇā yam abhipraiti – sampradana (1.4.32); ādhāraḥ – adhikarana (1.4.45).

Short trick: Separation point = apadana.

Concept: Morphological (ākṛtimūlaka) classification groups languages by how affixes (pratyaya) join the base: isolating (ayogātmaka), agglutinating, inflecting (yogātmaka).

1. So the criterion is the pratyaya and its manner of joining.
2. Genealogical (pārivārika) classification looks at common origin instead.

Short trick: Shape of language = how suffixes attach.

Concept: Nirukta 1.2 (Varshyayani): ṣaḍ bhāvavikārā bhavantīti vārṣyāyaṇiḥ – jāyate, asti, vipariṇamate, vardhate, apakṣīyate, vinaśyatīti.

1. Samharate is not in the list.

Short trick: Born–is–changes–grows–decays–perishes.

Concept: Katyayana, author of the varttikas on Panini, is traditionally identified with Vararuchi.

1. Vamana–Jayaditya – Kashika; Anubhutisvarupa – Sarasvata-prakriya; Kaiyata – Pradipa on Mahabhashya.

Short trick: Munitraya: Panini – Katyayana (Vararuchi) – Patanjali.

Concept: Grimm’s law (first Germanic sound shift) has three parts:

1. voiced aspirates bh, dh, gh → voiced unaspirated b, d, g (e.g. Skt. bhrātṛ → Eng. brother)
2. voiced b, d, g → voiceless p, t, k; voiceless p, t, k → fricatives f, θ, h.

Short trick: Ghosha-mahaprana loses only aspiration.

Concept: “akartary ṛṇe pañcamī” (2.3.24): a debt that is the cause (hetu) but not the agent takes the ablative.

1. Śatād baddhaḥ = bound because of (a debt of) a hundred.
2. Vibhāṣā guṇe ’striyām is for qualities (jāḍyād baddhaḥ).

Short trick: Debt as cause → pañcamī.

Concept: “ot” (1.1.15): a nipāta ending in o is pragṛhya (e.g. aho īśāḥ).

1. It falls in the pragṛhya section 1.1.11–19 (īdūded dvivacanaṃ pragṛhyam…).
2. Pragṛhya vowels are not subject to sandhi (plutapragṛhyā aci nityam).

Short trick: 1.1.11–19 = pragrihya sutras.

Concept: Kumārī: “vayasi prathame” (4.1.20) → ṅīp.

1. Dākṣī – “ito manuṣyajāteḥ” → ṅīṣ; Kaṭhī – “jāter astrīviṣayād…” → ṅīṣ; Indrāṇī – “indravaruṇa…” → ṅīṣ + ānuk.

Short trick: Age (vayas) words → ṅīp: kumārī, kiśorī.