THE RAMA YANA.

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in every sorrow and triumph of the five brethren; bears a sonto each ; and finally enters with the true-hearted band into theglory of Indra. Her five joint husbands take a terrible vengeanceon insult offered to her, and seem quite unaware that a laterage would deem her position one which required explanation . 1

The struggle for the kingdom of Hastinapura forms, how-ever, only a fourth of the Mahabharata . The remainder con- The rest ofsists of later additions. Some of these are legends of the earlyAryan settlements in the Middle Land of Bengal, tacked on tothe central story; others are mythological episodes, theologicaldiscourses, and philosophic disquisitions, intended to teach themilitary caste its duties, especially its duty of reverence to theBrahmans. Taken as a whole, the Mahabharata may be saidto form the cyclopaedia of the Heroic Age in Northern India,with the struggle of the Pandavas and Kauravas as its originalnucleus, and the submission of the military power to priestlydomination as its later didactic design.

The second great Indian epic, the Ramayana, recounts the Theadvance of the Aryans into Southern India. Unlike the Rama ‘Mahabharata , its composition is assigned not- to a compiler ya "

( Vydsa) in the abstract, but to a named poet , Valmiki . Onthe other hand, the personages and episodes of the Ramayanahave an abstract or mythological character, which contrasts withthe matter-of-fact stories of the Mahabharata . The heroineof the Ramayana, Sita , is literally the ‘ field-furrow',’ to whomthe Vedic hymns and early Aryan ritual paid divine honour.

She represents Aryan husbandry, and has to be defended Its alle-against the raids of the aborigines by the hero Rama , an incar- ^aracternation of the Aryan deity Vishnu , and born of his divine nectar.

Rama is regarded by Weber as the analogue of Balarama ,the ‘ Ploughbearer ’ ( Halabhrit ). From this abstract point ofview, the Ramayana exhibits the progress of Aryan plough-husbandry among the mountains and forests of Central andSouthern India; and the perils of the agricultural settlers fromthe non-ploughing nomadic cultivators and hunting tribes.

The abduction of Slta by an aboriginal or demon prince, who Its centralcarried her off to Ceylon ; her eventual recovery by Rama ; ^ ea ’and the advance of the Aryans into Southern India, form the

1 The beautiful story of Savitri, the wife faithful to the end, is told inthe Mahabharata by the sage Markandeya in answer to Yudishthira’squestion whether any woman so true and noble as Draupadi had ever beenknown. Savitri, on the loss of her husband, dogged the steps of Yama,

King of Death , until she wrung from him, one by one, many blessings forher family, and finally the restoration of her husband to life, from thereluctant god.