Chapter 34

. sl. 115.

[360] Tejas = also means might, courage. For the idea see note on page 305.

[361] Sneha which means love, also means oil. This is a fruitful source of puns in Sanskrit.

[362] The Hindu Cupid.

[363] Infinitely longer than a mortal kalpa. A mortal kalpa lasts 432 million years.

[364] He is often called Ananga, the bodiless, as his body was consumed by the fire of Siva's eye.

[365] Or virtuous and generous.

[366] It is still the custom to give presents of vessels filled with rice and coins. Empty vessels are inauspicious, and even now if a Bengali on going out of his house meets a person carrying an empty pitcher, he turns back, and waits a minute or two.

[367] A: Peace, war, march, halt, stratagem and recourse to the protection of a mightier king.

[368] The elephant-headed god has his trunk painted with red lead like a tame elephant, and is also liable to become mast.

[369] Followers and attendants upon Siva.

[370] The modern Burdwan.

[371] I. e. Gold-gleam.

[372] For an account of the wanderjahre of young Bráhman students, see Dr. Bühler's introduction to the Vikramánkadevacharita.

[373] More literally--Those whose eyes do not wink. The epithet also means "worthy of being regarded with unwinking eyes." No doubt this ambiguity is intended.

[374] I. e. the city of jewels.

[375] Áskandin is translated "granting" by Monier Williams and the Petersburg lexicographers.

[376] These are worn on the fingers when offerings are made.

[377] A particular posture in religious meditation, sitting with the thighs crossed, with one hand resting on the left thigh, the other held up with the thumb upon the heart, and the eyes directed to the tip of the nose.

[378] Kárpatika may mean a pilgrim, but it seems to be used in the K. S. S. to mean a kind of dependant on a king or great man, usually a foreigner. See chapters 38, 53, and 81 of this work.

[379] First he should be a Brahmachárin or unmarried religious student, next a Grihastha or householder, than a Vánaprastha or anchoret, lastly a Bhikshu or beggar.

[380] i. e. virtue, wealth, pleasure; dharma, artha, káma.

[381] Graha, also means planet, i. e. inauspicious planet. Siva tells the truth here.

[382] i. e. the auspicious or friendly one.

[383] There is probably a double meaning in the word "incomprehensible."

[384] Perhaps we ought to read dattvá for tatra.

[385] A report similar to that spread against Harasvámin was in circulation during the French Revolution. Taine in his history of the Revolution, Vol. I, p. 418 tells the following anecdote: "M. de Montlosier found himself the object of many unpleasant attentions when he went to the National Assembly. In particular a woman of about thirty used to sharpen a large knife when he passed and look at him in a threatening manner. On enquiry he discovered the cause--Deux enfants du quartier ont disparu enlevés par de bohémiens, et c'est maintenant un bruit répandu que M. de Montlosier, le marquis de Mirabeau, et d'autres députés du côté droit se rassemblent pour faire des orgies dans lesquelles ils mangent de petits enfants."

[386] The city of flowers, i. g. Pátaliputra.

[387] Perhaps we ought to read yayau for dadau. This I find is the reading of an excellent MS. in the Sanskrit college, for the loan of which I am deeply indebted to the Principal and the Librarian.

[388] Probably a poor pun.

[389] Cf. Uttara Ráma Charita (Vidyáságara's edition) Act III, p. 82, the speech of the river-goddess Tamasá. Lenormant in his Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, p. 41, (English Translation), observes: "We must add to the number of those mysterious rites the use of certain enchanted drinks, which doubtless really contained medicinal drugs, as a cure for diseases, and also of magic knots, the efficacy of which was firmly believed in, even up to the middle ages." See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 288.

[390] In the story of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth, (Thorpe, Yule-tide Stories, p. 158) an old woman sends the youth, who is in quest of the palace, to her old sister, who again refers him to an older sister dwelling in a small ruinous cottage on a mountain. In Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 86, the prince is sent by one "Einsiedler" to his brother, and this brother sends him to an older brother and he again to an older still, who is described as "Steinalt" see also p. 162. Compare also the story of Hasan of El Basra in Lane's Arabian Nights. Cp. also Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 56. We have a similar incident in Melusine, p. 447, The story is entitled La Montagne Noire on Les Filles du Diable. See also the Pentamerone of Basile, Tale 49, Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 76; Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, pp. 37 and 255 and ff; and Dasent's Norse Tales, pp. 31-32, 212-213, and 330-331.

[391] Wild aboriginal tribes not belonging to the Aryan race.

[392] Destiny often elevates the worthless, and hurls down men of worth.

[393] The usual story is that Indra cut off the wings of all except Maináka the son of Himavat by Mená. He took refuge in the sea. Here it is represented that more escaped. So in Bhartrihari Níti Sataka st. 76 (Bombay edition).

[394] For Saktideva's imprisonment in the belly of the fish cp.