8.  The Bengal editions, read Rajna in the instrumental case.  Following a manuscript text of a Pandit of my acquaintance I read Rajnas in the genitive.

9.  Mahishasura, the son of Rambhasura.  Durga had to fight for many many years before she could slay this formidable Asura.  The story occurs in the Markandeya Purana.  To this day, Bengal during the great Durga Puja festival in autumn, worships the goddess with great veneration.

10.  Literally, one that rescues from difficulty.

11.  Kamachara is explained by Nilakantha thus, although in other places it bears a quite different meaning.

12.  Krita—­attack; Pratikrita—­warding it off; Sankata—­clenched Some texts read Sankatakais.  The meaning then would be ‘cased in gauntlets.’

13.  Bhuti, Hri, Sri, Kirti and Kanti are respectively the feminine 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.  Literature, force of his thighs.

19.  What Bhima says is this.—­Then 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.