Grammatical Riddles from Jain Works

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: Z_Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_1_002105.pdf and Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_2

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Grammatical Riddles from Jain works
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Al-la is the vocative of the dvandva formed by ad- to eat and lā - 'to take' (cf. Palsule 1955, 168 s.v. adāne) 16.
* ko ... krīdārtha-dhātur vadet "ko'stavimśatayā prasiddhim agamad varnah kaka-lekhake ?" (P.12)
Who, being a root meaning 'to play', would say "Which is the letter of the consonant chart that is known to be the 28th ?" - Root 'to play'! the letter l.
The last question stated in a rather simple way points to the root las, recorded in the Dhātupāthas (cf. lasa ślesana-kridanayoh, Pān. Dhātup. 1.746 = Hemac. Dhātup. 1.543; Palsule 1955, 172 and 196). The root which was the speaker in the question has to take the form of the vocative when it becomes the addressee in the answer (las lasatīti kvip prathamă si, vyañjanác ca si-lopah, he lah, ct.); lah is also the nominative form for the la-kára.
4. Such an elementary prerequisite as the knowledge of the alphabet and of the Sanskrit phonemes has been variously applied in the context of riddle-making.
First, the varnas are useful because they provide convenient and obvious monosyllables for praśnottaras :
* tavargge pañcamaḥ ko vā? (kumjarena; Jayasimhasūri, Dharmopadesamālā-vivarana p. 43)
What is the fifth letter in the group of cerebrals? - na
.*... khăntam brāhi kim nāntam icchasi ? (īhālamkārasangatam; Bhavadeva, Pārsvanāthacarita 2.224)
Tell the letter which comes after kha (and) which one do you require coming after na ?- ga (and) tam.
In the 15 verses of the Praśnāvali, the last question of the riddle invariably concerns a letter (varna), more precisely a consonant or a class of consonants (varga). It can be expressed very simply under the form: What is the third consonant (vs. 2), the twentieth (vs. 4), the twenty-first (vs. 5), the twenty-sixth (vss. 8-9), the twenty-seventh (vss. 10-11), the twenty-eighth (vs. 12; above), the thirtieth (vs. 15), meaning that all answers will contain respectively ga, na, pa, ya, ra, la, and śa. A short descriptive statement can replace the serial number : the questions 'What is the last phoneme of the last group ?' (vs. 7) and 'What is the last phoneme