[91] This bird, the cuculus melanoleucus, is a favourite with Indian poets and rhetoricians. It is said to feed on raindrops.
[92] Lit.: 'On my very heart, whose name is offspring.' This identification of the heart of the father with his children depends on an old formula, forming part of the prayers and sacred mantras of the grihya-books. Cp. also Kaushîtakibrâhmanopanishad II, 11.
[93] This means not so much that the Indian Amor was afflicted on account of the offence against conjugal love, as the defeat of Mâra, the Indian Satan. To conquer the senses and sensuality is to vanquish Mâra, who is the same as Kâma.
[94] Vâsava is another name of Sakra.
[95] Before undertaking the performance of a great sacrifice, its performer has to be purified by the initiatory ceremony of dikshâ. From that time till the final bath or avabhritha at the close of the sacrifice he is called a dîkshita, and bound to the observance of many detailed prescriptions about his food, dress, residence, and his whole mode of living.
[96] By sacrifice, is the saying of the Hindus, man pays his debts to the Devas, by the Srâddha and by offspring to his ancestors, by study and penance to the rishis or old sages, by benevolence and kindness to men. See, for instance, Mhbh. I, 120, 17 foll.; Buddhakarita IX, 55.
[97] This is the appellation of great Soma-sacrifices lasting for many days, sometimes even for years.
[98] Viz. by the purity of their life and the holiness of their conduct.
[99] In the printed text the first line of this stanza is deficient, two syllables at the end being wanting. I think this second pâda should be restored by the insertion of gane after nikhile.
[100] The corruptions of this stanza in the MSS. have been corrected in the edition. In some points, however, I venture to propose some alterations.