MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons

Alankar & Chhand

About 5 min · Marathi Language (मराठी) · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 243 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Alankar (अलंकार) and Chhand (छंद) form the aesthetic backbone of Marathi poetry and prose. In the Maharashtra Police Bharti exam, questions from this topic test your ability to identify specific figures of speech in given sentences and recognise metrical patterns in verse.

Key ideas

• Alankar (अलंकार): Literary devices that add beauty, emphasis, or vividness to language. Divided into Shabdalankar (sound-based) and Arthalankar (meaning-based).
• Shabdalankar (शब्दालंकार): Ornaments based on sound/word arrangement — e.g., Anupras (alliteration), Yamak (same word with different meanings).
• Arthalankar (अर्थालंकार): Ornaments based on meaning/comparison — e.g., Upama, Rupak, Utpreksha.
• Chhand (छंद): The metrical or rhythmic pattern in poetry, determined by the number and arrangement of syllables or mātras.
• Matra (मात्रा): The unit of syllabic weight — a short vowel (ऱ्हस्व) = 1 matra; a long vowel (दीर्घ) = 2 matras.

Watch out for

• Confusing Upama and Rupak
• Confusing Utpreksha and Upama
• Mixing Yamak and Anupras

Quick reference

• उपमा: Uses जसे/सारखे — "X सारखे Y"
• रूपक: No comparison word — "X हे Y आहे"
• उत्प्रेक्षा: Uses जणू/जणूकाय — imaginative supposition
• अनुप्रास: Same consonant sound repeats — alliteration
• यमक: Same word, different meanings

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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