[81] According to a Persian writer, “she is a perfect woman who considers her husband as the most accomplished of men, and thinks all the sons of Adam beside quite unworthy of a transient glance from the corner of her half-shut eyes.” And in the Mahábhárata we are told that “she is a good wife whose husband is as her very life.”
[82] “Distinguishing the peculiarities of an animal by its footsteps, etc.,” says the Pandit, “is often met with in Indian stories. Precisely the reverse of this is the tale of the four blind men who disputed about the form of an elephant. One of them had felt only the elephant’s ear, and said it was like a winnow; another examined the breast and a foreleg, and said it was like a thick stump of wood; the third felt the trunk and said it was like a heavy crook; while the fourth, having touched only the tail, declared it was like a sweeping rake.”
[83] A pagoda is now of the value of about 7s. 6d.
[84] Sambhavi and Mahámayi are among the numerous names of Kálí, the goddess of destruction, called also Parvati and Durga: the daughter of Himálaya, sovereign of the snowy mountains. She is described as terrible in form and very irascible in temper. In her amiable form she is called Bhaváni. To address a deity by a number of appellations, as above, is considered as the readiest way to secure favour.—Mr. Natésa Sástrí, in a note in Indian Notes and Queries for Sept. 1887, p. 215, states that “the goddess Kálí is much worshipped in the Madras Presidency, and especially so during an epidemic. During an outbreak of cholera in Madras in 1884, the Kálí image in the Minakshí temple, near the Dvaja Stambha, was daily propitiated by a thousand pots each of ghí (clarified butter) milk, oil, etc.”
[85] Vijanajara, now a village in Hospet táluk, Bellary district, Madras Presidency. The proper name of this village is Hampi, but Vijanajara was the name of the dynasty and the kingdom which had its capital there, and was the last great Hindú power in the South. Founded by two adventurers in the middle of the 14th century, it lasted for two centuries, till its sun went down at Tálikot in 1565 A.D. The ruins of Hampi cover nine square miles.—Sir W. W. Hunter’s Imperial Gazetteer of India.
[86] A ghatika is twenty-four minutes.
[87] Apparently the arrows were attached to some kind of mechanism which should discharge them on the opening of the pot. “There is nothing new under the sun”! Dynamite is perhaps a discovery of our own times, but “infernal machines,” which served the purpose of king-killers, are of ancient date.
[88] Hindús, at their meals, squat on the ground, with leaves in place of earthenware dishes, on which their food is served. The leaves of the palm are very large, and each may be cut into a number of “plates.”
[89] A long cloth, which is often the only covering worn by Hindús.
[90] The women’s apartments; called by Muslims generally “the haram.”