foundation of all Hindu philosophy. The great
object of their philosophical research in every system, Brahminical
or Buddhist, is the discovery of the means of putting a stop to
further transmigration; the discontinuance of corporeal being; the
liberation of soul from body.

_As on that Snake._] Sesha, the Serpent King, is in the Hindu
mythology the supporter of the earth, as, in one of the fictions of
the Edda,--

"That sea-snake, tremendous curled,
Whose monstrous circle girds the world."

He is also the couch and canopy of the God Vishnu, or, as he
is here called, Krish[n.]a,--that hero being one of his incarnations,
and considered identical with the deity himself.

_The threefold world._] Earth, heaven, and hell.

_His fearful Rati._] The wife of Kama, or Love.

_To where Kuvera &c._] The demi-god Kuvera was regent
of the north.

_Nor waited for the maiden's touch._] Referring to the Hindu
notion that the A['s]oka blossoms at the touch of a woman's
foot. So Shelley says,

"I doubt not, the flowers of that garden sweet
Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet."
_Sensitive Plant._

_Grouping the syllables._] This comparison seems forced rather too far
to suit a European taste. Kalidas is not satisfied with calling the
mango-spray the Arrow of Love; he must tell us that its leaves are the
feathers, and that the bees have marked it with the owner's name.

_That loveliest flower._] The Karnikara.

_His flowery Tilaka._] The name of a tree; it also means a mark made
with coloured earths or unguents upon the forehead and between the
eyebrows, either as an ornament or a sectarial distinction; the poet
intends the word to convey both ideas at once here. In this passage is
another comparison of the mango-spray: it is called the _lip_ of Love;
its _rouge_ is the blush of morning, and its darker beautifying powder
the clustering bees. From the universal custom of dying the lips, the
Sanskrit poets are constantly speaking of their "vermeil tints," &c.,
as will be sufficiently evident in the course of this work.

_The Hermit's servant._] By name Nandi.

_His neck of brightly-beaming blue._] An ancient legend tells us that
after the deluge the ocean was churned by Gods and demons, in order to
recover the Amrit and other treasures that had been lost in it:--

"Then loud and long a joyous sound
Rang through the startled sky:
'Hail to the Amrit,