A General Introduction to the two poems, and a concluding chapter, containing remarks and inferences based on the materials supplied to the reader in Parts I. and II., complete the scheme of this little volume, which, I trust, will be found to be something more than a mere epitome of the great Sanskrit epics; for, in its preparation, I have had the advantage of considerable local knowledge and an intimate acquaintance with the people of Aryavarta.
J. C. O.
CONTENTS
| Section | Part / Chapter | Page |
| General Introduction | [1] | |
| [PART I.—THE RAMAYANA] | ||
| CHAPTER I | ||
| Introductory Remarks | [15] | |
| CHAPTER II | ||
| The Story of Rama’s Adventures | [19] | |
| CHAPTER III | ||
| The Ram Lila or Play of Rama | [75] | |
| [APPENDIX] | ||
| The Story of the Descent of Ganga | [87] | |
| Notes | [91] | |
| [PART II.—THE MAHABHARATA] | ||
| CHAPTER I | Introductory Remarks | [95] |
| CHAPTER II | The Story of the Great War | [101] |
| CHAPTER III | The Sacred Land | [197] |
| [APPENDIX] | ||
| (1) The Bhagavatgita or Divine Song | [207] | |
| (2) The Churning of the Ocean | [219] | |
| (3) Nala and Damayanti | [225] | |
| Notes | [237] | |
| Concluding Remarks | [241] | |
| [FOOTNOTES] | ||
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Illustration | Page | |
| [The Abduction of Sita.] (From an illustrated Urdu Version) | face | [50] |
| [Hanuman and the Vanars Rejoicing at the Restoration of Sita.] (Reduced from Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon”) | face | [70] |
| [Men with Knives and Skewers passed through theirFlesh.](From a Photograph) | face | [76] |
| [“The Terrible Demon King of Lanka and his no less Formidable Brother.”](From a Photograph) | face | [80] |
| [The Temple and Bathing Ghâts on the Sacred Lake at Kurukshetra.](From a Photograph) | face | [200] |
| [The Churning of the Ocean.](Reduced from Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon”) | face | [220] |
GREAT INDIAN EPICS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Foremost amongst the many valuable relics of the old-world literature of India stand the two famous epics, the “Ramayana” and the “Mahabharata,” which are loved with an untiring love by the Hindus, for they have kept alive, through many a dreary century, the memory of the ancient heroes of the land, whose names are still borne by the patient husbandman and the proud chief.[1] These great poems have a special claim to the attention even of foreigners, if considered simply as representative illustrations of the genius of a most interesting people, their importance being enhanced by the fact that they are, to this day, accepted as entirely and literally true by some two hundred millions of the inhabitants of India. And they have the further recommendation of being rich in varied attractions, even when regarded merely as the ideal and unsubstantial creations of Oriental imagination.
Both the “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” are very lengthy works which, taken together, would make up not less than about five and twenty printed volumes of ordinary size. They embrace detailed histories of wars and adventures and many a story that the Western World would now call a mere fairy tale, to be listened to by children with wide-eyed attention. But interwoven with the narrative of events and legendary romances is a great bulk of philosophical, theological, and ethical materials, covering probably the whole field of later Indian speculation. Indeed, the epics are a storehouse of Brahmanical instruction in the arts of politics and government; in cosmogony and religion; in mythology and mysticism; in ritualism and the conduct of daily life. They abound in dialogues wherein the subtle wisdom of the East is well displayed, and brim-over with stories and anecdotes intended to point some moral, to afford consolation in trouble, or to inculcate a useful lesson. To epitomize all this satisfactorily would be quite impossible; but what I have given in this little volume will, I hope, be sufficient to show the nature and structure of the epics, the characteristics that distinguish them as essentially Indian productions, and the light they throw upon the condition of India and the state of Hindu society at the time the several portions were written, or, at any rate, collected together. The narrative, brief though it be, will reflect the more abiding features of Indian national life, revealing some unfamiliar ideas and strange customs. Even within the narrow limits of the reduced picture here presented, the reader will get something more than a glimpse of those famous Eastern sages, whose half-comprehended story has furnished the Theosophists of our own day with the queer notion of their extraordinary Mahatmas; he will learn somewhat of the wisdom and pretensions of those sages, and will not fail to note that the belief in divine incarnations was firmly rooted in India in very early times. He will incidentally acquire a knowledge of all the fundamental religious ideas of the Hindus and of the highest developments of their philosophy; he will also become familiar with some primitive customs which have left unmistakable traces in the institutions of modern social life in the East as well as in the West; and will, perhaps, be able to track to their origin some strange conceptions which are floating about the intellectual atmosphere of our time.