24. i.e., meet the foe whether within his own kingdom or invade the foe’s realm and thus oblige the foe to fall back for resisting him there.

25. i.e., for obtaining fame here and felicity hereafter.

26.  Those who die become at first what is called Preta.  They remain so for one year, till the Sapindikarana Sraddha is performed.  They then become united with the Pitris.  The gifts made in the first Sraddha as also in the monthly ones, have the virtue of rescuing the Preta or bringing him an accession of merit.  The gifts in annual Sraddhas also have the same efficacy.

27.  The text in verse 2, where mention is made of thousands of years as embracing the rule of Yudhishthira, is evidently vitiated.

28.  The correct reading is jane and not kshane.

29.  ’It is difficult to imagine why the rider of the Sindhus, Jayadratha, only should be regarded as a wrong-doer to the Pandavas.  In the matter of the slaying of Abhimanyu he played a very minor part, by only guarding the entrance of the array against the Pandava warriors.  It is true he had attempted to abduct Draupadi from the forest retreat of the Pandavas, but even in this, the wrong was not so great as that which Duryodhana and others inflicted on the Pandavas by dragging Draupadi to the court of the Kurus.

30.  The usual way in which gifts are made at the present day on occasions of Sraddhas and marriages or other auspicious rites very nearly resembles what is described here.  Instead of dedicating each gift with mantras and water and making it over to the receiver, all the articles in a heap are dedicated with the aid of mantras.  The guests are then assembled, and are called up individually.  The Adhyaksha or superintendent, according to a list prepared, names the gifts to be made to the guest called up.  The tellers actually make them over, the scribes noting them down.

31.  Each gift that was indicated by Dhritarashtra was multiplied ten times at the command of Yudhishthira.

32.  As Dhritarashtra was blind, his queen Gandhari, whose devotion to her lord was very great, had, from the days of her marriage, kept her eyes bandaged refusing to look on the world which her lord could not see.

33.  Nilakantha explains that as Dhritarashtra is Pandu’s elder brother, therefore, Kunti regards him as Pandu’s father.  Queen Gandhari therefore is Kunti’s mother-in-law.  The eldest brother is looked upon as a father.

34.  To live watching the faces of others is to live in dependence on others.

35.  It has been pointed out before that mahadana means gifts of such things as elephants, horses, cars and other vehicles, boats, etc.  The giver wins great merit by making them, but the receiver incurs demerit by acceptance, unless he happens to be a person of exceptional energy.  To this day, acceptors of such gifts are looked upon as fallen men.

36.  The words that Kunti spoke were just.  The opposition her sons offered was unreasonable.  Hence, their shame.