[87] p. 38. l. 12. —twice-born Sages, know ye me. The three first castes are "twice-born." The first birth is from the natural mother; the second from the ligation of the zone; the third from the due performance of the sacrifice: such are the births of him who is usually called twice-born, according to the text of the Veda: among them his divine birth is that which is distinguished by the ligation of the zone and sacrificial cord, and in that birth the Gayatri is his mother, and the Acharya his father. Menu, ii. 169.
[88] p. 39. l. 15. Through devotion now we see him. The kind of prophetic trance, in which holy men, abstracted from all earthly thoughts, were enwrapt, enabled them to see things future.
[89] p. 40. l. 6. Best of trees, the Asoca blooming. The Asoca is a shrub consecrated to Mahadeva; men and women of all classes ought to bathe, on a particular day, in some holy stream, especially the Brahma-putra, and drink water with the buds of the Asoca floating in it. This shrub is planted near the temples of Siva, and grows abundantly on Ceylon. Sita is said to have been confined in a grove of it, while in captivity by Ravana; other relators say that she was confined in a place or house called Asocavan. The Asoca is a plant of the first order of the eighth class, of leguminous fructification, and bears flowers of exquisite beauty. Van Rheede (Hortus Malab. vol. v. tab. 59.) calls it Asjogam. See Asiatic Researches, iii. 254, 277. Moor, Hindu Pantheon, 55.
[90] p. 40. l. 17. Truly be thou named Asoca. Asoca, from a, privative, and soka, grief: a play of words, as when Helen, in Euripides, is called 'Ελενασ, the destroyer of ships.' Many other instances will occur to the classical reader. In Malati and Madhava, the forlorn lover in turn addresses different objects of nature, the clouds, the birds, and the elephants, to inform him whether they have seen his lost mistress. Act ix. See, however, Mr. Wilson's note, who seems to think that he addresses the sylvan deities.
[91] p. 42. l. 8. —Manibhadra, guard us well. Manibhadra, the tutelar deity of travellers and merchants: probably a name of Kuvera, the god of wealth.
[92] p. 42. l. 11. To the realm of Chedi's sovereign. Chedi is the name of the country now called Chandail. The country is perpetually named in the marriage of Roukmini, extracted from the Harivansa by Mons. Langlois, Monumens de l'Inde, p. 96.
[93] p. 43. Compare the Raghuvansa, ch. v. 43 to 49.
[94] p. 43. l. 12.
—lo, a herd of elephants,
Oozing moisture from their temples—
Where the wild elephant delights to shed
The juice exuding fragrant from his head