Sanskrit syllabus class 10 CBSE: sections, grammar and lessons

How the class 10 Sanskrit syllabus is assessed

There are two parts to your Sanskrit result. The school awards 20 marks through the year for periodic tests, varied classroom assessment, a file of written work and language enrichment activities such as speaking and listening. The board then sets an 80 mark written paper at the end of the session. Ask your teacher how your school splits the 20 internal marks, because the components are fixed by CBSE but the activities differ from school to school.

All questions in the theory paper are compulsory, though some carry an internal choice. You need 33% in the subject to pass.

Sanskrit syllabus class 10 CBSE: marks by section

Sections C and D together give 55 marks, more than two thirds of the paper. Both depend on your textbook, since grammar examples are drawn from Shemushi wherever possible and from the workbook otherwise.

Section A and B: the unseen passage and writing tasks

Unseen passage (10 marks)

• One word answers to two questions: 2 marks
• Full sentence answers to two questions: 4 marks
• A suitable title for the passage: 1 mark
• Three multiple choice language items, such as finding a verb, adjective or synonym in the text: 3 marks

Creative writing (15 marks)

• A formal or informal letter, filled in from a word box: 5 marks
• Describing a picture with help words, or a short paragraph: 5 marks
• Translating five simple sentences from Hindi or English into Sanskrit: 5 marks

The letter and picture tasks are almost free marks once you learn the word box method: read every word in the box, cross each one off as you place it, and check the gender and case endings at the end.

Applied grammar: the 25 mark section

Time writing and voice change follow fixed patterns, so they are the quickest topics to master. Samasa and pratyaya need more examples: list every compound and suffix form that appears in your lessons.

Lessons in Shemushi Part 2 and the textbook section

The current list keeps nine lessons; chapters 3, 10 and 11 of the book are left out.

Section D, worth 30 marks, uses these lessons in several ways:

• A prose extract, a verse extract and a drama extract with questions, 5 marks each
• Framing questions on underlined words: 4 marks
• Prose order (anvaya) or meaning (bhavartha) of a shloka in Sanskrit: 4 marks
• Arranging story sentences in sequence: 4 marks
• Meaning of words in context: 3 marks

Month by month Sanskrit revision

1. April to August: read each lesson twice, write the meaning of every shloka in your own Hindi or English, and finish one grammar topic a fortnight from the workbook.
2. September to November: practise anvaya for every verse lesson and sentence sequencing for every story lesson, since both appear each year. Write one letter and one picture description a week.
3. December to February: attempt the board's own specimen paper, then mark it with the scheme CBSE posts on its academic website, and time yourself at three hours.

Keep a single page of all sandhi and samasa examples taken from your nine lessons. Examiners tend to reuse words the student has already met in the reader.

Books and other Sanskrit courses

Three NCERT books cover the whole course: Shemushi Part 2 for lessons, Abhyasvan Bhava Part 2 for grammar practice, and Vyakaranavithi as a reference grammar. You do not need any other guide if you work through the workbook exercises fully.

CBSE also runs a separate Sanskrit Communicative course with its own code and book, so confirm with your school which one you are registered for. Sanskrit is one of many papers in your board year: the CBSE class 10 syllabus summary covers each of them, English and Hindi grammar rules sit in the CBSE class 10 grammar syllabus, and CBSE class 10 previous papers to practise under exam conditions.