Deccan Nursery Tales Part 3

[14] This is called the akshataropan.

[15] Vasishta was the family priest of King Dasaratha, father of Ramchandra. After death he became one of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear.

[16] Divali is the feast of lamps in the month of Kartih.

[17] Saripat is a kind of draughts.

[18] Apsaras are attendants on the G.o.ds.

[19] Kartakswami was really Parwati's step-son (see Preface).

[20] The Indians do not a.s.sociate the Great Bear constellation with a bear, but they believe it to be the habitation of seven rishis. The seven rishis vary in different works. In the Mahabharat the names given are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulatya, and Vasishta.

[21] Aposhani. This is the water which a Brahman sips from his hand before and after his meal.

[22] Shravan corresponds roughly with August. The death of the child nullified all the virtue of the Shradh feast, which had at once to be stopped.

[23] Zhoting is really the unquiet ghost of a Musulman, but hobgoblin is probably a sufficiently close translation.

[24] A tree sacred to Shiva.

[25] The Asuras, who are now reckoned petty demons, had once upon a time a much higher position. They are the same as Ahura-Magda, the Jupiter of the Iranians. The latter, curiously enough, degraded the Devas or Hindu G.o.ds to the subordinate place of demons. (Cf. Rawlinson's Bactria, page 21.)

[26] Shravan = August.

[27] Nag-kanya. These are the maidens of the race of the Nagas, who are said to have sprung from Kadru, wife of Kasyapa. One of them, Ulupi, married the hero Arjuna. They live in Patala, the lowest of the seven underground regions.

THE END