stage, or
place of exhibition, a spacious court or quadrangle) splendid with
columns of gold, and brilliant with a portal; a temporary or triumphal
arch (torana).' There is allusion to such a porch or portal in the
Mudra Rakshasa (Hindu Theatre, ii. 181, 182), also in the Toy Cart,
(i. 82). For gold pillars see CRAWFURD's description of the Hall of
Audience at Ava.

"The roof is supported by a great number of pillars: with the
exception of about fourteen or fifteen inches at the bottom of each
pillar, painted of a bright red, the whole interior of the palace is
one blaze of gilding--although little reconcilable to our notions of
good taste in architecture, the building is unquestionably most
splendid and brilliant, and I doubt whether so singular and imposing a
royal edifice exists in any other country." _Embassy to Ava_, 133.
WILSON.]

[Footnote 44: p. 14. l. 10. _--delicate in shape and hue_. Bopp's
text is 'akaravantah suslakshnah, having forms and delicate.' The
Calcutta edition reads 'akaraverna suslakshnah, elegant in figure and
colour (complexion). Delicacy of colour, i. e. a lighter shade,
scarcely amounting to blackness at all, is in general a mark of high
caste. WILSON.]

[Footnote 45: p. 14. l. 13. _As with serpents Bhogavati._ Bhogavati,
the capital of the serpents in the infernal world. In the Ramayana,
Ayodhya is described as guarded by warriors, as Bhogavati by the
serpents.]

[Footnote 46: p. 15. l. 22. _Nala's form might not discern._ The form
of the gods, as it is here strikingly described by the poet, differs
from that of men by the absence of those defects which constitute the
inferiority of a mortal body to that of the inhabitants of the Indian
heaven. The immortal body does not perspire, it is unsoiled by dust,
the garlands which they wear stand erect, that is, the flowers are
still blooming and fresh. The gods are further distinguished by their
strong fixed gaze, and by floating on the earth without touching it.
They have no shadow. Nala's form is the opposite of all these.
KOSEGARTEN.]

[Footnote 47: p. 15. l. 23. _--saw she, and with moveless eyes_. "The
gods are supposed to be exempt from the momentary elevation and
depression of the upper eyelid, to which mortals are subject. Hence a
deity is called 'Animisha' or 'Animesha,' one whose eyes do not
twinkle." Mr. Wilson, in his note to Vikrama and Urvasi, (Hindu Theatre,
i. 237. p. 60.), quotes this passage, and suggests that the "marble