[1] I. e., of learning and material prosperity.
[2] Literally the gate of the Ganges: it is now well known under the name of Haridvár (Hurdwar).
[3] Dr. Brockhaus renders the passage “wo Śiva die Jahnaví im goldenen Falle von den Gipfeln des Berges Uśínara herabsandte.”
[4] Skanda is Kártikeya and his mother is of course Durgá or Párvatí the consort of Śiva.
[5] This may be compared with Grimm’s No. 60, “Die zwei Brüder.” Each of the brothers finds every day a gold piece under his pillow. In one of Waldau’s Böhmische Märchen, Vogelkopf und Vogelherz (p. 90) a boy named Fortunat eats the heart of the Glücksvogel and under his pillow every day are found three ducats. See also Der Vogel Goldschweif, in Gaal’s Märchen der Magyaren, p. 195.
[6] In this case the austerities which he had performed in a former birth to propitiate Śiva.
[7] This story is, according to Dr. Rajendra Lál Mitra, found in a MS. called the Bodhisattva Avadána. (Account of the Buddhist Literature of Nepal, p. 53).
[8] I. e., bali, a portion of the daily meal offered to creatures of every description, especially the household spirits. Practically the bali generally falls to some crow, hence that bird is called balibhuj.
[9] A similar incident is found in Grimm’s Fairy Tales translated by Mrs. Paull, p. 370. The hero of the tale called the Crystal Ball finds two giants fighting for a little hat. On his expressing his wonder, “Ah”, they replied, “you call it old, you do not know its value. It is what is called a wishing-hat, and whoever puts it on can wish himself where he will, and immediately he is there.” “Give me the hat,” replied the young man, “I will go on a little way and when I call you must both run a race to overtake me, and whoever reaches me first, to him the hat shall belong.” The giants agreed and the youth taking the hat put it on and went away; but he was thinking so much of the princess that he forgot the giants and the hat, and continued to go further and further without calling them. Presently he sighed deeply and said, “Ah, if I were only at the Castle of the golden sun.”