chapter 115

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[650] There is a reference to the sectaries of Siva in Benares, and the Ganas of Siva on mount Kailása.

[651] Here we have a longer form of the story of Brahmadatta found on pp. 12 and 13 of Vol. I. Dr. Rajendralál Mitra informs me that it is also found in a MS. called the Bodhisattva Avadána, one of the Hodgson MSS.

[652] i. e., moonlight.

[653] There is probably a double meaning. The clouds are compared to the Ganges, and it is obvious that geese would cluster round lotuses.

[654] The sárasa is a large crane; the chakraváka the Brahmany duck.

[655] i. e., Tárkshyaratna. I have no idea what the jewel is. B. and R. give ein bestimmter dunkelfarbiger Edelstein. In Játaka No. 136 there is a golden goose who had been a Bráhman. He gives his feathers to his daughters to sell, but his wife pulls out all the feathers at once; they become like the feathers of a baka. Afterwards they all grow white. See Rhys David's Buddhist Birth Stories, p. ix, note. In Sloka, 4. 1, I read tadrasád for tatra sadá, with MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166; No. 3003 has tatrasád.

[656] It may possibly mean "acted a love-drama." I cannot find the sense I have assigned to it in any Dictionary.

[657] Before anu we should with the India Office MSS. insert tad. Monier Williams explains Brahma-Rákshasa as a "fiend of the Bráhmanical class."

[658] It is worth while remarking that all the India Office MSS. here read kshetram which would make Siddhísvara the name of a place here.

[659] All the India Office MSS. read gatvá for jnátvá. I have adopted this; and I take tatkóranam adverbially. MS. No. 1882 has gatovijnáta.

[660] It appears from the India Office MSS. that dhanaván should be inserted after bráhmano. In sloka 82, the India Office MSS. read chitráyatam which I have adopted.

[661] The three India Office MSS. have viteratuh.

[662] Dr. Kern would read kshudduhkáváptasamklesau. I find that all the three India Office MSS. confirm his conjecture, so I have adopted it.

[663] Cp. Vergil's Aeneid VIII. 172 and ff.

[664] All the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read svágra, which I have endeavoured to translate. Perhaps it may mean, "before they took any food themselves."

[665] Here the name of a place sacred to Siva. Before we have had it as the god's title. See B. & R. s. v. It means "lord of magic powers."

[666] It appears from the India Office MSS. that táv should be inserted after evam.

[667] I have adopted the reading andhakáritam which I find in the three India Office MSS.

[668] I read nihatasya which I find supported by two of the India Office MSS. No. 1882 has nihitasya, No. 2166 nihatasya and No. 3003 has anihatasya. The Sanskrit College MS. has tihatasya.

[669] Perhaps there is a pun here. The word ishta may also mean sacrifice, sacred rite.

[670] I. e., Brihaspati.

[671] The word for god here is amara, literally immortal. This may remind the classical reader of the passage in the Birds where Iris says all' athanatos eim', and Peisthetærus imperturbably replies, all' homôs an apethanes.

[672] I read dattajhampo which I find in MS. No. 3003. The other two have dattajampo. The Sanskrit College MS. has dattajhampo.

[673] Cp. Ovid's Metamorphoses, V, 321-331, for the flight of the inhabitants of the Grecian heaven from the giant Typhoeus.

[674] All the India Office MSS. read prishtas.

[675] All the India Office MSS. read Vidyuddhvajántako.

[676] MS. No. 1882 here reads chiraprápyas: the other two agree with Brockhaus.

[677] I suspect this island is the same as the Whiteman's land of the Icelandic chronicles. See Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (New Edition) p. 550 and following.

[678] A title of Brahmá. See Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Vol. IV, p. 18.

[679] For anyonya I read anyánya, but all the MSS. confirm Brockhaus's text.

[680] The three India Office MSS. have dasa kalpán.

[681] I read cyutam for cyutá. See Taranga 117, sl. 152 and ff. But all the India Office MSS. agree with Brockhaus's text. The tale itself will justify my correction.

[682] The word tejasá also means valour.

[683] Literally "the nectar-rayed one."

[684] Cp. Vol. I, p. 69 and Vol. II, p. 172. also Prym und Socin Syrische Märchen, p. 205, and Silius Italicus I, 430, quoted by Preller, Griechische Mythologie, II, 354.

[685] See the note in Vol. I, p. 465, also p. 578, and Zimmer's Alt-Indisches Leben p. 60, Preller, Römische Mythologie, pp. 102 and 103; the vultures will remind the English reader of Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar, V, I, 84 and ff.; for the ominous import of lightning see Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, Art. Bidental; and Preller, Römische Mythologie, p. 172. There is a very similar passage in Achilles Tatius, Lib. V. C. 3. Hôs oun proêlthomen tôn thyrôn, oiônos hêmin ginetai ponêros· chelidona kirkos diôkôn tên Leukippên patassei tô pterô eis tên kephalên. See also Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, Book V,

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