Charles Rockwell Lanman

“ Dhritarāshtra, the elder, was blind, and so Pāndu became king, and had a glorious reign. He had five sons, chief of whom were Yudhishthira, Bhīma, and Arjuna. They are called Pāndavas, and are the types of honor and heroism. Dhritarāshtra’s hundred sons, Duryodhana and the rest, are usually called the Kuru princes, and are represented as in every way bad. After Pandu’s death, his sons are brought up with their cousins. The kingdom devolved on Dhritarāshtra, who in turn made his nephew Yudhishthira the heir apparent. ”

“ Damayantī refuses to listen to the arguments in favor of the gods. She desires that the swayamvara be held in the usual form, and that the gods be present, and informs Nala that she intends to show openly her preference for him. All this Nala reports to the gods.
§ 15. Chap. 5. The gods and kings assemble. The four chief gods assume the appearance of Nala. Unable to distinguish the real Nala, the princess, distressed, prays to the gods, and they, in answer, resume their proper forms and peculiar attributes (see 1412N.) . Thereupon she chooses Nala. ”

“ Yudhishthira was challenged to play with Duryodhana, and accepted. The dice were thrown for Duryodhana by his uncle Çakuni. Yudhishthira loses everything — wealth, kingdom, brothers, wife. A compromise, however, is made, by which the Pāndavas give up their part of the kingdom for twelve years, and agree to remain incognito for a thirteenth. With Draupadī, they retire to the Kāmyaka forest, on the Saraswatī.
§7. For twelve years the Pāndu princes dwell in the wood. Many legends are told to divert and console them in their exile ”

“ The Story of Nala and Damayantī.
§1. The trend of Aryan migration in India has been from the extreme north. west to the south-east, across the region drained by the Indus and its affluents, and called the Panjāb or Land of the Five Rivers; and again south-east, down the valleys of the Jumna and Ganges. One prominent group of Aryan immigrant tribes was that of the Kosalas, Videhas, and Magadhas, who settled in the lower valley of the Ganges, east of its confluence with the Jumna, in the districts now named Oudh and Behar, the Palestine of Buddhism. ”

“ The kings express their sorrow, and the gods their delight. The gods give Nala the magic power of having fire and water whenever he wishes, and a wonderful skill in cookery. The wedding-feast is celebrated. Nala returns to Nishadha with his bride. They live happily, and have a son and daughter.—Here the extract in the Reader ends. ”

“ Nala receives as reward perfect skill in dicing. His wife recognizes him by his magical command of fire and water, and by his cooking. He resumes his true form, plays again, and wins back all he had lost, and lives happy ever after. [1]
§17. When Brihadagwa had finished the story of Nala, Yudhishthira, pleased, asked him for perfect skill in dicing ”

“ Lines 11-13 belong together: 'Neither among gods nor Yakshas (sc. was) such a beauty seen before or heard of, nor also among other beings, (namely) mortals': bālā is added in apposition to the subject. ”

“ On the Sind is Narwār; and local tradition connects this place with “King Nala” in a story whose leading features bear a striking resemblance to those of our poem. Finally, Nala is said, chap.xv., to have reached Oudh on the tenth day after quitting Damayantī, and this time suits the distance—some two hundred miles—very well. 8a. akṣapriyaḥ, u.f. akṣapriyas, 172: for ks, cf. Whitney 13 end. satyavādi, nom.s., 440. akṣapriya may mean, 1. 'dice-beloved, lucky at gaming,' or, 2. dice-loving, friend of dice, fond of gaming': on the whole, mg 2 is perhaps to be preferred. ”

“ Lit. 'Now, her marriageable age having come, of slaves an adorned hundred, and a hundred of friends sat around her (tām) , as (they do) around Çacī.'
8. rājate, √rāj, 735. —sarva‿ābharaņa-bhūṣitā, 'adorned with all (her) jewels,' a dependent cpd (1265) , whose first member, sarvābharaņa, is itself a cpd, like sarvaguņa, see 112 N.
9. sakhī-madhye, see madhya 1. —ana-vadyāñgī, initial elided, 135: the cpd is the possessive form of a descriptive, 1297-8. —vidyut, 391. The Hindu epos often likens maiden beauty to the brilliantly flashing lightning of the rain-cloud. ”