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Grammatical Riddles from Jain works
How does the word 'fibrous root' denote Lakṣmi ?-Once it is deprived of sa and of the fifth letter, starting with da (vi-sa-da-pañcamaḥ), i.e. pha: sipha > i + ā> Ya, one of the several synonymic monosyllables for Lakṣmi.
The same process is applied to a word which is partly meaningful and partly made of a sequence of phonemes created ad hoc :
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kidṛg bhumiśubhasa-sabda iha bho viśrambha-vāci bhavet? (atanavamadaśamah; JP 55)
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How does the word bhūmiśubhāsa denote 'trust' ?-Once it is deprived of the ninth and the tenth letters, starting with ta (a-ta-nava-daśamaḥ), i.e. bha and ma bhümiśubhasa > *uisuäsa > viśvāsa.
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nayanagati padam kīdṛk pūjayatīti artham abhidhatte ? (apaprathamangajam; JP 85)
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How does the word nayanagati express the meaning 'to worship' ?— Once it is deprived of the first letter before pa (i.e. na) and once it has ja instead of ga (a-pa-prathamaṁ ga-jam) : nayanagati → yajati.
In several cases, the starting point is clearly a mere phoneme or a phonetic sequence without any meaning. A rather simple instance involving only one type of modification, namely an addition, is:
*... atha silpi-śikya-dehän udāharati kā-dhvanir atra kīdṛk ? (jinadantarucayah; JP 2)
How does the sound kā denote 'a craftsman', 'a rope', 'a body' ?— Once it ends (respectively) with ru, ca or ya (anta-ru-ca-yah): kā → kāru, kāca, kāya.
An illustration for modification through removal of a syllable is : *nasthātavyamca-sabdo'yam pradoṣam kidṛśaḥ ? (vitathavacanaḥ;
JP 62)
How does the word 'and it should not be stated' denote 'evening?' — Once it is deprived of ta, tha, va, ca and na (vi-ta-tha-va-ca-naḥ) : nasthātavyaṁca → sāyam.
Jain Education International
In the following riddle, the syntactic pattern is not a bahuvrīhi as is usual, and instead of forming a long compound, the answer is extremely short, leading to an effect of surprise, which is also a part of riddle-games :
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