Samasya Pooranam is a good pastime for saMskRuta lovers. By the way, that’s how I transliterate the name of the language more well known as Sanskrit (among the people who do not know that language 😉 very well! ) . However I prefer to use the transliteration scheme I am more used to ; replace it with your favourite transliteration scheme, if you prefer, whenever you see this word.
samasyA pUraNam literally means completing a riddle. You are given a sentence that does not make sense. Or one that seems very odd. Now you have to add a few lines to make it meaningful. Of course, I am not competent enough in saMskRuta , to do this. But I can at least appreciate the beauty of it!
There are a number of such samasyA pUraNa shlOkas. They go back t0 at least 10-15 centuries. The most famous might be “kamalE kamalOtpattiH” – Lotus born out of a lotus – (कमले कमलोत्पत्तिः) attributed to the famed poet kAlidAsa. Anyone who knows the name of kAlidAsa, probably knows this. And of course, whoever has seen our dear “annAvru” – Dr Rajkumar in the kannaDa movie ‘kaviratna kALidAsa’ can definitely recall this.
Here is the solution for this – said to have been given by kALidAsa.
kamalE kamalOtpattiH shrUyatE na cha dRushyatE
bAlE tava mukhAMbhOjE dRushyamindIvara dvayam!
कमले कमलोत्पत्तिः श्रूयते न च दृश्यते
बाले तव मुखाम्बोजे दृश्यमिंदीवर द्वयम्!
In simple English, this would be:
Who ever said you can’t see a lotus born of a lotus?
Oh girl, when there are two lotus eyes in your lotus face!
Actually there are several such samasyA pooraNa shlOkas supposed to have been solved by kALidAsa. But I suspect, most of them are the works of some other witty poets – not necessarily of kALidAsa. Another couple attributed to kALidAsa end with almost meaningless lines.
The first one reads : “ka kha ga gha” – क ख ग घ. While it seems too be devoid of any information to get a solution, here is one.
kA tvam bAlA?
kAMchanamAlA.
kasyA putrI?
kanakalatAyAH.
kA tvA hastE
pATI patram
kA vA lEkhA?
ka kha ga gha.
का त्वम् बाला?
काञ्चनमाला.
कस्याः पुत्री?
कनकलतायाः.
का त्वाम् हस्ते?
पाटी पत्रम्.
का वा लेखा?
क ख ग घ.
This is a conversation between an adult, and a school going child.
Who are you, Oh child?
My name is Kanchana mala.
Who is your mother?
Kanakalata is her name.
What is in your hand?
A slate to write.
What did you write in there?
ka kha ga gha.
The other is one that ends with even more meaningless “ThA Tham Tha Tham Tham Tha Tha Tham Tha Tam ThaH ” ( ठा ठं ठ ठं ठं ठ ठ ठं ठ ठं ठः) . The solution is of course, very ingenious.
raamaabhishEke jalamaaharanthyaH
hasthaachchyutho hEmaghaTo yuvathyaaH
sOpaanamAsAdya karOthi Sabdam
ThA Tham Tha Tham Tham Tha Tha Tham Tha Tam ThaH
रामाभिषेके जलमाहरान्त्याः
हस्ताच्य्तो हेमघटो युवत्याः
सोपानमासाद्य करोति शब्दम्
ठा ठं ठ ठं ठं ठ ठ ठं ठ ठं ठः
While bringing water for the coronation of Sri Rama,
The golden pot falling from the hands of those girls,
On the steps on the riverbank, made this sound:
ThA Tham Tha Tham Tham Tha Tha Tham Tha Tam ThaH!
See how cleverly the meaningless line has been used to create a very nice sounding 😉 solution!
Many of these riddles have multiple, equally nice solutions. Let me move on from centuries old stuff to a more contemporary one, with multiple solutions. Dr Ganesh is a well known shatavadhAni. Samasya pooraNa is a part of shatAvadhAna. In one of the avadhAna sessions, he was given this one to solve.
gaurI pacati gOmAMsam
गौरी पचति गोमांसम्
gouri cooks beef.
Ridiculous? Sacrilageous? Not after you see the solution I bet !
Here is the solution given by Dr Ganesh
pancamO jArajO yatra pauSAsak tatra sarvadA
gaurI pacati gOmAMsam gaurO bhunktE bhubhukShitaH
पञ्चमो जारजो यत्र पौशासक् तत्र सर्वदा
गौरी पचति गोमांसम् गौरो भुङ्क्ते भुभुक्षितः
When King George the 5th ruled
The white lady (the queen) cooks beef.
The white man (husband) eats what she cooks!
If you know saMskRuta, you can not but miss the pun on the words panchama and jAraja 😉
In avadhAna, the person asking the question has to have an answer too. This was the answer proposed by the questioner (पृछ्चक) Sudheer.
gouDI tu pacati mInam drAviDI pacati shAkam
gourI pacati gOmAmsam nUnam lOkO bhinnaruciH
गौडी तु पचति मीनम् द्राविडी पचति शाकम्
गौरी पचति गोमांसम् नूनं लोको भिन्नरुचिः
The woman from gouDa (present bengal) cooks fish;
The woman from south cooks vegetables.
The white woman cooks beef.
It is true that tastes differ.
See how both the answers wittily use the literal meaning of the word गौरी (gourI), to mean the white woman, rather than the commonly understood meaning as Parvati, the wife of Shiva.
When I was discussing this with a few of my friends, they came up with some more impressive solutions:
trilOkajananI kA bhO? sUpakRt kim karOti bhO?
kim khAdanti turuShkAH bhO? gaurI pacati gOmAmsam
त्रिलोकजननी का भो? सूपक्ऱ्त् किम् करोति भो?
किम् खादन्ति तुरुष्काः भो? गौरी पचति गोमाम्सम्.
Who is the mother of three worlds?
What does a cook do ?
What to muslims eat?
gourI; Cooks; Beef.
This solution takes the form of 3 questions, followed by the answers to the questions in the last line, a commonly used technique in samasyA pooraNa. Also, this takes the common meaning of the word gourI.
Here is another very contemporary solution, proposed by another friend if mine!
mama gEhasamIpasthE mekDonAlD bhOjanAlayE|
gaurI pachati gOmAMsaM kRuShNastaM bhakShayiShyati||
मम गेहसमीपस्थे मॆक्डॊनाल्ड् भोजनालये|
गौरी पचति गोमांसं कृष्णस्तं भक्षयिष्यति||
At the McDonad’s, near my house,
a white woman cooks beef, and a black man eats it!
Note the clever use of words गौरी to mean white woman and कृष्ण as black man.
I can go on and on, but let me stop before you yawn 🙂
17 comments
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 5, 2007 at 10:05 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
kumudha
Interesting blog!
@kumudha
Welcome to my blog.
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 8, 2007 at 4:50 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
parijata
Nice one.
panchama-jaaraja was very funny! And your friends’ responses were good too.
@Parijata
Thanks.
I did’nt translate the ‘pun’, because it would loose it’s fun 🙂
Also such that I not ‘politically incorrect’ 😉
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 10, 2007 at 9:53 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
neel3
No chance of yawning…
I thoroghly enjoyed this post though I had heard of one of these before.
My mom listens to Samskrit programmes on TV and radio,jots down interesting ones and narrates them when I visit there.She has enhanced her knowledge and skills of appreciation due to such programmes.
Samskrit ki jai!!
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 10, 2007 at 5:48 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Praveen
Interesting blog! Very very interesting.
Nimma blog odidamele annavra “Kaviratna kaalidaasa” mattomme nodabeku annistide!
@praveen
Welcome to “my house”. I am glad you liked the posting!
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ಮಾರ್ಚ್ 3, 2008 at 12:39 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Bird Calls « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] back I had written about samasyA pooraNam in Samskrita, and in Kannada. A few days ago, I got a couplet, which I had never heard or read before, from a […]
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ಜನವರಿ 9, 2010 at 9:11 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Srikanth
Dear Sir,
I want to translate this post into tamil for tamil audience in my web site. I hope you wouldn’t object to that.
Please email me if you have any concern.
Thank you,
Srikanth.
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ಜನವರಿ 9, 2010 at 3:43 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
neelanjana
Sure, please go ahead! Thanks for coming by “allide namma mane”.
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ಜನವರಿ 11, 2010 at 1:14 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
கெளரி மாட்டிறைச்சி சமைக்கிறாள் | Sangatham
[…] [நன்றி:ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ (allide namma mane)] […]
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ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 10, 2010 at 8:44 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Rangarajan.R
My Hindi teacher (Shri.Y.Janardhan) used to mention “Ka tvam bale..”. The King wanted to demonstrate Kalidasa’s prowess as poet before the court and asked for an impromptu sloka on “Ka Kha Ga Gha”. Kalidasa recalled his conversation with the little girl and came up with “Ka tvam bale..”.
My father (Shri.S.Rajagopalan) shares this sloka:-
Thrayambaka puradeesam ganaadipa samanvidam
Gajrudamaham vande sasthanam kuladevatham
Ambethi gowrim ahvyami pathniya pithuhu matharyeva sarvam
Katham lakshmim ithi chinthayantham sastharamide sakar arth sidhyaihi
(Muses Sastha “Parvathy is my father’s wife and may be deemed mother to me; but what is Lakshmi, my mother’s wife ?!”
[Sastha was born to Shiva and Vishnu in Mohini Avatar])
Actually I am basically a Hindi student and a novice in Sanskrit. Can you debug and present the above sloka?
Thanks and Cheers
Rangarajan
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ಆಗಷ್ಟ್ 7, 2011 at 7:16 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
makara
ಚಿಕ್ಕಂದಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಗೆಳೆಯನಿಂದ ತಿಳಿದ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಈ ಪದ್ಯ; ಈ ಸಂದರ್ಭಕ್ಕೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಸೂಕ್ತವೆನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.
ಹರನ ಹಾರನ ಆಹಾರನ
ಸುತನ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ, ಯಾರು?
ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಉತ್ತರ ’ರಾಮ’. ಅದನ್ನು ಹೀಗೆ ಬಿಡಿಸಬಹುದು: ಹರ=ಶಿವನ ಹಾರ ಅಂದರೆ ನಾಗರಹಾವು, ಅವನ ಆಹಾರವೆಂದರೆ ಗಾಳಿ (ಹಾವುಗಳು ಕೇವಲ ಗಾಳಿಯನ್ನೇ ಕುಡುದು ಬದುಕುತ್ತವೆಂಬ ಪ್ರತೀತಿ ಇದೆ). ಗಾಳಿಯ=ವಾಯುವಿನ ಸುತ/ಮಗನೆಂದರೆ ಆಂಜನೇಯ; ಅವನ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಎಂದರೆ ಶ್ರೀರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ.
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ಆಗಷ್ಟ್ 7, 2011 at 7:24 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
makara
ಚಿಕ್ಕಂದಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಗೆಳೆಯನಿಂದ ತಿಳಿದ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಈ ಪದ್ಯ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಉಲ್ಲೇಖಾರ್ಹವೆನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.
ಹರನ ಹಾರನ ಆಹಾರನ
ಸುತನ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ, ಯಾರು?
ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಉತ್ತರ ’ರಾಮ’. ಅದನ್ನು ಹೀಗೆ ಬಿಡಿಸಬಹುದು: ಹರ=ಶಿವನ ಹಾರ ಅಂದರೆ ನಾಗರಹಾವು, ಅವನ ಆಹಾರವೆಂದರೆ ಗಾಳಿ (ಹಾವುಗಳು ಕೇವಲ ಗಾಳಿಯನ್ನೇ ಕುಡುದು ಬದುಕುತ್ತವೆಂಬ ಪ್ರತೀತಿ ಇದೆ). ಗಾಳಿಯ=ವಾಯುವಿನ ಸುತ/ಮಗನೆಂದರೆ ಆಂಜನೇಯ; ಅವನ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಎಂದರೆ ’ರಾಮ’
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ಆಗಷ್ಟ್ 31, 2011 at 6:52 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Nagaraj Katti
I remember reading a beechi creation for samasya poorana that ended in
“sattavaLu eddu oLagODidaLu”
meaning the woman who had died got up and ran inside. I do not remember the samasya poorana as done by beechi, All I remember is that he cleverly ended the previous line with “bE” which made the line to read as
“bEsattavaLu eddu oLagODidaLu” the woman having got bored, got up and ran inside. Does any one remember all the 4 lines?
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 3, 2011 at 4:36 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
adbhutam
Quite interesting.
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 3, 2011 at 4:40 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
adbhutam
Here is another ‘funny’ shloka:
जम्बूफलानि पक्वानि पतितानि विमले जले ।
कपिकम्पितशाखाभ्यो गुलुगुग्गुलुगुग्गुलु ॥
jambUphalAni pakvAni patitAni vimale jale
kapi-kampita-shAkhAbhyo gulu guggulu guggulu
There is a tree laden with ripe jamboo fruits (naaga pazham/nerle haNNu) by the side of a lake/pond. A few monkeys are on the tree and what is the result? The fruits fall in the water below making the sound ‘gulu guggulu guggulu’.
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ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 7, 2013 at 6:37 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Samasya Pooranam – Part II « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] few years ago, when I wrote about Samasya Pooranam here, and here, I had no clue one day I could try these word games too. But over the last year, […]
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 6, 2014 at 8:59 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
GOWRI PACHATI GO-MAMSAM | sathvishayam
[…] Courtesy: https://neelanjana.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/gouri-cooks-beef/ […]
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ನವೆಂಬರ್ 30, 2015 at 3:28 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Samasya Poornam – Part III | ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] an earlier post in this space, I had shared some well known samasya pooranam examples from samskrta and some more examples from Kannada poetry. Later, I had also shared some of my own solutions for […]
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