Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 27

FEBRUARY, 1933]
KASHMIRI RIDDLES
KASHMIRI RIDDLES.
BY PANDIT ANAND KOUL, PRESIDENT, SRINAGAR MUNICIPALITY (Retired).
RIDDLES raise a momentary sensation of wonder and afford a light intellectual pastime, the intention underlying them being to tease but, at the same time, to please. They have a psychological value; they not only neutralize cares by diverting the thoughts, but also cause amusement on their being guessed or solved. By the shrewd-thinking they demand, even the dullest boy or girl feels a sense of keenness mingled with delight, and learns the art of being cheerful as well as of giving exercise to the brain-an art which tunes up the brain for the day's work and quickens it to think logically and precisely and, in fact, serves to improve its powers generally.
Children are carried by the current of curiosity born of variety. When other things begin tol on them, riddles serve as pills to purge melancholy out of their tender, sensitive hearts. Nay more, they arouse wonder fraught with amusement and make them prattle and play in a mood, now grave, now gay. The solution may not dawn all at once, but when it does, a smile of pleasure lights up the solver's features.
Kashmîrî not being a written language, the riddles current among the people (most of which evince shrewdness coupled with scintillating humour) have been transmitted orally from generation to generation. This literature, therefore, constitutes a relic of ancient folklore. Fixed and unalterable enigmatical expressions of the ancients as they are, they appeal most to students of anthropology, philology and research. Moreover, such materials, though seemingly insignificant, are of the utmost value and importance to the historian, as they contribute towards building up the ancient history of the people. They are peculiarly valuable in shedding light upon the hazy and remote past of the Kâshmîrî, who is characterized by conservative proclivities and adherence to things antique, and whose golden age is made up of elements borrowed from the picturesque and hoary past.
Prompted by the considerations stated above, I have collected all the riddles at present current among the Kashmîrîs, and give them in the following pages. Well might one soli. loquize: Happy the country, whose old, almost lost, literature is revived and rendered imperishable by that supreme art of preservation and circulation, which can defy destruction by Time-printing.
1.
Ablaq guri myani shahsawâro! Kadala tártam wârawâro.
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Mag chy na ta bu parayo.
O my piebald horse (and) horseman !
Carry me slowly across the bridge.
Thou hast not got the tresses, and I shall plait them for thee.
Answer :-Wooden sandals.
2.
Ad gaz mámani dod gaz púls.
A head-sheet one and half yards long for an aunt half a yard in stature. Answer:-Needle and thread.
3.
Akashi watshayi budha, pâtála lajes zanga.
Illa bi-l-lahi! tsenga, pants gâm jágir manga.
An old woman descended from the sky, her feet touched the earth.
1 Trossos refer to the strings over the toos.
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