name.

_E'en as on earth_, &c.] Thus the commandment,--Thou shalt not kill,
is abrogated by the injunction to kill animals for sacrifice.

_The heavenly Teacher._] Vrihaspati, the son of Angiras.

_His own dear flower._] The lotus, on which Brahma is represented
reclining.

_Their flashing jewels._] According to the Hindu belief, serpents wear
precious jewels in their heads.

_Chakra._] A discus, or quoit, the weapon of Vishnu.

_As water bears to me._] "HE, having willed to produce various beings
from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the
waters, and placed in them a productive seed."--_Manu_, Ch. I.

_Mournful braids._] As a sign of mourning, especially for the loss of
their husbands, the Hindustani women collect their long hair into a
braid, called in Sanskrit _ve[n.]i_.

_The mango twig._] We shall meet with several allusions to this tree
as the favourite of Love and the darling of the bees.

_CANTO THIRD._

_Who angers thee, &c._] To understand properly this speech of Kama, it
is necessary to be acquainted with some of the Hindu notions regarding
a future state. "The highest kind of happiness is absorption into the
divine essence, or the return of that portion of spirit which is
combined with the attributes of humanity to its original source. This
happiness, according to the philosopher, is to be obtained only by the
most perfect abstraction from the world and freedom from passion, even
while in a state of terrestrial existence.... Besides this ultimate
felicity, the Hindus have several minor degrees of happiness, amongst
which is the enjoyment of Indra's Swarga, or, in fact, of a Muhammadan
Paradise. The degree and duration of the pleasures of this paradise
are proportioned to the merits of those admitted to it; and they who
have enjoyed this lofty region of Swarga, but whose virtue is
exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals."--Prof. Wilson's _Megha
Duta_. Compare also "The Lord's Song."--_Specimens of Old Indian
Poetry_, pp. 67, 68.

Indra, therefore, may be supposed to feel jealous whenever a human
being aspires to something higher than that heaven of which he is the
Lord.

The "chain of birth" alluded to is of course the metempsychosis, or
transmigration of souls, a belief which is not to be looked upon (says
Prof. Wilson in the preface to his edition of the _Sankhya Karika_) as
a mere popular superstition. It is the main principle of all Hindu
metaphysics; it is the