The Great Indian Epics—Utilized by the Brahmans—The Story of Manu—Universal Cataclysm—How Amrita (Ambrosia) was obtained—Churning of the Ocean—The Demon Devourer of Sun and Moon—Garuda, the Man Eagle—Attributes of the God Shiva—Comparison with Irish Balor—Rise of the Goddesses—Saraswati and Lakshmi or Sri—Fierce Durga and Kali—Sati, the Ideal Hindu Wife—Legend of the Ganges—The Celestial Rishis—Vishwamitra and Vasishtha—History in the Vedas—Wars between Aryan Tribes—Kernel of Mahábhárata Epic.
The history of Brahmanism during the Buddhist Age is enshrined in the great epics _Mahábhárata_ and _Ramáyana_, which had their origin before B.C. 500, and continued to grow through the centuries.
The _Mahabharata_, which deals with the Great War for ascendancy between two families descended from King Bharata, has been aptly referred to as “the Iliad of India”. It appears to have evolved from a cycle of popular hero songs, but after assuming epic form it was utilized by the Brahmans for purposes of religious propaganda. The warriors were represented as sons of gods or allies of demons, and the action of the original narrative was greatly hampered by inserting long speeches and discussions regarding Brahmanic conceptions and beliefs. An excellent example of this process is afforded by the famous _Bhagavad-gita_, from which we have quoted in the previous chapter. The narrative of the first day's battle is interrupted to allow Krishna to expound the doctrines of the Vaishnava faith, with purpose to make converts to the cult of Vishnu. Almost every incident in the poem is utilized in a similar manner. In fact the epic, as we are informed in the opening section, “furnisheth the means of arriving at the knowledge of Brahma”. The priests, with this aim in view, loaded the chariots of heroes with religious treatises, and transformed a tribal struggle for supremacy into a great holy war. If the _Iliad_ survived to us only in Pope's translation, and our theologians had scattered through it, say, metrical renderings of Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, the _Westminster Confession of Faith_, Fox's _Book of Martyrs_, and a few representative theological works of rival sects, a fate similar to that which has befallen the _Mahabharata_ would now overshadow the great Homeric masterpiece. The “Iliad of India” is a part of what may be called the Hindu Bible, which embraces the _Ramayana_, the _Vedas_, the _Upanishads_, the _Puranas_, &c.