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[ 24 ] it does so on a few rare occasions. i
What purpose, it may be asked, is expected to be served by these grammatical riddles ? The verses are not intended to be pure poetry, whatever casual poetic merit they may attain to in stray instances. But they do challenge the reader's ingenuity and thereby endow with a welcome interest a subject which would otherwise prove dry and uninvitive, To present a challenging problem to the intellect is to excite interest; and to excite interest is to vitalize the mind and thereby to fix the Sutra, arrived at as answers, firmly in the memory. This work, लक्षणविलास: is of course meant not for the general reader but for the reader who is a student of Sanskrit grammar and, in particular to a student of सिद्धहेमव्याकरण. Such a one is the Adhikari reader of these verses, And if the reader posses this Adhikara, his caufama: will, as the first verse claims, brinig him in direct touch with the Sutras covered, and will prove to be an उत्सवरूपः विलासः a festive entertainment–in the province of grammar. Let it not be overlooked that the learned author addresses this work only to such Adhikati readers. I can say that to such readers it will afford pleasure with profit.
-Ramprasad P. Bakshi.