426.  These depend on the king, i.e., if the king happens to be good, prosperity, etc., are seen.  On the other hand, if the king becomes oppressive and sinful, prosperity disappears, and every kind of evil sets in.

427.  In India, during the hot months, charitable persons set up shady thatches by the sides of roads for the distribution of cool water and raw sugar and oat soaked in water.  Among any of the principal roads running through the country, one may, during the hot months, still see hundreds of such institutions affording real relief to thirsty travellers.

428.  Such as Rakshasas and Pisachas and carnivorous birds and beasts.

429.  Abandoning his Homa fire.

430. i.e., flowers already offered to the deities.

431.  No one of the three regenerate orders should take dog’s meat.  It thou takest such meat, where would then the distinction be between persons of those orders and men like Chandalas?

432.  Agastya was a Rishi.  He could not do what was sinful.

433.  The idea that man comes alone into the world and goes out of it alone.  Only the wife is his true associate for she alone is a sharer of his merits, and without her no merit can be won.  The Hindu idea of marriage is a complete union.  From the day of marriage the two persons become one individual for the performance of all religious and other acts.

434.  The sense seems to be that our strength, though little, should be employed by us in attending to the duties of hospitality in our own way.

435.  Literally, ‘thou art at home,’ meaning I will not spare any trouble in making thee feel and enjoy all the comforts of home in this place.

436.  Mahaprasthana is literally an unreturning departure.  When a person leaves home for wandering through the world till death puts a stop to his wanderings, he is said to go on Mahaprasthana.

437.  The theory is that all distresses arise originally from mental error which clouds the understanding.  Vide Bhagavadgita.

438.  Making gifts, etc.

439.  Here amum (the accusative of adas) evidently means ‘that’ and not ‘this.’  I think the reference, therefore, is to heaven and not to this world.

440.  These are Mleccha tribes of impure behaviour.

441. i.e., for my instructions.

442.  So great was the repugnance felt for the slayer of a Brahmana that to even talk with him was regarded a sin.  To instruct such a man in the truths of the Vedas and of morality was to desecrate religion itself.

443.  The version of 5 is offered tentatively.  That a person possessed of affluence should become charitable is not wonderful.  An ascetic, again, is very unwilling to exercise his power. (Witness Agastya’s unwillingness to create wealth for gratifying his spouse.) What is meant by these two persons not living at a distance from each other is that the same cause which makes an affluent person charitable operates to make an ascetic careful of the kind of wealth he has.