ern.

578 The store of merit accumulated by a holy or austere life secures
only a temporary seat in the mansion of bliss. When by the lapse of
time this store is exhausted, return to earth is unavoidable.

579 The conflagration which destroys the world at the end of a Yuga or
age.

580 Himalaya.

581 Tara means "star." The poet plays upon the name by comparing her
beauty to that of the Lord of stars, the Moon.

582 Suparna, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuda the King of
Birds. See p. 28, Note.

583 The God of Death.

584 The flag-staff erected in honour of the God Indra is lowered when
the festival is over. Asvini in astronomy is the head of Aries or
the first of the twenty-eight lunar mansions or asterisms.

585 Indra the father of Bali.

586 It is believed that every creature killed by Rama obtained in
consequence immediate beatitude.

"And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death."

587 "Yayati was invited to heaven by Indra, and conveyed on the way
thither by Matali, Indra's charioteer. He afterwards returned to
earth where, by his virtuous administration he rendered all his
subjects exempt from passion and decay." GARRETT'S C. D. OF INDIA.

588 The ascetic's dress which he wore during his exile.

589 There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the
Vanars are spoken of, which seems to point to two widely different
legends. The Vanars are generally represented as semi-divine beings
with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking
like men sometimes as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living is
woods and eating fruit and roots.

590 For a younger brother to marry before the elder is a gross violation
of Indian law and duty. The same law applied to daughters with the
Hebrews: "It must not be so done in our country to give the younger
before the first-born." GENESIS xix. 26.

591 "The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the
tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful
food among five-toed animals." MANU, v. 18.

592 "He can not buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule."

MACBETH.

593 The _Ankus_ or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and
guided.

594 Hayagriva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishnu.

595