About Gujarati Language: –

Gujarati is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India. Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language. It is spoken in Gujarat, India and also in neighbouring Pakistan. Gujarati is the 20th most common language in the United States of America. Gujarati is derived from Sanskrit through Prakrit, a large group of ancient Indic languages.

Gujarati Syllabus Subject For UPSC

Gujarati is the language provided as a Literature Optional which focuses on the candidates’ understanding of the basic concepts of literature. Candidates who have studied the Gujarati literature can opt for it as an optional subject in the IAS (UPSC CSE) Mains Exam. Analytical and unconventional questions are appearing in previous papers so while preparing students should keep IAS Mains Gujarati Syllabus and previous papers for reference. The aspirants who are well versed with the Gujarati language and are familiar with the grammatical aspects can easily score high marks in this optional. 

Gujarati Syllabus Exam Pattern: –

The Gujarati language is one of the optional subjects offered for the 2 optional papers in the IAS (UPSC CSE) Main Exam. Each Gujarati optional paper consists of 250 marks. Duration for each Gujarati mains paper is 3 hours. With well-planned strategies, you can easily score well in the Gujarati literature. Interest should be the prime criteria for choosing any optional. The aspirants have to answer the questions from both the papers in Gujarati language.

Advantages of choosing Gujarati 

· Well defined syllabus and Less subjectivity

  • Direct and straightforward questions
  • Ample scope to score marks with diagrams
  • The inquiries in this subject are immediate and crucial.
  • Room for interpretation in the written answers
  • Quality of answers as there is no limitation to different kinds of answers.
  • Updation in the syllabus is rare

Disadvantages of choosing Gujarati

  • Subjective Nature of the answers can lead to less scoring at times if your views do not match with the evaluator.
  • Lack of resources
  • No syllabus overlaps with GS papers
  • Essay writing and interviews won’t pose much of a problem as the amount of reading will help with these.

Paper-I

Section-A

Gujarati Language: Form and history

  1. History of Gujarati Language with special reference to New Indo-Aryan i.e. last one thousand years.
  2. Significant features of the Gujarati language: Phonology, morphology and syntax.
  3. Major dialects: Surti, Pattani, charotari and Saurashtri.

History of Gujarati Literature

Medieval:

  1. Jaina tradition
  2. Bhakti tradition: Sagun and Nirgun (Jnanmargi)
  3. Non-sectarian tradition (Laukik parampara)

Modern:

  1. Sudharak yug
  2. Pandit yug
  3. Gandhi yug
  4. Anu-Gandhi yug
  5. Adhunik yug

Section-B

Literary Forms: (Salient features, history and development of the following literary forms):

(a) Medieval

  1. Narratives: Rasa, Akhyan and Padyavarta
  2. Lyrical: Pada

(b) Folk

  1. Bhavai

(c) Modern

  1. Fiction: Novel and short story
  2. Drama
  3. Literary Essay
  4. Lyrical Poetry

(d) Criticism

  1. History of theoretical Gujarati criticism
  2. Recent research in folk tradition

Paper-II

Section-A

  1. Medieval

(i) Vasantvilas phagu-Ajnatkrut

(ii) Kadambari-Bhalan

(iii) Sudamacharitra-Premanand

(iv) Chandrachandravatini varta-Shamal

(v) Akhegeeta-Akho

  1. Sudharakyug & Pandityug

(vi) Mari Hakikat-Narmadashankar Dave

(vii) Farbasveerah- Dalpatram

(viii) Saraswatichandra-Part-I Govar-dhanram Tripathi

(ix) Purvalap- ‘Kant’ (Manishankar Ratnaji Bhatt)

(x) Raino Parvat-Ramanbhai Neel-kanth

Section-B

  1. Gandhiyug & Anu Gandhiyug

(i) Hind Swaraj-Mohandas Kar-machand Gandhi

(ii) Patanni Prabhuta- Kanhaiyalal Munshi

(iii) Kavyani Shakti- Ramnarayan Vish-wanath Pathak

(iv) Saurashtrani Rasdhar Part 1- Zaver-chand Meghani

(v) Manvini Bhavai-Pannalal Patel

(vi) Dhvani-Rajendra Shah

  1. Adhunik yug

(vii) Saptapadi-Umashankar Joshi

(viii) Janantike- Suresh Joshi

(ix) Ashwatthama- Sitanshu Yash-aschandra