[26] सत्तवः, रजः, तमस् _satvas_, _rajas_, _tamas_, “truth” or “existence;” “passion” or “foulness;” and “darkness” or “ignorance,” are called the three great गुणाः _gunás_, or properties of all created beings.――A. T.
[27] Of these five words, the two first are Persian, the other three Sanskrit: the text is probably corrupt.――A. T.
[28] According to the _Vayu-purana_ (chapt. v.) Vichnu proceeded from Satva, Brahma from Rajas, and Mahadéva, or Siva, from Tamas.――A. T.
[29] The latter part of this sentence is according to the reading of the manuscripts.――D. S.
In the edit. of Calcutta it is placed in the next line, and connected with the contents of the world, as if these had been with numberless heads, hands, and feet.――A. T.
[30] शेष _Sésha_, “the king of the serpent-race;” “a large thousand-headed snake;” “the couch and canopy of Vishnu;” and “the upholder of the world, which rests on one of his heads.”――D. S.
[31] कुवल _kuvala_, from _ku_, “earth,” and _vala_, “to cover.”――A. T.
[32] This etymology is founded upon a wrong spelling of the name _Na-rang_, or _No-rang_, “no color,” instead of Naráyana.――A. T.
[33] The definitions contained in the remainder of this sentence are in the original incorporated with the text. In the present, as in every similar instance, that arrangement has not been disturbed.――D. S.
[34] अवतार _avatára_, from _ava_, “down, off,” and _tri_, “to cross;” signifying “descent,” “translation.”
[36] An evil spirit, a demon, a vampire, a fiend, but who appears to be of various descriptions; and is either a powerful Titan or enemy of the gods, in a superhuman or incarnate form, as Ravana and others; or an attendant on Kuvera and guardian of his treasures; or a mischievous and cruel goblin or ogre, haunting cemeteries, animating dead bodies, and devouring human beings. The Asurs are also demons, and of the first order; the children of Diti, by Kasyapa, engaged in perpetual hostility with the gods. According to Hindoo mythology, Kasyapa is the name of a _Muni_, or “deified sage;” who is the father of the immortals――gods and devils (_Wilson_).――D. S.
[37] अनन्त वेद _ananta veda_, “the eternal Veda.”
[39] कृष्ण पक्ष _Krishna paksha_, “the dark half of a month; the fifteen days during which the moon is in the wane.”