Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 2)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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  Page 355  



ANNOTATIONS.                               355

Bhagavatas or Paiicaratras.— Vide Colebrooke, " Essays," i.
439, 440.

P. 401.—The story of the birth of Vasudeva, i.e. Krishna,
is related in the Vishnu-Purdnct, book v. chap. iii.

P. 403. I'/ie chilelrcn of Kaitrava, &c.—The following
traditions are taken from the Mcthdbhdrata: the dice-
playing from book ii., or sctbhdqxtrvetn ; the preparing for
battle from book v., or udyogaqiarvan ; the destruction of
the five brothers by the curse of the Brahmin from book
xvi., or rnaitsalaqjarvetn; their going to heaven from book
xvii., or mahdprasthdniketpctrvan.

The introductory  sentence  of this  relation, Si^ ^.lij

ai^»/».*!\ f>.i 1.C ^jfi, literally, "The children of Kaurava
were over their cousins," is odd, and perhaps not free
from a lacuna, Pandu had died, and his children grow
up in Hastinapura, at the court of Kaurava, i.e. Dhrita-
rashtra, their uncle, the brother of Pandu, One expects a
sentence like " The children of Kaurava cherished enmity
against their cousins," but as the Arabic words run, one
could scarcely translate them otherwise than I have done.
The children of Kaurava had " the charge of their cousins."
&c.

P. 407. On the akshauhini cf. H. H. Wilson, " Works,"
2d edit., iv. p. 290 (on the art of war as known to the
Hindus).

Mctnkalus seems to be a mistake for Myrtilits. Gf.
Eratosthenis Gatasterisniorum Reliquice, rec. C. Robert, p.
104. The source of Alberuni seems to have been a book
like the chronicle of Johannes Mcdalcis.

The second tradition, taken from a commentary on
Aratus' Phcenomenet (vide note to p. 97), is found in the
same book, Eratosthenis, &c., p. 100, 98. For this informa¬
tion I am indebted to my colleague. Professor C. Robert.

P. 408.—The number 284,323 of people who ride on
chariots and elephants is a mistake for 284,310. I do
not see what is the origin of this surplus of 13 men.
However, the wrong number must be kept as it is, since
the author reckons with it in the following computation.
  Page 355