The NCERT Class 8 Kriti book is the official integrated arts textbook for Class 8, and every chapter’s official PDF is on this page. The table below links NCERT’s own files from ncert.nic.in — the same edition your school follows — so you can open any chapter in one tap.
The PDF alone does not tell you what is inside the book, so this page reports what Kriti actually teaches, measured from the textbook itself: 19 chapters across 214 printed pages, the four art strands the book is built on, and where the practical work and assessment sit. The chapter PDFs come first; the breakdown follows.
NCERT Class 8 Kriti Book: Chapter-wise Official PDFs
Every file below is NCERT’s own PDF, hosted on the official ncert.nic.in portal, so it is the same edition your school follows — not a scanned copy from a third-party site.
| Ch. | Chapter | Pages | Official PDF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theatre | 16 | |
| 2 | One Stage, Many Scripts | 10 | |
| 3 | From Page to Stage | 19 | |
| 4 | Applause and Advice | 8 | |
| 5 | Music | 12 | |
| 6 | Musical Instruments | 9 | |
| 7 | Indian | 13 | |
| 8 | Inspiration and Imagination | 7 | |
| 9 | My World | 9 | |
| 10 | Dance and Movement | 18 | |
| 11 | Pan Indian | 12 | |
| 12 | Dance for Well-Being | 10 | |
| 13 | Innovation, Inclusivity and | 8 | |
| 14 | A Presentation of Dance and Choreography | 10 | |
| 15 | Visual Arts | 15 | |
| 16 | Still Life in | 9 | |
| 17 | People in Places | 12 | |
| 18 | Arts of the People, with the People, for the People | 9 | |
| 19 | Campaign for Art Awareness | 8 |
The Book, Measured
These numbers come from the book’s own index, and you can check every one against the chapter table above.
- 19 chapters, every one with a verified official PDF linked above.
- 214 printed pages across the whole book.
- 2 activities captured in the full index.
- 0 end-of-chapter exercise questions — Kriti is an activity-led book, not a question-driven one.
- Chapter study pages: none available yet — all 19 are not yet built.
- The book prints its diagrams without captions, so there is no figure index on this page; the artwork exists, our caption capture does not.
Most readers arrive wanting one art form, so the table below maps the four strands of the book.
| Strand | Chapters | What the chapters make you do |
|---|---|---|
| Theatre | 1–4 | Read a play aloud, practise voice and projection, stage a production, review it |
| Music | 5–9 | Vocal warmups, sargam and tala practice, build instruments, sing raga and regional songs |
| Dance | 10–14 | Breath and posture, Indian dance forms, expressive hand gestures, choreograph a production |
| Visual arts | 15–19 | Design elements, still life, perspective, crafts and a campaign |
What Each Chapter Teaches
The directory below is rendered from this book’s own index and carries the per-chapter counts; the short write-ups after it say what each chapter is actually for.
| Ch. | Chapter | Sections | Activities | Figures | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theatre | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | One Stage, Many Scripts | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | From Page to Stage | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | Applause and Advice | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | Music | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | Musical Instruments | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | Indian | — | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | Inspiration and Imagination | — | — | — | — |
| 9 | My World | — | 1 | — | — |
| 10 | Dance and Movement | — | — | — | — |
| 11 | Pan Indian | — | — | — | — |
| 12 | Dance for Well-Being | — | — | — | — |
| 13 | Innovation, Inclusivity and | — | — | — | — |
| 14 | A Presentation of Dance and Choreography | — | — | — | — |
| 15 | Visual Arts | — | — | — | — |
| 16 | Still Life in | — | — | — | — |
| 17 | People in Places | — | — | — | — |
| 18 | Arts of the People, with the People, for the People | — | — | — | — |
| 19 | Campaign for Art Awareness | — | — | — | — |
In the directory, a section means one of NCERT’s numbered headings. Kriti’s headings are not numbered, so the column reads 0 even though every chapter has named topics — and those topics are what the write-ups below describe. An activity is a standalone activity block captured from the book, and a question is an end-of-chapter exercise; Kriti has none of those.
Chapter 1: Theatre
16 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. This opening chapter trains the actor’s voice for a rehearsed reading — the three voice subsystems, clarity in speech, word impact, volume and pitch, and finally expressing meaning without language.
Chapter 2: One Stage, Many Scripts
10 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It explains what a script for the stage is, reaches back to play scripts in ancient India, and asks you to script your own short play, with three student-written models — The Last Paper Boat, Lunchbox Rhapsody and The Time-Travelling Tabla — to learn from.
Chapter 3: From Page to Stage
19 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. At 19 pages this is the longest chapter in the book, following a class production through five scenes — brainstorming, work begins, rehearsals and preparation, the first run-through and showtime — which makes it a complete class-project guide.
Chapter 4: Applause and Advice
8 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It teaches how to be a good audience member for the performing arts and closes the theatre strand with writing a review, ending in the book’s first Summative Assessment.
Chapter 5: Music
12 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. This is the elements-of-music chapter: vocal exercises, mandra saptak practice, sargam in teentala, warmups in thirds, shloka and chhand metre, and tala with konnakkol and swaras, closing with tabla patterns in Hindustani music.
Chapter 6: Musical Instruments
9 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It covers the science of sound and making simple instruments, then profiles three masters — Annapurna Devi on the surbahar, Pannalal Ghosh on the flute and Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar on the veena — with an instrument crossword to finish.
Chapter 7: Indian
13 pages, 0 numbered sections, 1 activity, 0 questions. Despite the short indexed title, this chapter teaches Carnatic music: jathi talam alankarams, the madhyama kalam kriti Sri Gananatham Bhajare, and raag Asavari with its lakshan geet in teentala.
Chapter 8: Inspiration and Imagination
7 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. At 7 pages it is the shortest chapter in the book: it profiles the blind musician Ravindra Jain, introduces India’s musical monuments and resonant pillars, and asks you to imagine your own creative future.
Chapter 9: My World
9 pages, 0 numbered sections, 1 activity, 0 questions. This chapter connects music to everyday life — traditional songs from Rajasthan and Kashmir, music and climate change, and real careers such as sound engineer, music producer and event manager.
Chapter 10: Dance and Movement
18 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. At 18 pages it is the longest dance chapter, building dance from the inside out — breath, the elements of dance, postures, motion and examples of chāri — after a note to teachers on pedagogy principles.
Chapter 11: Pan Indian
12 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It surveys Indian dance traditions side by side in a dance matrix — classical styles, other traditions, and the folk dance of the Ao tribe of Nagaland — and urges watching live or recorded performances whenever you can.
Chapter 12: Dance for Well-Being
10 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. The dance-and-well-being chapter shows how dance communicates emotion, using hand gestures or hastas as a sign language for both storytelling and everyday communication.
Chapter 13: Innovation, Inclusivity and
8 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It explains how dance stays innovative by integrating allied art forms, and how inclusivity in dance empowers more people to take part.
Chapter 14: A Presentation of Dance and Choreography
10 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. This capstone chapter walks a group through staging a complete dance production in two phases — planning and pre-production covering theme, music, roles and venue, then choreography and rehearsals.
Chapter 15: Visual Arts
15 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It sets up the visual arts studio — what the classroom needs, the elements and principles of visual art and design, and the habit of making multiple iterations.
Chapter 16: Still Life in
9 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. This is a step-by-step still life project: choose objects and a backdrop, arrange them, observe for five minutes, draw the contour in light lines, then colour — with named still-life artists to study.
Chapter 17: Introduction to Perspective
12 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It introduces perspective drawing through a viewing grid, then adds human anatomy and body positions for figure work, ending with layout, colour and titling the finished artwork.
Chapter 18: Arts of the People, with the People, for the People
9 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. This is the most craft-heavy chapter in the book — learn the art of knotting, sew patches and make papier-mâché — community art made with your own hands.
Chapter 19: Campaign for Art Awareness
8 pages, 0 numbered sections, 0 activities, 0 questions. It closes the book with a campaign for art awareness — choose a subject, frame a campaign title and follow the steps for making a brochure — and holds the book’s second Summative Assessment.
Chapter Pages
Every chapter of the Kriti book will get its own study page; the block below shows the current status of each one.
| Ch. | Chapter page |
|---|---|
| 1 | Theatre (coming soon) |
| 2 | One Stage, Many Scripts (coming soon) |
| 3 | From Page to Stage (coming soon) |
| 4 | Applause and Advice (coming soon) |
| 5 | Music (coming soon) |
| 6 | Musical Instruments (coming soon) |
| 7 | Indian (coming soon) |
| 8 | Inspiration and Imagination (coming soon) |
| 9 | My World (coming soon) |
| 10 | Dance and Movement (coming soon) |
| 11 | Pan Indian (coming soon) |
| 12 | Dance for Well-Being (coming soon) |
| 13 | Innovation, Inclusivity and (coming soon) |
| 14 | A Presentation of Dance and Choreography (coming soon) |
| 15 | Visual Arts (coming soon) |
| 16 | Still Life in (coming soon) |
| 17 | People in Places (coming soon) |
| 18 | Arts of the People, with the People, for the People (coming soon) |
| 19 | Campaign for Art Awareness (coming soon) |
How to Use This Book
Kriti is a doing book, and the order you work through it matters more than with a textbook you read cover to cover. The structure NCERT sets is four strands, and each builds on the one before it.
- Follow the strand order the book itself sets — theatre (chapters 1–4), music (5–9), dance (10–14), visual arts (15–19). The three voice subsystems and the volume-and-pitch work of Chapter 1 are the same voice the music chapters train, so skipping ahead costs you more than a few pages.
- Treat the music chapters as practice, not reading. Chapter 5’s vocal exercises and sargam in teentala, Chapter 7’s Carnatic talam alankarams, and Chapter 9’s listening and career pages only work if you actually sing, clap and listen. Short chapters are not light reading either: Chapter 18’s nine pages of knotting, patches and papier-mâché take longer to do than to read.
- For dance, build in order. Do Chapter 10 first for breath and posture, Chapter 12 for expressive hastas, then Chapter 14 as the capstone — it is a production project, not a reading assignment.
- For visual arts, learn the elements first. Chapter 15’s elements and principles of design come before Chapter 16’s still life and Chapter 17’s perspective; Chapters 18 and 19 are craft and campaign work that suit a group.
- Assessment lives in the boxes, not a question bank. Progress is checked through the Teacher’s Comments and Student’s Observations sheets (in most chapters), Circle Time (chapters 2 and 4), and the Summative Assessment sections in chapters 4 and 19.
- Teachers: every strand opens with a Note to the Teachers — chapters 1, 5, 10 and 15 — that explains how to run the strand’s activities.
One caution: textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus before planning what to revise.
Related NCERT Book Pages
This page is part of the NCERT books directory, which indexes NCERT textbooks by class and subject. The Class 8 hub lists the other Class 8 books on this site, and the Class 8 Science book page shows the same chapter-by-chapter treatment for a different subject.
The official NCERT e-textbook portal at ncert.nic.in publishes every government school textbook PDF, including the Kriti chapters linked in the table above.
Sources and Data Verification
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
- The counts on this page come from the NCERT Class 8 Kriti textbook editions on this page.
- This page covers the 19 chapters of this book; it does not cover the CBSE curriculum beyond it, and because Kriti prints its diagrams without captions, no figure index is published here.
- This listing is maintained for the current academic session using the NCERT information available to us.
- NCERT settles textbooks, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles the curriculum, syllabus and examinations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many chapters are in the NCERT Class 8 Kriti book?
19 chapters, spread across 214 printed pages in four strands. Theatre is chapters 1–4, music 5–9, dance 10–14 and visual arts 15–19. Every chapter’s official PDF is linked in the table above.
Are the Kriti PDFs on this page official and free?
Yes. Every link in the download table points to NCERT’s own files on ncert.nic.in, the official government textbook portal. They are free to read, download and print.
Which chapters of Kriti cover music and which cover dance?
Music is chapters 5–9: the elements of music, instruments, Carnatic talam alankarams, musicians, and music careers. Dance is chapters 10–14: breath and movement, Indian dance traditions, expressive hand gestures and a final choreography project.
Does the Kriti book have exercise questions to solve?
No. Kriti has no end-of-chapter exercise questions — only 2 formal activity blocks were captured across the whole book, and the rest of the work is hands-on practice. Assessment runs through the Teacher’s Comments and Student’s Observations boxes, Circle Time in chapters 2 and 4, and the Summative Assessment sections in chapters 4 and 19.
Which chapter should I read for drawing and perspective?
Chapter 17, Introduction to Perspective, is the one for perspective drawing — it teaches a viewing grid, human anatomy and body positions. Read Chapter 15 first for the elements and principles of design, and Chapter 16 covers still life drawing.
Reference: NCERT Class 8 Kriti textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.