Compare Lam. iv. 20. 'The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken.'
47. God of the flowery shafts.
The Hindú Cupid, or god of love (Káma), is armed with a bow made of sugar-cane, the string of which consists of bees. He has five arrows, each tipped with the blossom of a flower, which pierce the heart through the five senses; and his favourite arrow is pointed with the chita, or mango-flower.
48. E'en now in thy unbodied essence lurks The fire of [S']iva's anger.
The story is thus told in the Rámáyana. Káma (Cupid) once approached [S']iva that he might influence him with love for his wife, Párvatí. [S']iva happened then to be practising austerities, and intent on a vow of chastity. He therefore cursed the god of love in a terrible voice, and at the same time a flash from his eye caused the god's body to shrivel into ashes. Thus Káma was made incorporeal, and from that time was called 'the bodiless one.'
49.
Like the flame,
That ever hidden in the secret depths
Of ocean, smoulders there unseen.
This submarine fire was called Aurva, from the following fable. The Rishi Aurva, who had gained great power by his austerities, was pressed by the gods and others to perpetuate his race. He consented, but warned them that his offspring would consume the world. Accordingly, he created from his thigh a devouring fire, which, as soon as it was produced, demanded nourishment, and would have destroyed the whole earth, had not Brahmá appeared and assigned the ocean as its habitation, and the waves as its food. The spot where it entered the sea was called 'the mare's mouth.' Doubtless the story was invented to suit the phenomenon of some marine volcano, which may have exhaled through the water bituminous inflammable gas, and which, perhaps in the form of a horse's mouth, was at times visible above the sea.
50 Who on his 'scutcheon bears the monster-fish.
The Hindú Cupid is said to have subdued a marine monster, which was, therefore, painted on his banner.
51 The graceful undulation of her gait.