If your child is starting Class 7 Sanskrit this year, the first thing to know is that the book has changed. NCERT's new textbook, Deepakam (दीपकम्), replaces Ruchira Part 2 from the 2026-27 session, one year after the Class 6 book made the same switch. Most guidebooks, most online solutions and a fair number of tutors are still working from the old one. One more thing to know: not every CBSE school uses the NCERT book. Many private schools, CBSE and ICSE alike, teach from a publisher's series, most often New Saraswati House's Nai Deep Manika (नई दीप मणिका), revised for the same curriculum framework. The grammar below is the same whichever book is in the bag; the chapter list is Deepakam's.
Here is what the new book contains, what Class 7 adds to the grammar your child met in Class 6, and where the marks go in this class. As always: check the booklist your school has issued. Schools change books on their own timetable, and a chapter list is only as good as the copy in your child's bag.
The twelve chapters of Deepakam
| No. | Chapter |
|---|---|
| 1 | वन्दे भारतमातरम् Vande Bhāratamātaram |
| 2 | नित्यं पिबामः सुभाषितरसम् Nityaṁ pibāmaḥ subhāṣitarasam |
| 3 | मित्राय नमः Mitrāya namaḥ |
| 4 | न लभ्यते चेत् आम्लं द्राक्षाफलम् Na labhyate cet āmlaṁ drākṣāphalam |
| 5 | सेवा हि परमो धर्मः Sevā hi paramo dharmaḥ |
| 6 | क्रीडाम वयं श्लोकान्त्याक्षरीम् Krīḍāma vayaṁ ślokāntyākṣarīm |
| 7 | ईशावास्यम् इदं सर्वम् Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam |
| 8 | हितं मनोहारि च दुर्लभं वचः Hitaṁ manohāri ca durlabhaṁ vacaḥ |
| 9 | अन्नाद् भवन्ति भूतानि Annād bhavanti bhūtāni |
| 10 | दशमः कः? Daśamaḥ kaḥ? |
| 11 | द्वीपेषु रम्यः द्वीपोऽण्डमानः Dvīpeṣu ramyaḥ dvīpo'ṇḍamānaḥ |
| 12 | वीराङ्गना पन्नाधाया Vīrāṅganā Pannādhāyā |
Behind the chapters sits a grammar section: letters and mātrās, noun forms (शब्दरूपाणि) and verb forms (धातुरूपाणि). The shape of the book is worth noticing. The old Ruchira kept grammar for the end of each chapter; Deepakam threads sandhi, compounds and the cases through the chapters from the first one. A child cannot skip the grammar and read the stories, which is the right design and a shock to some students.
What Class 7 adds to Class 6
Class 6, in the new curriculum, is one noun pattern, the present tense, and reading Devanagari properly. Class 7 is the year the tables multiply. Four strands run through it.
1. More noun patterns
To the masculine a-stem of Class 6 (बालकः) the year adds the feminine ā-stem (बालिका, लता), the neuter (फलम्) if it was not secure, and nouns ending in i and u (मुनिः, मतिः, साधुः, धेनुः). This is where a child taught by memory starts to drown: five tables of 24 boxes is 120 boxes. A child taught the pattern learns that the dual and plural endings barely change between them, and that the whole set is a third of that. The seven vibhakti tricks are written for exactly this year.
2. More tenses
Class 6 is लट्, the present. Class 7 adds the past (लङ्) and the future (लृट्), usually the command form (लोट्) too. Each has nine forms, three persons by three numbers, and the endings recur from one tense to the next once the child sees them side by side. Taught as three separate tables they are 27 boxes; taught as one pattern with three markers they are a dozen facts.
3. Numbers, indeclinables, and the first sandhi
Counting to a hundred, the common avyayas (अद्य, श्वः, ह्यः, अत्र, तत्र, कदा, सदा), and the first sandhi rules: what happens when two vowels meet. Sandhi is the topic parents fear, and in Class 7 it is small: a handful of rules, all of them things the child already does in speech (विद्या + आलयः = विद्यालयः).
4. Comprehension and short composition
Reading a passage from the book and answering in Sanskrit: one-word answers first, then full sentences. Writing five to eight sentences on a picture or a topic. This strand carries the most marks in most school papers and is the most neglected at home, because it cannot be reduced to a table.
Where the marks go in Class 7
Class 7 papers are set by the school, so there is no board mark scheme to quote. From marking these papers for five years, the losses cluster in the same five places.
- The feminine table treated as the masculine one. लतया, not लतेन. Half the errors in the noun section are one table's endings put on another.
- The past tense without its augment. अपठत् loses its opening अ under exam pressure more than any other form on the paper.
- Number written in figures. The question asks for त्रयोदश; the child writes 13.
- Sandhi guessed by sound. The rule is known; the child has not practised splitting a joined word back into its parts, which is the form the question takes.
- Comprehension answered in Hindi. Still the largest single loss, one year on from Class 6. A correct answer in the wrong language scores nothing.
A working week
Twenty minutes a day. The chapter read aloud once, because pronunciation and spelling are the same skill in Sanskrit. One table chanted, in rotation, so that every table comes round each fortnight. Five sentences written, using that day's table. On the weekend, the chapter's exercises from the book and nothing else. That routine holds a Class 7 student at the top of the class without a Sunday of misery, and it makes Class 8, where the paper starts asking for application, a continuation rather than a cliff.
For the year before this one, the Class 6 post covers the foundation; for the board year it all leads to, the Class 10 syllabus and paper.
School Sanskrit, taught from your child's own book
Ms. Ishita Parikh holds an MA in Sanskrit from the Central Sanskrit University and taught the CBSE and ICSE Sanskrit syllabus in Mumbai classrooms for five years. Tuition follows the textbook the school has issued, chapter by chapter, with the grammar taught as patterns rather than tables to memorise.
School Sanskrit tuition, Classes 1 to 12, online; for families in Mumbai, in person at Borivali West for Classes 1 to 10. Or book the free first class.
Questions people ask
Which textbook is used for CBSE Class 7 Sanskrit in 2026-27?
Deepakam (दीपकम्), the new NCERT textbook, which replaces Ruchira Part 2 from the 2026-27 session; it has twelve chapters. Many private CBSE and ICSE schools use a publisher's series instead, most often New Saraswati House's Nai Deep Manika, revised for the same curriculum framework. Check the booklist your school has issued before buying anything.
How many chapters does Deepakam Class 7 have?
Twelve, opening with Vande Bharatamataram and closing with a chapter on Panna Dhai, with a grammar section at the back covering letters and matras, noun forms and verb forms. That is three fewer than the old Ruchira Part 2.
What grammar is taught in Class 7 Sanskrit?
Class 7 builds on the Class 6 foundation: more noun tables including feminine nouns and nouns ending in i and u, more verb tenses beyond the present, numbers, indeclinables, and the first sandhi and compounds. The exact order follows the chapters, and the new book introduces sandhi, samasa and vibhakti from the first chapter onward rather than saving them for the end.
Is Class 7 Sanskrit harder than Class 6?
It is the year the tables multiply. Class 6 is mostly one noun pattern and the present tense; Class 7 adds several patterns and two or three more tenses. A child who learned Class 6 by memorising manages for a term and then struggles; a child who learned the pattern finds Class 7 mostly familiar.
How much Sanskrit should a Class 7 student do each week?
Twenty minutes a day beats two hours on Sunday, because tables are held by repetition. Reading the chapter aloud, one table chanted, and five sentences written is a complete daily routine for this class.