197. To sit in Praya is to remain seated in a particular spot, abstaining from food and drink with a view to cast off one's life-breaths.
198. The sense is, that 'grief does not kill; one does not die till one's hour comes. If it were otherwise, I would have died, so heavy is the load of my affliction.'
199. The name of the city was Suktimati.
200. The etymology of Gudakesa as the lord of Gudaka or sleep, is fanciful.
201. Sakuni was the maternal uncle of Duryodhana and, therefore, of Arjuna also. Sakuni's son and Arjuna, hence, were cousins.
202. The word chara does not mean always a spy. The ancient kings of India had their spies it is true, but they had a regular intelligence department. It was the business of these men to send correct reports to the king of every important occurrence. The news letter-writers of the Mussalman time, or Harkaras, were the successors of the charas of Hindu times.
203. Hetuvadins are dialecticians or philosophers who dispute on the reasons of things.
204. It is worthy of note that Draupadi was always styled by Krishna as his sakhi or 'friend'. Krishna was highly chivalrous to the other sex at an age when women were universally regarded as the inferiors of men.
205. The sense is this: for a horse-sacrifice, the Dakshina or sacrificial present, payable to the principal Ritwija or to be distributed among all the Ritwijas including the other Brahmanas, is enjoined to be of a certain measure. Vyasa advises Yudhishthira to make that Dakshina triple of what the enjoined measure is. By thus increasing the Dakshina, the merit of the sacrificer will increase correspondingly.
206. The Diksha is the ceremony of initiation. Certain mantras are uttered in which the intention is declared of performing what is desired to be performed.