The veneration with which Hindoos regard Benares is expressed in the Sanscrit slokas:— “The heaps of your sins will all be burnt to ashes if you only name the name of Kashi.” All orthodox Hindus in their inmost hearts, look forward to spending the evening of their days, if possible, in “the Holy City,” where, after having passed the two periods of their lives in the world as students and householders, they may pass the last as ascetics, in reading and meditation.
Gambling has always been popular in the East, and was evidently so amongst the ancient Aryans. In a translation of Kaegi’s Rigveda, by Arrowsmith, there is a song called “The Song of the Gambler.”
The favourite expression of Bancharam, which occurs often in this book, means literally: “Is this a cake in the hands of a small child?” The idea being that a cake is easily snatched out of the hand of a child.
Literally— “Many undertakings getting as far as the ‘h’ turn back when just short of the ‘Ksha’.” In some old grammars ‘Ksha’, instead of being the first of the compound consonants, as now, was put as the last of the simple consonants.
An old Aryan proverb corresponding to this is: “Even an ugly man may be found beautiful, when he is rich.”