In India the juice of the soma plant was identified with the vital principle, and the demons were the poisoners of crops and plants; in Egypt honey-flowers and sacred trees sprang from the fertilizing tears of deities, while the tears of demons produced poisonous plants, diseases, &c. Like the Egyptian Horus, the Indian Prajápati, or Brahma, sprang from a lotus bloom floating on the primordial waters. The chaos-egg myth is also common to both mythological systems. Brahma issues from a golden egg like Ra, and a similar myth is connected with the Egyptian Ptah and Khnumu, and with the Chinese P'an Ku, while the egg figures in Eur-Asian folk tales which contain the germs of the various mythologies. All mythologies have animistic bases; they were, to begin with, systematized folk beliefs which were carried hither and thither in various stages of development by migrating and trading peoples. Each separate system bears undoubted traces of racial or local influences; each reflects the civilization in which it flourished, the habits of thought and habits of life of the people, and the religious, ethical, and political ideals of their rulers and teachers. When well-developed myths of similar character are found in widely separated districts, an ethnic or cultural contact is suggested. Such myths may be regarded as evidence of remote racial movements, which, although unsupported by record or tradition, are also indicated by ethnological data. It is hoped that the reader will find much suggestive material in this connection in their study of the myths and legends of India. They will also find that many of the tales retold in this volume have qualities which make universal appeal, and that some are among the most beautiful which survive from the civilizations of the ancient world.
Not a few, we are assured, will follow with interest the development from primitive myths of great and ennobling ideas which have exercised a culturing influence in India through many long centuries, and are still potent factors in the domestic, social, and religious life of many millions of Hindus.
DONALD A. MACKENZIE.
[CONTENTS]
| Chap. | Page | |
| Introduction | [xvii] | |
| I. | Indra, King of the Gods | [1] |
| II. | The Great Vedic Deities | [19] |
| III. | Yama, the First Man, and King of the Dead | [38] |
| IV. | Demons and Giants and Fairies | [61] |
| V. | Social and Religious Developments of the Vedic Age | [76] |
| VI. | Mysteries of Creation, the World's Ages, and Soul Wandering | [97] |
| VII. | New Faiths: Vishnu Religion, Buddhism, and Jainism | [119] |
| VIII. | Divinities of the Epic Period | [138] |
| IX. | Prelude to the Great Bharata War | [157] |
| X. | Royal Rivals: the Pandavas and Kauravas | [173] |
| XI. | The Tournament | [185] |
| XII. | First Exile of the Pandavas | [195] |
| XIII. | The Choice of Draupadi | [213] |
| XIV. | Triumph of the Pandavas | [224] |
| XV. | The Great Gambling Match | [237] |
| XVI. | Second Exile of the Pandavas | [249] |
| XVII. | Defiance of Duryodhana | [270] |
| XVIII. | The Battle of Eighteen Days | [285] |
| XIX. | Atonement and the Ascent to Heaven | [310] |
| XX. | Nala and Damayantí | [328] |
| XXI. | Wanderings in the Forest | [340] |
| XXII. | Nala in Exile | [353] |
| XXIII. | The Homecoming of the King | [364] |
| XXIV. | Story of Rama: How Sita was Won | [374] |
| XXV. | The Abduction of Sita | [394] |
| XXVI. | Rama's Mission Fulfilled | [408] |
| Index | [429] |