The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (4 vols., libros 1–18) · 4 · 42

324. Antarvedyan is within the platform; and Anrisamsyatah is vahirvedyan or outside the platform.

325. Sacrifices are a means of giving away unto the Brahmanas.

326. Weeping women means women of destitute condition and, therefore, unable to pay.

327. The first word in the first line is not kshatam but kritam.

328. The Commentator explains that because giver by one that is dear or given to one that is dear, therefore is she called Priyadatta.

329. This is evidently a crux. Prasamsanti means generally praise. Here it means reproach or censure. The second line may also mean, his enemies dare not attack his kingdom.

330. This is the utterance or declaration of the earth herself.

331. Rich with every taste; the idea is that things have six tastes, viz., sweet, sour, etc. The quality of taste is drawn by things from the soil or earth. The tastes inhere in earth, for it is the same earth that produces the sugarcane and the tamarind.

332. Sparsitam is dattam.

333. The Bombay reading adityatastansha is better than the Bengal reading adityataptansha.

334. What Yudhishthira wishes to know is what conjunctions should be utilized for making what particular gifts.

335. Payasa is rice boiled in sugared milk. It is a sort of liquid food that is regarded as very agreeable.

336. Vardhamana, Sarava or Saravika. It is a flat certain cup or dish.

337. Phanita is the inspissated juice of the sugarcane.

338. A prasanga is a basket of bamboo or other material for covering paddy.

339. Rajamasha is a kind of bean. It is the Vinga sinensis, syn. Dilicheos sinensis Linn.

340. There may be akama and sakama acts, i.e., acts without desires of fruit and acts with desires of fruit. A Sraddha with Tila or sesame should never be done without desire for fruit.

341. When a residential house is given away unto such a Brahmana and the receiver resides in it, the giver reaps the reward indicated. It does not refer to the hospitable shelter to such a Brahmana given by one in one's own house.

342. To this day, in Bengal at least, a tenant never performs the first Sraddha or a Puja (worship of the deities) without obtaining in the first instance the permission of the landlord. There is in Sraddhas a Rajavarana or royal fee payable to the owner of the earth on which the Sraddha is performed.

343. Tasyam is explained by the commentator as kritayam.

344. Kinasa is either one who tills the soil with the aid of bulls or one who slays cattle. Having first mentioned vadhartham, kinasa should here be taken for a tiller. Kasai, meaning butcher, seems to be a corruption of the word kinasa.

345. One need not dedicate unto one's deities any other food than what one takes oneself. In the Ramayana it has been said that Rama offered unto the Pitris astringent fruits while he was in exile. The Pisachas dedicate carrion unto their deities for they themselves subsist upon carrion.

346. The first line of 13 and the last line of 14 are very terse: Kalasya vihitam, as explained by the Commentator, is ayuh pramanam, na prapnami is na janami. The sense is that 'unurged by time, I cannot allow these to take up my residence here.'

347. i.e., invite Brahmanas to feasts in which sesame should predominate.

348. In Bengal, to this day, those who can afford, particularly pious ladies, establish shady resting places in the month of Vaisakha (the hottest month of the year), by the side of the public roads, for travellers, where good cool drinking water, a handfull of well-drenched oats, and a little of raw sugar, are freely distributed. Such institutions, on the old Benares Road and the Grand Trunk Road, considerably refresh travellers. There are miles upon miles along these roads where good water is not at all procurable.

349. What is meant by the giving of lamps is the placing of lighted lamps in dark places which are the resorts of men, such as roads and ghats, etc.

350. Of equal name, because the word go means cow, earth, and speech.

351. No particular number is intended. What is meant is—innumerable.

352. The 'hence' in the last line has reference to what has been said before on the subject of kine, and not to the first line of the verse.

353. Vitasokaih in the instrumental plural refers to Bhavanaih or some such substantive understood. It may also be read as a nominative plural, referring to Lokah.