378:3 The Bhágavata has, for a Puráńa, some curious remarks on this part of the story, flatly denying its truth. 'The report is not true, that the sons of the king were scorched by the wrath of the sage; for how can the quality of darkness, made up of anger, exist in a world-purifying nature, consisting of the quality of goodness; the dust of earth, as it were, in the sky? How should mental perturbation distract that sage, who was one with the supreme, and who has promulgated that Sankhyá philosophy, which is a strong vessel, by which he who is desirous of liberation passes over the dangerous ocean of the world by the path of death?'

379:4 Ságara is still the name of the ocean, and especially of the bay of Bengal, at the mouth of the Ganges. On the shore of the island called by the same name, tradition places a Kapiláśrama, or hermitage of Kapila, which is still the scene of an annual pilgrimage. Other legends assign a very different situation for the abode of the ascetic, or the foot of the Himálaya, where the Ganges descends to the plains. There would be no incompatibility, however, in the two sites, could we imagine the tradition referred to a period when the ocean washed, as it appears once to have done, the base of the Himálaya, and Saugor (Ságara) was at Harídwar.

379:5 Or Khat́wánga: Bráhma and Hari Vanśa: but this is apparently an error. See note 14.

379:6 Omitted: Matsya and Agni. Viśruta: Linga.

379:7 Nábhin: Bhágavata.

379:8 Ayutáyus: Váyu, Linga, and Kúrma. Śrutáyus: Agni. Ayutajit: Bráhma.

379:9 'knowing the heart of the dice.' The same epithet, as well as that of 'friend of Nala,' is given him in the Váyu, Bhágavata, and Bráhma Puráńas, p. 380 and in the Hari Vanśa, and leaves no doubt of their referring to the hero of the story told in the Mahábhárata. Nara however, as we shall hereafter see, is some twenty generations later than Rituparńa in the same family; and the Váyu therefore thinks it necessary to observe that two Nalas are noticed in the Puráńas, and the one here adverted to is the son of Vírasena; whilst the other belongs to the family of Ikshwáku. The same passage occurs in the Bráhma P. and Hari V.; and the commentator on the latter observes, 'Nala the son of Nishadha is different from Nala the son of Vírasena.' It is also to be observed, that the Nala of the tale is king of Nishadha, and his friend Rituparńa is king of Ayodhya. The Nala of the race of Ikshwáku is king of Ayodhyá: he is the son of Nishadha, however, and there is evidently some confusion between the two. We do not find Vírasena or his son in any of the lists. See n. 19.

380:10 There is considerable variety in this part of the lists, but the Váyu and Bhágavata agree with our text. The Matsya and others make Kalmáshapáda the son or grandson of Rituparńa, and place Sarvakáma or Sarvakarman after him. See further on.