1194.  The commentator takes the word divam as implying hardakasam.  They sported (not in the ordinary felicity of heaven but) in the puissance of Yoga.

1195.  Gograhe is explained by the commentator as ’a sacrifice in which kine are stain.’  Yajnavatasya is an instance of the genitive for the accusative.  It means Yajnavatsthan nirdayan Brahmanan.  The expression may also mean ‘in the cow-pen within the sacrificial enclosure.’

1196.  Avyaktaih is explained by the commentator as Yajnadi-dwaraiva khyatimichchhadbhih.

1197.  Kamakara may also mean recklessness, Vahirvedyam is ’on the outer Vedi or altar.’  The actual slaughter takes place on this vedi.  The Burdwan translator misunderstands the word.

1198.  Upasya, is explained by the commentator as ’living near an inhabited place.’  Vedakritah Srutih are the fruits indicated in the Vedas of the acts laid, down in them.  Acharah has reference to the duties of the domestic mode of life.  Acharah should be made anacharah, i.e., should not be followed.  The Sannyasa mode of life is thus recommended.

1199.  The meaning is this:  ordinary men abstain from tainted meat, regarding all meat as tainted which is obtained from animals that are not killed in sacrifices and in course of religious acts.  The speaker, however, holds that this practise is not worthy of applause, for all meat is tainted, including that of animals slain in sacrifices.  K.P.  Singha gives the sense correctly though his rendering is not literal.  The Burdwan translator, misunderstanding text and commentary, jumbles them together and gives an incorrect rendering.

1200.  Hence there is no need for sacrifices with slaughter of animals, and alcohol, etc.

1201.  The sense is this:  dangers are always seeking to destroy the body.  The body is always seeking to destroy those destroyers.  This perpetual war or struggle implies the desire to injure.  How then, asks Yudhishthira, is it possible for any man to lead a perfectly harmless life, harm being implied in the very fact of continued existence?

1202.  The sense, of course, is that one should acquire religious merit without wasting one’s body; one should not, that is, cause one’s body to be destroyed for the sake of earning merit.

1203.  On the occasion of the Jata-karma the sire says ’be thou as hard as adamant,’ ‘be thou an axe (unto all my foes).’  The upakarma or subsidiary rite is performed on the occasion of the samavartana or return from the preceptor’s abode.  It is called subsidiary because it does not occur among the rites laid down in the Griha Sutras.  The words uttered on that occasion are, ‘Thou art my own self, O Son.’

1204.  Bhogya implies such articles as dress,—­etc.  Bhojya implies food, etc.  Pravachana is instruction in the scriptures.  Garbhadhana is the ceremonial in connection with the attainment of puberty by the wife.  Simantonnayana is performed by the husband in the fourth, sixth or eighth month of gestation, the principal rite being the putting of the minimum mark on the head of the wife.  The mark is put on the line of partition of her locks.