264.  What is stated here is that those Brahmanas that do not accept gifts are very superior.  Their energy and might are great.  Bhishma directs Yudhishthira to be always careful of how he would treat such superior Brahmanas.  After rakshyam, the words swakulam are understood.  The Burdwan translator misunderstands the second line of the verse.

265.  The construction is Etat Brahmana-mukhat sastram, yat srutwaiha pravartate, prithivyam etc, etc.  Both the vernacular translators have misunderstood the verse.

266.  Etat karanam seems to refer to Brahamana-mukhat sastram.  The sense seems to be that in the encounter between the deities and the Asuras the power of the Brahmanas was abundantly proved, for Sukra aided the Asuras with his Mantras and incantations, while Vrihaspati and others aided the deities by the same means.

267.  In some of the Bengal texts for Bhumiretau the reading Bhumireto occurs.  The fact is, the latter is a misprint or a mere clerical error.  The etau has reference to the two mentioned in the second line.  The Burdwan translator actually takes Bhumireto as a correct reading and makes nonsense of the verse.

268.  I expand this verse.  After kriya bhavati patratwam is understood.  Kriya includes the diverse objects for which persons solicit alms or gifts.  Upansuvratam is maunam parivrajyam.

269.  It is said that food or other things, when given to an undeserving person, feels grief.  What Yudhishthira asks is who the proper person is unto whom gifts may be made.

270.  All these acts should be performed with purity of intention and according to the ordinances of the scriptures.  For example, sacrifices should not be performed with vanity or pride.  The Vedas should not be studied without faith.  Children should not be procreated from lust, etc.

271.  Such words are unseizable and unintelligible for their depth of meaning.  Women are equally unseizable and unintelligible.

272.  The sense is this:  women agitate the hearts of those that treat them with respect as of those that treat them with disdain.  The commentator explains that Pujitah dhikkritahva tulyavat vikaram janayati.

273.  All living creatures are virtuous, for they are capable of progressing towards godship by their own acts.

274.  Pura has little force here, implying ‘first’.  In the first place, know that I have come to thee,

275.  Ladies spoke in Prakrita and not in Sanskrit.  The latter is refined, the former is unrefined.  Hence Indra’s surprise at hearing Sanskrit words from the lady’s lips.

276.  The adana ceremony was a rite in course of which friends and kinsmen had to make presents unto the person performing the ceremony.  The investiture with the sacred-thread, marriage, the rite performed in the sixth and the ninth month of pregnancy, are all ceremonies of this kind.