431:14 Some of the circumstances of this marvellous gem seem to identify it with a stone of widely diffused celebrity in the East, and which, according to the Mohammedan writers, was given originally by Noah to Japhet; the Hijer al mattyr of the Arabs, Sang yeddat of the Persians, and Jeddah tash of the Turks, the possession of which secures rain and fertility. The author of the Habib us Seir gravely asserts that this stone was in the hands of the Mongols in his day, or in the tenth century.

432:15 Krishńa's reflecting, the commentator observes, is to be understood of him only as consistent with the account here given of him, as if he were a mere man; for, as he was omniscient, there was no occasion for him to reflect or reason. Krishńa however appears in this story in a very different light from that in which he is usually represented; and the adventure, it may be remarked, is detached from the place in which we might have expected to find it, the narrative of his life, which forms the subject of the next book.

434:16 The story of the Syamantaka gem occurs in the Bhágavata, Váyu, Matsya, Bráhma, and Hari V., and is alluded to in other Puráńas. It may be considered as one common to the whole series. Independently of the part borne in it by Krishńa, it presents a curious and no doubt a faithful picture of ancient manners, in the loose self-government of a kindred clan, in the acts of personal violence which are committed, in the feuds which ensue, in the public meetings which are held, and the part that is taken by the elders and by the women in all the proceedings of the community.

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Hinduism

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