Year-riddle

[1][2][3][4] The riddle is conventionally thought to been eastern in origin,[5] though this may simply reflect the early date of writing in the east.

[10] The relevant passage is lost from the earliest surviving versions, but the following instance, from a later Syriac version, is thought likely to represent the early form of the text: [The king] said to me, “Aḥiḳar, expound to me this riddle: A pillar has on its head twelve cedars; in every cedar there are thirty wheels, and in every wheel two cables, one white and one black.” And I answered and said to him, “(...) The pillar of which thou hast spoken to me is the year: the twelve cedars are the twelve months of the year; the thirty wheels are the thirty days of the month; the two cables, one white and one black, are the day and the night.

[11]Ancient Indian sources afford the earliest attestations of the year-riddle: examples in the Rigveda are thought to originate c. 1500×1200 BCE.

[14] Rigveda 1.164.11 runs: दवादशारं नहि तज्जराय वर्वर्ति चक्रं परि दयां रतस्य आ पुत्रा अग्ने मिथुनासो अत्र सप्त शतानि विंशतिश्च तस्थु[15] duvā́daśāraṃ nahí táj járāya várvarti cakrám pári dyā́m r̥tásya ā́ putrā́ agne mithunā́so átra saptá śatā́ni viṃśatíś ca tasthuḥ[16] With twelve spokes—for it does not become old— the wheel of the truthful order turns on and on around the sky.

Likewise, in the Mahabharata, the riddles posed to Ashtavakra by King Janaka in the third book begin with the year-riddle: what has six naves, twelve axles, twenty-four joints, and three hundred and sixty spokes?

Baarah ghodey, tees garaari Teen-sau-pachpan chali savaari Garmi, sardi, aandhi aavey, kabhu rukay na, chalte jaavey.

Twelve horses, thirty pullers, Passengers, three hundred and fifty-five Come summer, winter or storm, Never stop—always mobile.

[29] Examples include this verse from the early eleventh-century Shahnameh: What are the dozen cypresses erect In all their bravery and loveliness, Each one of them with thirty boughs bedeckt-- In Persia never more and never less?.

číst ʔan xús dærǽxte sǽbz neqáb šaxháyæš duwazdǽ ʔæn bæ hesáb tu gǽr ʔæz rúye ʔáqil béšmarì sí bæhǽr šàx bærg pɪndari sál.

En í hverju hreiður eru sjö fuglar og er sitt nafn sér.

Εἶς ὁ πατήρ, παῖδες δυοκαίδεκα· τῶν δὲ ἑκάστῳ παῖδες <δὶς> τριήκοντα διάνδιχα εἶδος ἔχουσαι· αἱ μὲν λευκαὶ ἔασιν ἰδεῖν, αἱ δ᾽ αὖτε μέλαιναι· ἀθάνατοι δέ τ᾽ ἐοῦσαι, ἀποφθινύθουσιν ἅπασαι[38] There is one father and twelve children; of these each Has twice thirty daughters of different appearance: Some are white to look at and the others black in turn; They are immortal and yet they all fade away.

Each one successively Gives birth to four males, Who produce similarly, At equal intervals More than three hundred daughters a day, Each in his turn.

[41] Eastern Europe and Asia exhibit a range of other animal metaphors for the year, usually involving a team of twelve oxen pulling one plough or gatherings of different species of birds.

But most often these riddles draw on architecture,[43] as in the following mid-twentieth-century example from central Myanmar: Ein-daw-thar-lan: set-nhit khan: ta khan: thone gyait ah phay eit phwiṇ hlet ta gar: lay: paut htar: win bu twet bu bar yẹ lar: