- The derivation of Aralikas is explained by Nilakantha thus; Potherbs cut off with a kind of weapon called Ara are called Aralu. They who were expert in cooking those potherbs were called Aralikas. Ragakhandava was manufactured from piper longum, dry ginger, sugar, and the juice of Phaseolus Mango.
- It will be remembered, Earth, unable to bear her load of population, prayed to the Grandsire for lightening that load. The Grandsire urged Vishnu to do the needful. Hence Vishnu incarnated himself as Krishna and brought about a lightening of Earth's load.
- Mahadana implies such gifts as elephants, boats, cars, horses, etc. Everybody does not accept these gifts, for their acceptance causes a Brahmana to fall away from his status.
- Some of the Bengal texts read avimukham hatah for abhimukam hatah. The sense is the same.
- The king gets a sixth share of the penances performed by the Rishis living under his protection. The demerit, again, of all evil deeds done within his realm is shared by the king, for such deeds become possible through absence of supervision by the king.
- Formerly kings and noblemen wore jewels and medicinal herbs on their arms. The last were enclosed in drum-like capsules of gold, hermetically closed on both sides. It was believed that jewels and medicinal herbs are a great protection against many evils.
- The eight limbs of a kingdom are the law, the judge, the assessors, the scribe, the astrologer, gold, fire, and water.
- Atta is explained by Nilakantha as the space kept for the soldiers to tread upon.
- Grass may conceal the spies of foes. The darkness of night also may do the same.
- Adanaruchi is a very civil way of indicating corrupt officials and thieves. Inflictors of severe punishments were looked upon as tyrants deserving of being put down. Heavy fines were at one time interdicted in England. Sahasapriya is a doer of rash deeds, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, to adopt the terminology of the Indian Penal Code.
- i.e., content to work on receiving their food only. Their wages should not be higher that what is needed to feed them.
- The word Mandala has been explained below in verse 5. The distinction between Udasinas and Madhyasthas, as explained by Nilakantha, is that the former are neutrals, while the latter are those who cherish equal sentiments towards both the parties.
- The four kinds of foes, as explained by the commentator, are (1) foes proper, (2) allies of foes, (3) those that wish victory to both sides, and (4) those that wish defeat to both sides. As regards Atatayins, they are six, viz., (1) he that sets fire to one's house, (2) he that mixes poison with one's food, (3) he that advances, weapon in hand, with hostile intent, (4) he that robs one of one's wealth, (5) he that invades one's fields, and (6) he that steals one's wife.
- The sixty are thus made up. Eight consisting of agriculture and the rest; twenty-eight consisting of forces and the rest; fourteen consisting of atheists and the rest and eighteen consisting of counsels and the rest.
- i.e., land that is fertile, gold that is pure, and men that are strong.
- The wards Kasyanchidapadi should be construed with what follows.
- The cane yields when pressure is directed towards it. In the Santi Parva occurs the detailed conversation between the Ocean and the Rivers. The former enquired why, when the Rivers washed down the largest trees, they could not wash into the Ocean a single cane. The answer was that the cane was yielding; the trees were not so.
- War and peace are each of two kinds, i.e., war with a strong foe and that with a weak foe: peace with a strong foe and that with a weak foe. The Bengal texts wrongly read dividhopayam or vividhopayam.
- I expand this verse a little, following the commentator.
- Strength is of three kinds, as explained in the next verse.
- Utsaha is readiness or alacrity, of the forces to attack the foe: prabhusakti is the complete mastery of the king over his forces, i.e., through discipline. By strength of counsels, in this connection, is meant well-formed plans of attack and defence.
- Maulam is explained as the strength of money. In modern warfare also, money is called 'the sinews of war'. Atavivala or the force consisting of foresters, was, perhaps, the body of Irregulars that supported a regular army of combatants. Bhritavala implies the regular army, drawing pay from the state at all times. In India, standing armies have existed from remote times. Sreni-vala is, perhaps, the forces of artisans, mechanics, and engineers, who looked after the roads and the transport, as also of traders who supplied the army with provision.
- A sakata array was an array after the form of a car. It is described in Sukraniti fully, and occurs in the Drona Parva, ante. The Padma is a circular array with angular projections. It is the same with what is now called the starry array, many modern forts being constructed on this plan. The Vajra is a wedge-like array. It penetrates into the enemy's divisions like a wedge and goes out, routing the foe. It is otherwise called suchivyuha.
- i.e., meet the foe whether within his own kingdom or invade the foe's realm and thus oblige the foe to fall back for resisting him there.
- i.e., for obtaining fame here and felicity hereafter.
- Those who die become at first what is called Preta. They remain so for one year, till the Sapindikarana Sraddha is performed. They then become united with the Pitris. The gifts made in the first Sraddha as also in the monthly ones, have the virtue of rescuing the Preta or bringing him an accession of merit. The gifts in annual Sraddhas also have the same efficacy.
- The text in verse 2, where mention is made of thousands of years as embracing the rule of Yudhishthira, is evidently vitiated.
- The correct reading is jane and not kshane.
- It is difficult to imagine why the ruler of the Sindhus, Jayadratha, only should be regarded as a wrong-doer to the Pandavas. In the matter of the slaying of Abhimanyu he played a very minor part, by only guarding the entrance of the array against the Pandava warriors. It is true he had attempted to abduct Draupadi from the forest retreat of the Pandavas, but even in this, the wrong was not so great as that which Duryodhana and others inflicted on the Pandavas by dragging Draupadi to the court of the Kurus.
- The usual way in which gifts are made at the present day on occasions of Sraddhas and marriages or other auspicious rites very nearly resembles what is described here. Instead of dedicating each gift with mantras and water and making it over to the receiver, all the articles in a heap are dedicated with the aid of mantras. The guests are then assembled, and are called up individually. The Adhyaksha or superintendent, according to a list prepared, names the gifts to be made to the guest called up. The tellers actually make them over, the scribes noting them down.
- Each gift that was indicated by Dhritarashtra was multiplied ten times at the command of Yudhishthira.
- As Dhritarashtra was blind, his queen Gandhari, whose devotion to her lord was very great, had, from the days of her marriage, kept her eyes bandaged refusing to look on the world which her lord could not see.
- Nilakantha explains that as Dhritarashtra is Pandu's elder brother, therefore, Kunti regards him as Pandu's father. Queen Gandhari therefore is Kunti's mother-in-law. The eldest brother is looked upon as a father.
- To live watching the faces of others is to live in dependence on others.
- It has been pointed out before that mahadana means gifts of such things as elephants, horses, cars and other vehicles, boats, etc. The giver wins great merit by making them, but the receiver incurs demerit by acceptance, unless he happens to be a person of exceptional energy. To this day, acceptors of such gifts are looked upon as fallen men.
- The words that Kunti spoke were just. The opposition her sons offered was unreasonable. Hence, their shame.
- 'Brahmi night' implies a night in course of which sacred hymns are sung.
- Nakharaprasa-yodhina, Nilakantha explains, are those combatants who are armed with tiger-like claws made of iron and tied to their waists.
- Suradevata is like karivringhati or govalivardda.
- Ulupi is implied.
- Implying the unfair character of the fight, for one on the earth should never be assailed by one on his car.
- Yudhishthira was Dharma's self, Vidura also was Dharma born as a Sudra through the curse of the Rishi Animandavya. Both, therefore, were of the same essence. When Vidura left his human body, he entered the body of Yudhishthira and thus the latter felt himself strengthened greatly by the accession.
- Nilakantha here implies the peacock and not the blue jay, for the word keka is applied to the notes of the peacock alone. Datyuhas are gallinules or a species of Chatakas whose cry resembles, Phatik jal--phatik jal--phatik jal! repeated very distinctly, the second syllable being lengthened greatly.
- Audumvaran is an adjective of kalasan. It means 'made of copper'. Praveni is a kutha or blanket. Sruk is a ladle having the cup like cavity at one extremity only. Sruv is a ladle having cup-like cavities at both extremities.
- Whenever a Brahmana cursed another, his penances underwent a diminution. Forgiveness was the highest virtue of the Brahmana. His power lay in forgiveness. Hence, when Mandavya cursed Dharma, he had to spend a portion of his hard-earned penances. Previously, the plea of minority or non-age could not be urged in the court of Dharma. Mandavya forced Dharma to admit that plea in the matter of punishment for offences.
- Both Dharana and Dhyana are processes or, rather, stages of Yoga. The former implies the fixing of the mind on one thing; the latter is the abstraction of the mind from surrounding objects.
- Valhika was the sire of Somadatta and the grandsire of Bhurisravas. Valhika, therefore, was the grand-father-in-law of the lady mentioned by Gandhari.
- The puissance here referred to is that of Anima, Laghima, etc. i.e., the capacity of becoming minute and subtile, etc.
- The sense is that those had been incarnated as human beings and fighting with one another met with death as regards their human existence.
- Nilakantha explains that anayasakritani karma implies the religion of Nivritti, for the religion of Pravritti consists of acts that require ayasa or exertion for their accomplishment. The religion of Nivritti or abstention from acts is said hereto be true and superior, and productive of real fruit, in the form, that is, of Emancipation. The soul, however, in the generality of cases, united with ebhih, by which is meant ayasa-kritam karma, that is, the acts done in pursuance of the religion of Pravritti, becomes embodied and, therefore, enjoys happiness or endures misery as the case may be.
- The sense seems to be this--when a creature stands before a mirror, its image is formed in the mirror; such reflection, however, never affects the mirror in the least, for when the object leaves the vicinity of the mirror, the image or reflection vanishes away. The soul is like the mirror. Pleasure and pain are like reflections in it. They come and go away without the soul being at all modified by them in anyway. Pleasure and pain are destructible, but not so the soul.
- The ordinary man thinks this conglomeration of diverse objects to be his self. The man of wisdom who has exhausted his acts does not think so. He is freed from the obligation of taking a body.
- The sense probably is this. In the case of ordinary men, the component parts of the body dissolve away, while Yogins can keep such parts from dissolution as long as they like.
- The sense is, the deities bear away to the next world the animals slain in sacrifices. Though the bodies of such animals are apparently destroyed, yet their life-breaths and senses continue to exist.
- The sense is that as wives etc., when lost, are sources of sorrow, wise men should abstain from contracting such relations. They might then be free from sorrow.
- Paraparajnah is one that understands the distinction between body and sell. Apara is, therefore, one that is not possessed of such knowledge; hence, as Nilakantha explains, it implies one who has not attained to Jnana nishtha. What is said in the second line is that he that adores saguna Brahma, succeeds afterwards, through such adoration, in reaching to nirguna Brahma.
- The sense seems to be this: we spring from the unmanifest and disappear once more in the unmanifest. The Bengal texts read the first line incorrectly. It is adarsanalapatitah. The second line is unintelligible. Naham tam vedini is taken by Nilakantha as implying 'I do not know him,' i.e., him that is Emancipate. Asau cha no vetti mam is explained as a due to karanabhat. But who is asau? 'I have no renunciation,' or 'renunciation is not yet mine,' implies that Emancipation, which directly flows from renunciation, is not mine.
- What is stated here is that if a man does an act that is bad, its consequences he will have to endure in a human body. The same with regard to rewards. By doing a meritorious act in one's human form, one will enjoy its good consequences in one's human body. So acts done mentally affect the mind and those done with the body affect the body.
It should be noted that the whole of the above translation is offered tentatively. A verbal rendering has been attempted. The chain of reasoning is not at all clear. The commentator has done much to elucidate the sense, but the original obscurities have scarcely been removed.
- The Bengal reading manah is incorrect. It should be punah.
- Nripam pradakshinam chakru is the construction. Nivarana has snanapanat understood after it.
- Vikarshanam is emaciation of the body by abstention from all food.
- The verb anvacat from root sas can govern two objectives. Here the two objectives are purushan and krityani.