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 ruler 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.

37. 'Brahmi night' implies a night in course of which sacred hymns ar