[The threefold world.]] Earth, heaven, and hell.
[His fearful Rati.]] The wife of Káma, or Love.
[To where Kuvera &c.]] The demi-god Kuvera was regent of the north.
[Nor waited for the maiden's touch.]] Referring to the Hindú notion that the Aśoka blossoms at the touch of a woman's foot. So Shelley says,
"I doubt not, the flowers of that garden sweet
Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet."
Sensitive Plant.
[Grouping the syllables.]] This comparison seems forced rather too far to suit a European taste. Kálidás is not satisfied with calling the mango-spray the Arrow of Love; he must tell us that its leaves are the feathers, and that the bees have marked it with the owner's name.
[That loveliest flower.]] The Karnikára.
[His flowery Tilaka.]] The name of a tree; it also means a mark made with coloured earths or unguents upon the forehead and between the eyebrows, either as an ornament or a sectarial distinction; the poet intends the word to convey both ideas at once here. In this passage is another comparison of the mango-spray: it is called the lip of Love; its rouge is the blush of morning, and its darker beautifying powder the clustering bees. From the universal custom of dying the lips, the Sanskrit poets are constantly speaking of their "vermeil tints," &c., as will be sufficiently evident in the course of this work.
[The Hermit's servant.]] By name Nandi.