Hinduism - 9

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9. The Epics

 

The period of the Epics succeeded the period of the Upanishads. In the Ramayana

and the Mahabharata, philosophical doctrines were presented in the form of

stories and parables. In these poems of the heroic age recounting the qualities

and exploits of exalted individuals the Vedic gods are no longer supreme. Some

have disappeared altogether. Indra retains a place of some dignity; but Brahma,

Siva and Vishnu have risen to pre-eminence. Even of these three, the first

becomes subordinate. Vishnu and Siva become the out- standing entities and are

alternately elevated to supreme dignity and very often their ultimate oneness is

proclaimed. Vishnu in the Vedas was the friend and companion of Indra and strode

over the universe in three paces; in the Epics he often becomes the great deity

of destruction as well as of renovation. Each of these two gods in his turn

contends with and subdues the other; now one, now the other, receives the homage

of his rival; and each in turn is lauded and honoured as the greatest of gods.

 

The Avatars

 

The Avatars, incarnations of Vishnu, assume a prominent place in the Epics, and

more so in the Puranas. The first three, Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise) and

Varaha (boar) have a cosmic character and are foreshadowed in the hymns of the

Vedas. The fourth incarnation, Narasimha (man-lion), seems to belong to a later

age, when the worship of Vishnu had become established. The fifth, Vamana

(dwarf), whose three strides deprived the Asuras of the domination of heaven and

earth, is in character anterior to the fourth Avatar and the three strides are

attributed to Vishnu in the Vedic text as Urukrama.. The sixth, seventh and

eighth, Parasurama. Rama and Krishna are mortal heroes whose exploits are

celebrated in these poems so fervently as to raise the heroes to the rank of

gods. The ninth Avatar, the Buddha, is the deification of a great teacher. The

tenth, Kalki, is yet to come; he resembles the manifestation referred to in the

Biblical Revelation.

 

The system of religious thought propounded in the Vedas and the Epics and

especially in the Bhagavad-Gita (a part of the Mahabharata) survived the

Buddhist impact which led to a renunciation of much ritual and metaphysics on

the part of a sizable proportion of the population. Buddhism was absorbed into

the parent religion within a few centuries and Hinduism, as the Vedic religion

had come to be called, adopted the theory of the Avatars or incarnations

according to which the Buddha himself was accepted as Avatar. Jainism also

became, in essence, a doctrinal modification and adaptation of the Vedic

religion.