[1]. “Every Purana,” says the first authority existing in Sanskrit lore, “treats of five subjects: the creation of the universe; its progress, and the renovation of the world; the genealogy of gods and heroes; chronology, according to a fabulous system; and heroic history, containing the achievements of demi-gods and heroes. Since each purana contains a cosmogony, both mythological and heroic history, the works which bear that title may not unaptly be compared to the Grecian theogonies” (‘Essay on the Sanskrit and Pracrit Languages,’ by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq.; As. Res. vol. vii. p. 202). [On the age of the Purānas see Smith, EHI, 21 ff.]
[2]. Resolvable into Sanskrit, janam, ‘birth,’ and is and iswar, ‘lords’ [γένω, γίγνομαι, Skr. root jan, ‘to generate’].
[3]. Son of the sun.
[4]. The snowy Caucasus. Sir William Jones, in an extract from a work entitled Essence of the Pooranas, says that this event took place at Dravira in the Deccan.
[5]. The present Ajodhya, capital of one of the twenty-two satrapies constituting the Mogul Empire, and for some generations held by the titular Vizir, who has recently assumed the regal title. [Ghāziu-d-dīn Haidar in 1819.]
[6]. “To the south of Sumeru are the mountains Himavan, Hemakūta, and Nishadha; to the north are the countries Nīl, Sveta, and Sringi. Between Hemāchal and the ocean the land is Bhāratkhand, called Kukarma Bhūmi (land of vice, opposed to Āryāvarta, or land of virtue), in which the seven grand ranges are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Suktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Paripatra” (Agni Purana).
[7]. The Creator, literally ‘the Great God.’
[8]. The ‘first lord.’
[9]. Baghes, ‘the tiger lord.’[lord.’] He wears a tiger’s or panther’s hide; which he places beneath him. So Bacchus did. The phallus is the emblem of each. Baghes has several temples in Mewar. [In identifying Bacchus with a Hindu tiger god the author depended on Asiatic Researches, i. 258, viii. 51. For the Greek story in the text see Quintus Curtius viii. 10; Diodorus iii. 63; Arrian, Anabasis, vii.]
[10]. First lord.