Epic Mythology

Description

Epic Mythology The mythology of the two epics of India represents in general the belief of the people of Northern India along the lower Ganges within a few centuries of the Christian era. For the Mahabharata the time from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C. appears how to be the most probable date, though excellent authorities extend the limits from 400 B.C. to 400 A.D.

Epic mythology, however, is fairly consistent. There is no great discrepancy between the character of any one god in Mbh. and that of the same god in R. Nor is the character of gods very different in different parts of Mbh., save for the sectarian tendency to invert the positions of the three highest gods in favor of the sect. There are of course differences, but not such as to imply that we are dealing with totally diverse conceptions or traditions. In both epics the older gods are reduced in estate, in so far as they represent personifications of nature; in both, new gods are throned above the old.

The conception Deva, god, embraces all spiritual characters, as it is said, “the gods beginning with Brahman and ending with Pisacas” (Brahmadayah Pisacanta yam hi deva upasate), but loosely, so that in the very clause thus specifying the host of gods, Siva, as the greatest god, is set in antithesis to them all as the one being through devotion to whom even Krisna-Visnu pervades the universe. Nor is the world of men without close kinship with the gods, who descend to earth and are reborn as mortals. Not Visnu alone but those who worship him become earthly Avatars.