The Epics—Truth and Fable
Chapter 6
The Epics—Truth and Fable
“From the beginning the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata have exercised a profound influence upon India,” observes Swami Prabhavananda. Their legends “have supplied poets and dramatists, theologians and political thinkers, painters and sculptors, with their . . . never-failing inspiration.”1 Doubtless you are familiar with many of these legends. How do you view them?
2 Today many Hindus look to the epics as a source of moral and spiritual guidance. Others consider them to have primarily historical rather than religious value. But do they contain truths about God and his worship?
Elements of Truth
3 “The great battle described in the Mahabharata may have a historical basis in the memory of a battle in north India in the tenth century BC,” suggests M. Stutley in Hinduism.2 Archaeologists have confirmed that some places this epic mentions did exist between 800 and 400 B.C.E. “The epic substance was enlarged and embellished” over the centuries, however, to include “a mass of legends, myths and fancies mixed up with morality, religion and philosophy,” notes the History of Philosophy Eastern and Western.3
4 The Mahabharata’s story of Manu, who saved humanity from a global deluge, also contains some historical truth. The flood was “the most important landmark in the history of the ancient world, and common flood legends suggest that the same event has been described in Indian, Hebrew, and Babylonian accounts,” says The Vedic Age.4 *
5 That same book says that the story of Rama, when “divested of its miraculous, fabulous, incredible and mythological elements, clearly indicates that he [Rama] was a great king who spread Aryan ideas and institutions into regions far and wide.”5
6 In addition to these historical features, the epics also contain moral and religious principles. For example, the Mahabharata encourages people to be hospitable, saying: “Even to foes who visit us as guests due hospitality should be displayed; the tree screens with its leaves, the man who fells it.”6 Elsewhere it says: “Heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts, offered in hope of future recompense, as with the merest trifle set apart from honest gains, and sanctified by faith.”7
Imaginary Tales
7 In contrast with these fine principles, however, the epics at times reflect the opinions of their compilers. In the Ramayana, for example, the earth is said to be supported by eight elephants who move when they are tired and thus cause earthquakes. The compilers were also unaware of the Himalayan source of the river Ganges. They thought it trickled from heaven.—Ramayana 1:40-44.
8 Did you know that the writers of the Mahabharata adopted the prevailing view that women had been created only to corrupt chaste men to prevent them from gaining salvation? (Mahabharata 13:40) Even the Gita views women as of inferior birth and classes them with menial slaves. Do you believe this? Does it seem just and reasonable?—Bhagavad Gita 9:32.
9 The absence of inspired Sruti led the epic writers to create fables in order to answer questions. In explaining death, for example, the Mahabharata states that at one time humans multiplied without dying and became so many that “there was no space to breathe.”8 Afraid that this would result in the ‘earth sinking into the waters,’ the Creator produced a goddess to bring death to humans either by diseases or by injury.—Mahabharata 12:248-250.
10 According to Indian scholars, the compilers of the epics also created its legends. In the Gita, Krishna claims that he is God. Regarding this, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan states: “The poet Vyasa [who wrote it] vividly imagines how Krishna as an incarnate God would speak of himself.” Similarly, author M. Hariharan notes that “somebody else must have made Krishna God and made him perform the supernatural deeds.”9 In the Ramayana, Rama does not claim to be a god but merely a human suffering for his sins.—Ramayana 3:63, 64.
Epics—The Choice
11 The epic poems were originally sung at the courts of kings during great festivals held to proclaim the fame of the princes. Compilers later added religious fables.10 “The most brilliant of these additions,” notes D. D. Kosambi, “is the Bhagavad-Gītā, a discourse supposedly uttered by the god Krishna just before the fighting. The god himself was new; his supreme godhead would not be admitted for centuries afterwards.”11 In this way the epics came to include historical truths alongside religious fables.
12 So as you continue your search for Sruti, a complete revelation of God’s truth, consider next the Puranas, upon which Hindu worship is based today.
[Footnotes]
^ par. 4 The Hebrew account, the oldest and most accurate, appears in Genesis 6-8, the Bible’s first book, chapters 6, 7, and 8.
[Box on page 14]
The Epics—Did You Know?
“Embedded in one book of the great Indian epic the Mahābhārata occurs the Bhagavad-Gītā, or Song of God, the most popular work in all the religious literature of India. . . . Without fear of contradiction it may be said to be the Holy Bible of India, though, unlike the Upaniṣads, it is not regarded as Śruti, or revealed scripture, but only as Smṛti, or tradition elaborating the doctrines of the Upaniṣads.”—The Spiritual Heritage of India, Swami Prabhavananda, 1980, page 95.
[Box on page 15]
How do the epics measure up to these criteria?
They should:
1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him
2. Teach true doctrines and morals
3. Be free from myths