About The Book

India has long been regarded as the home of Hinduism, its mythology constituting the backbone of Indian culture. The myths have been adapted over the centuries to incorporate new or revised characters and continue to play a central role in modern Indian life. Retold here in their colourful and dramatic splendour, they touch on the key narrative themes of creation, preservation, destruction, delusion and the bestowal of grace. They also portray the main deities of the Hindu pantheon-Shiva, Vishnu and Devi-and their relationships with anti-gods, nymphs and ascetics. Drawn from a variety of sources, most notably the encyclopaedic texts the Puranas, the myths range from the early centuries AD to the sixteenth century, conveying their enduring appeal and the religious teachings derived from them.

About the Author

A. L. Dallapiccola is Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh and makes research visits to India. She is the author of Hindu Visions of the Sacred and Indian Love Poetry as well as a Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend.

Introduction

Roughly the size of Europe, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals, the Indian subcontinent is home to peoples of various backgrounds, speaking different languages and following their own religious and cultural traditions. To claim that almost each state of this vast country is a land in its own right is no exaggeration. The cohesive force uniting the Hindu majority is a social structure firmly grounded in shared religious beliefs and ethic principles expressed in a wealth of myths, which form the backbone of Hindu religion and culture.

Vedic religion

Some of the earliest vestiges of religious traditions in the Indian subcontinent are cult figurines dated in the middle of the third millennium BC. These were found at Mohenjo Daro and Harappa in present day Pakistan, two of the most important sites associated with the Indus Civilization. Some scholars link these figurines of goddesses, animals, trees and sexual emblems to the beginnings of Hindu religion. In the middle of the second millennium BC the Indus Civilization declined, probably under the brunt of the gradual penetration of the Aryans who expanded over the whole of the northern part of the subcontinent.

The lack of archaeological evidence for a distinctive Aryan civilization is compensated by an abundant literary heritage. The Aryans, credited with the introduction of Sanskrit, the sacred language of Indian scriptures, composed the four Vedas or '[books of] knowledge'. These collections of hymns celebrate a number of gods, some of whom eventually found their way into present-day Hinduism. Most of the Vedic gods personified natural phenomena such as the dawn, rain, fire or thunder. Vedic religion, also known as Brahmanism, was based on elaborate sacrificial rituals which were performed exclusively by Brahmin priests. Every word of these ceremonies had to be uttered following the appropriate intonation and every movement was charged with mystical meaning. There were no temples or images. Instead, the cult focused around the sacrificial altar, whose elaborate structure mirrored that of the universe. Sacrifices were vitally important because they reinvigorated the gods who, in turn looked after the well being of mankind.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages