Note 80 — Chapter XXX · MATILALL AT BENARES: HOME AGAIN.

There are several plays upon words in this concluding passage of the book: in this particular passage the word ‘Pani’ is used both for ’Hand‘ and for ‘Wife’: it came to be used in the latter secondary sense because one of the ceremonies, rendering a Hindu marriage legitimate, is the ceremony in which the bridegroom takes the bride by the hand. The use of words and phrases capable of a double meaning, is very common in Sanskrit writings.