Kim (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) - Rudyard Kipling [159]
6
Let it never change (Latin); inscribed on Freemason’s certificate of enrollment.
7
Given to a member of the Masonic Lodge before he transfers elsewhere.
8
Meeting place of Freemasons, secret order dedicated to mutual assistance of members.
9
Reference to the Bible, Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (KJV).
10
Eighth-century caliph of Baghdad and legendary hero of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.
11
The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, a collection of ancient Oriental stories told by Scheherezade, the wife of a Persian king, to keep him from executing her.
12
Muslim or Hindu religious ascetics or mendicant monks. ∥ln the East, people give food to holy men who wander through towns with their begging bowls.
13
That is, balks; heavy timber used for building.
14
The Ravi River runs through Lahore.
15
As a sign of respect, Indians would leave their shoes outside public buildings.
16
To keep down dust in the dry season.
17
Based on Kipling’s father, who was curator of the Lahore Museum and illustrated the New York edition of Kim.
18
That is, ghee; butter from cow’s or buffalo’s milk, purified or clarified by boiling.
19
Sagebrush-like plant.
20
Main language of Muslims in northern India.
21
Kulu: a Himalayan town between Simla and Kashmir; Kailas: a group of 22,000-foot peaks, sacred to Hindus.
22
Household idol.
23
Path between extremes, leading to enlightenment: freedom from the pain of the external world.
24
Lumbini: Buddha’s birthplace in Rajasthan; Buddh Gaya: where he experienced enlightenment; Sarnath: site of his first teaching; Kushingar: where he died.
25
Ghosts or demons.
26
Alexander the Great’s conquest of western India in 326 B.C. brought Hellenistic style to Buddhist sculpture.
27
Stupas: dome-shaped monuments to Buddha; viharas: Buddhist temples.
28
Meditative cross-legged posture of Buddha seated on a lotus flower.
29
That is, devas; gods in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
30
Person who has attained enlightenment but has postponed Nirvana to help others achieve it.
31
Buddha.
32
Maya: Buddha’s mother; Ananda: a favorite fifth-century disciple of Buddha.
33
Site, possibly imaginary, of lama’s monastery in Tibet.
34
Signs forecasting the birth of Buddha.
35
The next several lines note major events in the life of Buddha.
36
Reference to the Bible, Luke 2:25-35, which tells of Simeon presenting the infant Jesus in Temple of Jerusalem and foretelling his persecution.
37
Samuel Beal (1825-1889), scholar and translator of Chinese.
38
Probably Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales (Memoirs of Western Countries), by Hsuan-tsang (605?-664), translated by Stanislas Julien (1797-1873), in the Travels of Buddhist Pilgrims series, 2 vols. Paris, 1857-1858.
39
Where Buddha spent his early life.
40
China.
41
Temple in Buddh Gaya, a holy site southeast of Benares where Buddha experienced enlightenment under the sacred Bo Tree.
42
Bondage of earthly passions and cycles of birth and death.
43
Also known as Varanasi; holy city on the Ganges River, in northeastern India.
44
Member of an ascetic religion founded in the sixth century B.C. to reform Hinduism.
45
Town in the foothills of the Himalayas, on the border of Kashmir.
46
Variant of the Hindu goddess Padma, who emanated from a lotus.
47
Hinduism has many gods.
48
That is, Shiva, the destroyer; the third member, with Brahma and Vishnu, of the Hindu trinity.
49
Cows, sacred to Hindus, wander freely in streets and temples.
50
Stray dogs that live on garbage.
51
Indian shrubs.
52
0ne of Allah’s names.
53
Grayish yellow.
54
Inn, with large courtyard, for overnight caravans.
55
From Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.
56
An anna is one-sixteenth of a rupee.
57
From Bokhara (or Bukhara) in Central Asia (now Uzbekistan).
58
Tobacco pipe with a long tube that cools smoke through ajar of water.
59
One belonging to the Nyingmapa, or Red Hat, sect of unreformed Tibetan Buddhism.
60
Possibly Balkhis, from a district