[81] Inasmuch as his covetousness affords to the Bodhisattva an occasion of performing an extraordinary deed of charity. Compare a similar argument in Story XXXIII, stanza 15.
[82] In the Pâli redaction which is the source of Spence Hardy's narration of our tale, it is said that this white elephant had the power of causing rain.
[83] This Indian parallel to the Horatian verse quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi, runs thus in the original: phalanti kâmam vasudhâdipânâm durnîtidoshâs tadupâsriteshu.
[84] The Bodhisattva is said to have given away his eyes in one of his existences (Story II). The gift of his head is related in some gâtaka, not found in this selection of Ârya Sûra. It occurs in Kshemendra's Avadânakalpalatâ, pallava the fifth.
[85] It is plain that Sûra supposes the story of Visvantara to be known to his readers. Neither the name of Visvantara's wife nor even the fact of his being married has been told before.
[86] On this strîdhana, or 'wife's property,' see the paper of Jolly in the Sitzungsber. der bair. Akad. der Wiss., 1876.
[87] The white waterlilies (kumuda) are said to open at moonrise. The connection between these flowers and the moon is a commonplace in Indian poetry.
[88] The literal translation is 'to smell at.' This old and traditional manner of caressing is prescribed in the ritual-books, see for instance, Âsvalâyanagrihyasûtra I, 15, 9; Pâraskara I, 18; Gobhila II, 8, 22 and 25.
[89] I have tried to render approximately the ambiguousness of the original. Women are designated, says the Brâhman, by the appellation of vâmâh. Now vâmá means 'beautiful,' but pronounced with a different accent vâma, it is a word signifying 'left, contrary, opposite.'
[90] Visvantara uses here the solemn appellation of sahadharmakârinî (= 'housewife') with its full meaning. The formula sahobhau karatam dharmam is uttered in the fourth or Prâgâpatya form of marriage. Manu III, 30.