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GLOSSARY
 
praśna
 
praśna, "question': (1) a figure wherein a question or remark suggests its
answer or reply. (2) R 7.93 (95). (3) kim svargād adhikasukham
bandhusuhrtpanditaiḥ samam lakşmiḥ । saurajyam adurbhikşam
satkávyarasâmṛtâsvādaḥ (Rudrața; poetry is preferable to salvation:
"Is the nectar-like taste of true poetry-a prosperous empire which
knows no famine and the good fortune of relations, friends, and
teachers alike more agreeable than salvation?"). (4) "Was this the
face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of
Ilium?" (Christopher Marlowe). (5) The rhetorical question. Rudra-
ţa calls this also uttara (q.v.), but since it is the reverse of the first
type, we give it here. Praśna differs from parisankhya in that the
answer alone is intended, not the nature of the concept.
 
prahelikā
 
prahelikā, 'riddle': (1) a puzzle, riddle, conundrum; a phrase, statement,
or question constructed deliberately so that its meaning shall be
misconstrued, but in some way intimating a solution to the difficulty
thus created. (2) B 2.19, D 3.96-124, AP 343.22, 25-26, R 5.25 (29).
(3) katham api na dṛśyate'sãv anvakşam harati vasanāni (Rudraţa;
answer: vayuh; "He is not at all visible though he seizes most
obviously their clothing"; answer: the wind). (4) "What is that which
is often brought to table, often cut, but never eaten?" (Robert Merry;
answer: a ack of cards). (5) Prahelikā is first mentioned by
Bhāmaha as an illegitimate extension of yamaka ('cadence'); serving
no poetic purpose, this topic was apparently soon adopted into the
growing rag bag of citrakavya. Dandin, who gives the most extensive
treatment (enumerating sixteen types), also avers that such puzzles
serve only as recreation for scholars or critics and perhaps can be used
to demonstrate the prowess of one writer over another a sort of
verbal jujitsu. The Agni Purāṇa and Rudrața both mention only
two types of riddle: one in which the answer is already contained
in the riddle phrase by a different reading of words (spașțapracchan-
nârtha), and the other, the most frequently met variety, in which an
apparent paradox is proposed (vyähṛta). Both types can be found in
Dandin, the first as ubhayacchanna, the second as ekacchanna. The
example given above illustrates the second type. Since neither the
names or the types found in Daṇḍin are met with elsewhere, the
sixteen varieties will be given here.
 
ubhayacchanna, 'both concealed': (1) a conundrum in the form of a