e
embodiments of Prosperity, Modesty, Beauty, Fame and Loveliness.

14. What Draupadi means is that instead of passing her days in joy and
happiness, instead of being able to wish time to be stationary with her,
she is obliged in consequence of her misery, to wish time to pass off
quickly.

15. Jayate asyas--i.e., she from whom one is born.

16. Some texts read, Vilwam nagaviodhara--i.e., 'As an elephant lifts up
a vela fruit.'

17. Veri means both a kettle-drum and a trumpet. The latter however
conveys a better meaning here.

18. Literally, force of his thighs.

19. What Bhima says is this.--The Gandharvas, your husbands, are always
obedient to thee! If they have been able to do thee a service, they have
only repaid a debt.

20. Krita-krita--Nilakantha explains this to mean 'imagining themselves
to have achieved success in their mission' for having learnt of Kichaka's
death, they could readily guess the presence of the Pandavas there. This
is too far-fetched and does not at all agree with the spirit of their
report to Duryodhana below. And then the same word occurs in the very
last line of the Section. I take it that in both places the word has been
used in the same sense.

21. This is a very difficult sloka. I am not sure that I have understood
it alright. Both Nilakantha and Arjuna Misra are silent. Instead of
depending, however, on my own intelligence, I have consulted several
friends who have read the Mahabharata thoroughly. The grammatical
structure is easy. The only difficulty consists in the second half of the
sloka. The meaning, however, I have given is consistent with the tenor of
Bhishma's advice.

22. Indicating the unobstructed completion of the sacrifice.

23. The word tirtha here means, as Nilakantha rightly explains spies and
not holy spots.

24. Satram is explained by Nilakantha to mean here 'false disguise.' I
think, however, such an interpretation to be far-fetched. It evidently
means 'forest',--the use of 'pravisteshu' in connection with it almost
settles the point.

25. This sloka is not correctly printed in any of the texts that I have
seen. The reading that I adopt is that the second word is the participle
of the root budh and not the instrumental of budhi; the last word again
of the second line is a compound of valavatsu and avaleshu instead of (as
printed in many books) valavatswavaleshu. Any other reading would
certainly be incorrect. I have not consulted the Bombay text.

26.