488. i.e., they that have wives and have procreated children.

489.  Raktamivavikam and not Raktamivadhikam, is the correct reading.  The Burdwan translator accepts the incorrect reading.

490.  The true reading is Brahmavarjitah and not that word in the accusative.  Both the Bengali versions have adhered to the incorrect reading of the Bengal texts.

491. i.e., it was not a piece torn off from a full piece, but both its dasas or ends were there.

492.  To this day there are many Brahmanas in India who are asudra-pratigrahins, i.e., who accept no gift, however rich, from a Sudra.

493.  Kimpurusha is half-man and half-horse.  The body is supposed to be that of a horse, and the face that of a man.

494.  Literally, ‘for obtaining goods’.

495.  At such entertainments, Hindus, to this day, sit on separate seats when eating.  If anybody touches anybody else’s seat, both become impure and cannot eat any longer.  Before eating, however, when talking or hearing, the guests may occupy a common seat, i.e., a large mat or blanket or cloth, etc., spread out on the floor.

496.  Agni or fire is a deity that is said to have Vayu (the wind-god) for his charioteer.  The custom, to this day, with all travellers in India is to kindle a large fire when they have to pass the night in woods and forests or uninhabited places.  Such fires always succeed in scaring off wild beasts.  In fact, even tigers, raging with hunger, do not approach the place where a blazing fire is kept up.

497.  Surabhi is the celestial cow sprung from the sage Daksha.

498.  Whether the word is chirat or achirat is difficult to make out.

499.  In Sanskrit the ablative has sometimes the sense of ‘through’.  Here, mitrat means both from and through.  What is said is that wealth, honours, etc., may be acquired through friends, i.e., the latter may give wealth or be instrumental in its acquisition, etc.

500.  It is very difficult to literally translate such verses.  The word Dharma is sometimes used in the sense of Religion or the aggregate of duties.  At other times it simply means a duty or the course of duties prescribed for a particular situation.  Tapah is generally rendered penance.  Here, however, it has a direct reference to sravana (hearing), manana (contemplation), and nididhyasana (abstraction of the soul from everything else for absolute concentration).  The Grammar of the second half of the first line is Sati apretya etc., Sat being that which is real, hence, the Soul, or the Supreme Soul, of which every individual Soul is only a portion.

501.  And not the Soul, as the commentator explains.  With the death of the body joy and grief disappear.

502.  The art by which the body could, as in Egypt, be preserved for thousands of years was not known to the Rishis.