FOOTNOTES
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Ganguli, Kisari Mohan
41 (return) [ Some texts read Diptasya for Diptayam.]
42 (return) [ This sloka does not occur in every text. This is a typical illustration of the round about way, frequently adopted by Sanskrit writers, of expressing a simple truth. The excuse in the present instance consists in Drona’s unwillingness to identify the solitary hero with Arjuna, in the midst of all his hearers. Nadiji is an exclamation referring to Bhishma, the son of the river Ganga. Lankesa-vanari-ketu is simply ‘ape-bannered,’ or as rendered in the text, having the devastator of the gardens of Lanka’s lord for the sign of his banner. Nagahvaya is ‘named after tree’ for Arjuna is the name of an Indian tree. Nagri-sunu is ‘Indra’s son’,—Indra being the foe of mountains, for formerly it was he who cut off the wings of all mountains and compelled them to be stationary. He failed only in the case of Mainaka, the son of Himavat.]
43 (return) [ Indian insects of a particular kind.]
44 (return) [ Most editions read chapas which is evidently wrong. The correct reading is avapas, meaning quiver. The Burdwan Pandits give this latter reading.]
45 (return) [ Some read chandrargha-darsanas. The correct reading is chandrardha-darsanas.]
46 (return) [ Most editions read hema-punkha and silasita in the instrumental plural; the correct reading is their nominative plural forms.]
47 (return) [ Sayaka means here, as explained by Nilakantha, a sword, and not a shaft.]
48 (return) [ From the colour of his steeds.]
49 (return) [ Nilakantha spends much learning and ingenuity in making out that sixty-five years in this connection means thirty-two years of ordinary human computation.]
50 (return) [ Some texts read,—‘One large meteor fell.’
51 (return) [ In some editions read,—Bharata dwijam, and Maha-hardam for maha-drumam. The meaning would then be,—‘The banners (of the hostile army) began to tremble in the sky, and large lakes were agitated.’
52 (return) [ Some texts read Maharatham (incorrectly) for hiranmayan. Indeed, Maharatham would give no meaning in this connection. The incomplete edition of the Roy Press under the auspices of the Principal of the Calcutta Sanskrit College abounds with such incorrect readings and misprints.]
53 (return) [ The Roy Press edition adds here a line which looks very much like an interpolation.]
54 (return) [ The true reading is Acharya in the dual number, meaning Drona and Kripa. Some texts read the word in the singular form. Nilakantha notices both these reading, but prefers the dual to the singular.]
55 (return) [ The meaning is rather doubtful. Duryodhana seems to say that ‘the hostile appearance of Arjuna has been an act of imprudence on his part. The Pandavas, after the expiry of the thirteenth year, would claim their kingdom. I, Duryodhana, may or may not accede to their demand. When, therefore, it was not certain that Arjuna would be refused by me, his hostile appearance is unwise. He has come sure of victory, but he may yet be defeated.‘]
56 (return) [ The sense seems to be that when moralists even are puzzled in judging of the propriety or otherwise of their acts, it can easily be imagined that the Pandavas, however virtuous, have, in the matter of this their appearance, acted wrongly, for, after all, the thirteenth year may not have really been over as believed by them. Or, it may mean, that as regards our presence here, we have not acted imprudently when even moralists cannot always arrive at right conclusion. It seems that for this Duryodhana proceeds to justify that presence in the following sentences.]