The document provides background information on Hindu myths and beliefs as recorded in ancient Sanskrit texts. It discusses how the Vedas, Upanishads, and other scriptures describe core Hindu concepts like dharma, karma, samsara, and moksha. Mythical stories from these texts explain Hindu cosmology, including various versions of creation myths involving gods like Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The document also explores the historical context and significance of myths in ancient Indian society.

1. The Radiance of A Thousand Suns:
The Myths of India

2. ► India lay in the fact that it was largely set apart
by its physical boundaries – the Arabian Sea
and a large desert, the Thar, to the west; the
Bay of Bengal to the east; and to the north, the
towering, snowcapped Himalayas that
separated India from China.
► Yet remote, obscure India beckoned to the
West for centuries. First for its silks and spices.
Then, later, for its approach to contemplating
the “Big Questions” – eternity, good, evil, and
the meaning of life. With a cosmic view
completely at odds with traditional Western
thought, India has long been interested in the
transcendent and the immortal, the idea that
creation and destruction are an endless cycle,
that the soul is an essence searching for
perfection through reincarnation.

3. How do we know what the ancient
Indians believed?
► When the Aryans arrived in the Indus Valley sometime
between 1700 and 1500 BCE, they brought along
Sanskrit, the oldest known written language of India.
Although Sanskrit died out as a “living language” by
about 100 BCE, it was used – like the Latin of
medieval Europe – as the “learned language” of
poetry, science, philosophy, and religion.
► Forming the core of Hinduism’s beliefs and practices,
the collections of Sanskrit hymns, poetry, philosophical
dialogues, and legends all exist in an imposing set of
texts that include, most significantly, the Vedas and
Upanishads, the epic poems Ramayana and the
Mahabharata – which contains an important section
called the Bhagavad-Gita – and the Puranas.

4. ► The oldest sacred Sanskrit writings, the Vedas
were thought to be composed beginning about
1400 BCE over a period of nearly 1,100 years,
an era in India’s history called the “Vedic
period.” The Vedas are considered to be older
than the sacred writings of any other major
existing religion, including the Hebrew Old
Testament. Only the ancient Egyptians pyramid
texts are older. Like many mythic and religious
documents, the Vedas probably first existed in
oral form for centuries, and may go back as far
as 4000 BCE.

5. ► There are four Vedas, beginning with the oldest and
most famous, the Rig-Veda. (The later Vedas include
Sama-veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda.)
► The Vedas have been studied not only for their
religious significance, but for their connection to the
early history of the Indo-European languages,
including the Greek, Latin, Germanic, and Slavic
language families, which as derived from archaic
Sanskrit.
► The word “Veda” means “knowledge,” and sacred
knowledge in particular. Roughly equivalent to the
Hebrew Psalms of the Old Testament, the Vedas are
poetic collections that provided the songbook for the
holy rites of the early Vedic religion. The Rig-Veda
contains more than one thousand hymns, totaling
more than ten thousand verses – an enormous
number, compared to the 150 biblical Psalms.

6. ► Upanishads are deeply philosophical works, one
hundred and eight of which have been
preserved; they appeared between 800 and
600 BCE and formed a basic part of Hinduism
as it evolved.
► Expressing the idea that knowledge brings
spiritual uplift, the Upanishads also introduced
the notion that one lifetime is not enough to
gather all the necessary knowledge. By
accumulating knowledge over many rebirths,
one can finally be rejoined with Brahman and
achieve moksha, the ultimate “release” or
“salvation” that is the true goal of all human
beings.

7. ► Another key source of India’s myths is the
Mahabharata, one of the longest literary works
in history, more than seven times the combined
length of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
► The second of India’s two epic poems in the
Ramayana, which supposedly describes events
that took place 870,000 years ago.
► Lastly, there is a large collection of Sanskrit
texts called Puranas, which were compiled
between the early centuries of the Common Era
and as recently as the sixteenth century.

8. What role did myth play in ancient
India?
► There is no equivalent word for “myth” in
India’s numerous languages.
► That does not mean that there were/are no
myths. It simply means that, to them, the
myths were truths.

9. ► With the introduction of the Upanishads
between 800 and 500 BCE, a striking shift in
India’s mythic mind-set took place. The
emphasis was no longer on the simple, ancient
belief in sacrificing to individual gods who could
provide protection, send a good husband, or
bring rain to make the plaints grow. The
emergence of the Upanishads ushered in a new
era of far more abstract belief, in which the
many gods of ancient times were reduced to
the single concept called Brahman, and the
emphasis was placed on escaping an endless
cycle of death, rebirth, and reincarnation in
order for the human soul to link with Brahman,
the Absolute Godhead.

10. ► Making that cosmic leap involved another notion
introduced with the Upanishads – that of karma, the
law of cause and effect which dictates that every
action has consequences that influence how the soul
will be reborn. Unlike the Egyptian or Christian
notion, in which proper behavior might guarantee a
pleasant afterlife, this Indian concept – simply put –
held that living a good life means the soul will be
born into a higher state in its next incarnation. An
evil life did not mean eternal damnation but a
rebirth of the soul into a lower state, possibly even
as an animal. This ongoing cycle of life-death-
reincarnation continues until a person ultimately
achieves spiritual perfection, at which point the soul
enters a new level of existence called moksha
(“release” or “salvation”), in which it is joined with
Brahman, the divine godhead.

11. ► As these more abstract religious concepts took
hold, the old rituals were not abandoned, but
made part of a new order that was contained
within a concept call dharma – an all-inclusive
sense of moral and spiritual “duty” with
implications of truth and righteousness as well.
In essence, dharma means the correct way of
living. Maintaining dharma is believed to bring
rhythm to the natural world and order in
society. When dharma is not upheld, the result
is uncertainty, natural disaster, and accidents.

12. ► Essential to maintaining dharma was careful
adherence to sacred religious observances and
the social order. Every man was supposed to
do his duty as defined by his station.
► For women, there was only one dharma: Obey
the father when unmarried, the husband when
married, and the son when widowed.

13. ► There were four principal castes systems (or social
classes), each with its own rules of behavior,
particularly regarding marriage. Marrying outside of
one’s caste – like an English aristocrat marrying a
“commoner” – just wasn’t done. It was not dharma.
► On top of the caste system were the Brahmins, the
priests and scholars concerned with spiritual matters;
next came Kshatriyas, the rulers and warriors who
administered the society; beneath them were the
Vaisyas, the merchants and professionals who
managed the society’s economy; and then the Sudras,
the laborers who serviced the society.
► For centuries, one large group has ranked below even
the lowest, Sudra caste. Known as Dalits (“broken” or
“ground down”), they were the “untouchables” who
performed the most menial tasks and existed outside
the four castes – giving us the English word “outcast.”

14. The River Ganges
► The Ganges, revered as the physical manifestation of the
goddess Ganga and had been associated with purification
since ancient times. Bathing in the waters of the Ganges is
still a lifelong ambition for Hindu worshippers and, each
year, thousands visit such holy cities as Varanasi and
Allahabad in pilgrimages to do just that. Temples line the
banks of the Ganges and ghats (stairways) lead down to
the river, where the pilgrims come to bathe and carry
home some of its water. While some come only to cleanse
and purify themselves, the sick and crippled come – just as
thousands of Christian pilgrims flock to such “miraculous”
sites as Lourdes – hoping that the touch of the water will
cure their ailments. Others come to die in the river,
because the Hindus believe that those who die in the
Ganges will have their sins removed.

15. ► Another later symbol of the order permeating Indian
society was the construction of Hindu temples.
► Constructed to venerate a particular deity, these
temples, now located across India, housed the god,
whose devotees came to the temple for a glimpse of
the divine in order to absorb the god’s power and
carry that power with them in their daily lives. When
they came to the temple, worshippers expressed
adoration, made offerings, and sought blessings.
Often adorned with erotic sculptures celebrating the
Hindu pantheon, these temples represented another
step in India’s evolving society. Not satisfied with
approaching the divine through trees, animals, rivers,
and natural rock formations, the kings sponsored the
making of idols of Gods and Goddesses in metal and
stone that were enshrined in temples.

16. ► Between 800 and 1300, vast temple complexes
came into being. They were controlled and
managed by brahmins, who once again came
to dominate society… Caste hierarchy
manifested in the temple tradition too, with
caste based on occupation determining
whether one was allowed to enter the temple
or not. With rituals came the idea of pollution.
Those at the bottom of the caste hierarchy –
sweepers, cobblers, and other menial laborers
– were the most polluted.

17. If it’s all an endless cycle of birth and
destruction, where does the Hindu
Creation begin?
► Maybe the “One” knows. Maybe the “One”
doesn’t know.
► There are many to choose from.

18. 1.
►A supreme goddess lays three eggs in a lotus, and
from the emerge three worlds and three gods –
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. When the first two of
these gods refuse to make love to their “mother,” she
reduces them to ashes with her scorching gaze. But
Shiva agrees to do the deed in exchange for the
goddess’ fiery third eye. Once he has received it, Shiva
shows no mercy – he uses the third eye to incinerate
his mother and revive his two sibling gods. Deciding to
populate the world, the godly trio realizes that they
need wives. So, they divide the remains of the
cremated goddess into three ahs heaps and, using the
power of the third eye, create three goddesses.
Together, these three gods and three goddesses
populate the cosmos.

19. 2.
►A golden egg floats in the primordial waters.
The golden egg is broken in half by the god
Brahma in his role as the creator. The two
halves of the egg shell then form heaven and
earth. The mountains, clouds, and mists
originate from the egg’s membranes, the rivers
from its veins, and the ocean from the egg’s
fluid.

20. 3.
► The god Vishnu lies resting on a many-hooded
serpent – often a mythic symbol of
regeneration, since it shed its skin – whose
numerous coils symbolize the endless cycles of
time. When Vishnu assumes the form of an all-
consuming fire that destroys the universe, rain
clouds appear and extinguish the flames,
leaving behind a great sea. Lying on the
serpent floating in this immense sea, Vishnu
falls into a deep sleep. A lotus sprouts from his
navel, and within the lotus is Brahman, the
creative force that sets in motion the process of
regeneration once more.

21. 5.
► Manu is the first man, son of Brahma and
Sarasvati, and his story has clear parallels to
that of Noah and the other Mesopotamian flood
survivors. When the world is threatened by a
flood, Brahma takes the form of a fish and tells
Manu to build a large boat and store on it all
the seeds of living things on earth. As the
floodwaters rise, everything is submerged, but
Manu’s boat lands on the highest peak in the
Himalayas. Eventually the floodwaters recede,
and Manu makes an offering to the gods, which
produces a beautiful woman named Parsu. She
and Manu become parents of the human race.

22. How do you get ten gods in one?
► Simple. Count their “avatars.”
► In the breadth of Indian myth, gods often appear in
many physical forms called avatars. Based on a
Sanskrit word meaning “descent of a deity from
heaven,” an avatar isn’t simply a disguise that a god
slips on and off – like Zeus becoming a thunderbolt or
a swan and then turning back into Zeus again. Nor is
it a simple manifestation, such as the goddess Ganga
appearing as the Ganges River. An avatar is an
entirely separate entity. In Hindu myth and theology,
an avatar can be human or animal and have its own
name, personality, physical characteristics, and
purpose in life.

23. What is Nirvana?
► Nirvana is the concept of being peaceful and
blessed that describes one’s state of mind in
Buddhism.
► Known to millions from those rotund little
statues that show him sitting with his legs
crossed, in the lotus position, his eyelids
serenely closed, the palms of his hands turned
up, Buddha is a universally recognizable
character. He was born Siddhartha Gautama
around 563 BCE on the Nepal-India border,
about 145 miles southwest of Katmandu,
according to archaeological excavations
completed in 1995.

25. ► Beyond those meager details, however, there is little concrete
information about his life. Buddhist legend suggests that the
Buddha’s mother, Maya, dreamed of her son coming into her
womb in the form of a white elephant. According to folklore,
earthquakes attended the Buddha’s birth. And Buddha himself
claimed that he was an incarnation of the ancient Hindu god
Indra.
► And then there is the well-known “biography” that starts with
Buddha’s decadent youth in the palace of his warrior-caste
father, King Suddhodhana. When Suddhodhana receives a
prophecy that his son will not become a great ruler if he sees
the pain of the world, the father tried to shelter his son, even
prohibiting the use of the words “death” and “grief” in
Siddhartha’s presence. Each time his son leaves the palace
Suddhodhana orders the servants to go before him, sweeping
the streets and decorating them with flowers. Another legend
says that Siddhartha is given three palaces and between
10,000 and 40,000 dancing girls to keep him occupied.

26. ► But reality catches up with Siddhartha. After he
marries the princess Yasodhara and has a
newborn son, the twentysomethingish
Siddhartha has a series of visions – or actual
encounters. In the first vision, he sees an old
man. In the second, he sees a sick man, and in
the third, a corpse. In the fourth vision, he
meets a wandering holy man. The first three
visions convince Siddhartha that life involves
aging, sickness, and death – that “everything
must decay.” The vision of the holy man
convinces him that he should leave his family
and seek spiritual enlightenment.

27. ► Following these insights, Siddhartha renounces his family and
wealth, and becomes a wandering monk practicing extreme
forms of self-denial and self-torture for the next six years.
Living in filth and eating only a single grain of rice some days,
he pulls hairs from his beard, one by one, to inflict pain. But
Siddhartha eventually realizes that extreme self-denial and self-
torture can never lead to enlightenment, and abandons the
practices.
► One day, Siddhartha wanders into a village and sits under s
shady fig tree, known as the bo, or bodhi, tree (“tree of
wisdom”), determined to meditate until he gains enlightenment
and completes his quest for the secret of release from
suffering. As he sits in meditation, Siddhartha is tempted by the
evil demon Mara, much as the biblical gospels tell of the
temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. First, the demon sends
his beautiful daughters to seduce Siddhartha. But Siddhartha
resists. Then the demon threatens the young man with devils.
But Siddhartha stands firm. In a final act, the devil throws a
fiery discus at Siddhartha’s head, but it is transformed into a
canopy of flowers.

28. ► After sitting for five weeks and enduring a world-
shattering storm, Siddhartha finally achieves
enlightenment. The roots of suffering are desires, he
discovers, and one only has to reach a sate without
desire to overcome suffering. Released from all
suffering and from the cycles of reincarnation,
Siddhartha becomes Buddha and decides to show
other people the way, preaching a doctrine of
compassion and moderation.
► In a religious coming-out ceremony near the holy city
of Varansi, Buddha preaches his first sermon to five
holy men. This sermon, which includes the “saving
truth” of Buddha’s message, is one of the most sacred
events in Buddhism.

29. ► As Buddha continues preaching throughout
northern India, he attracts disciples and his
fame increases. Soon stories begin to spread
among his followers, describing his religious
insight and compassion – along with tales of his
magical powers. His followers believe that
Buddha has lived many lives before being born
as Siddhartha Gautama, and the stories
describing the events of these lives, called
jatakas, become the popular means of
understanding Buddha’s message, which
includes the concept of Nirvana.

30. ► According to Buddhist belief, the perfect peace
and blessedness is a state called Nirvana.
Attaining Nirvana enables a person to escape
from the continuous cycle of death and rebirth
caused by an individual’s worldly desires, such
as craving for fame, immortality, and wealth. In
Buddhism, people attain Nirvana only when
such desires are completely eliminated.
► Buddha preached that Nirvana can be attained
by following a Middle Way between the
extremes of ascetic self-denial and sensuality,
yet living in the world with compassion and by
practicing the Noble Eight-fold Path, which
consists of:

31. 1. Perfect understanding, or Knowledge of the truth
2. Perfect aspiration, the intention to resist evil
3. Perfect speech, or saying nothing to hurt others
4. Perfect conduct through respecting life, morality,
and property
5. Perfect means of livelihood, or holding a job that
does not injure others
6. Perfect endeavor, striving to free the mind of evil
7. Perfect mindfulness through controlling one’s
feelings and thoughts
8. Perfect contemplation through the practice of
proper forms of concentration

32. ► At about the age of eighty, Buddha became ill and
died. His disciples gave him an elaborate funeral,
burned his body, and distributed his bones as sacred
relics.
► In Indian history, Buddhism reached a high mark of
sorts when an Indian emperor named Ashoka
converted in 262 BCE, renounced violence, and named
Buddhism the state religion. In Buddhism tradition,
Ashoka had become horrified at the cost of empire-
building and embraced Buddhism. Today, Buddhism is
one of the major religions of the world and it has been
a dominant religious and social force in most of Asia
for more than two thousand years. There are an
estimated 364 million followers today.

33. ► Emerging in about the same era as Buddhism did, the
second major offshoot of Hinduism is Jainism. Like
Buddhism, Jainism is traced to a man who is believed
to be an actual historical individual. Mahavira is said to
have been born to aristocratic parents in 540 BCE and
was a contemporary of Buddha, though they may
have never met. Nonetheless, as gods were said to
have descended from heaven and showered flowers,
nectar, and fruit on his father’s place. There are many
legends about his extraordinary childhood, but as an
adult, he is said to have lived an ordinary life until his
parents died. Then, at the age of thirty-two, he gave
away his possessions, left his wife and child, and
became a wandering monk. The sky glowed life a lake
covered in lotus flowers when this happened.

34. ► Mahavira’s teachings form the basis for Jainism, which
is centered on the belief that every living thing
consists of an eternal soul called the jiva and a
temporary physical body. Attaining release from the
world of sorrows can be achieved by renouncing sin
and violence, engaging instead in strict penance and
extreme, disciplined, nonviolent conduct. In Jainsim,
sadhus (holy men) and sadhvis (holy women) try to
separate themselves from the everyday world through
a vow of poverty and may not own any property
except a broom, simple robes, bowls for food, and
walking sticks. They may not live in buildings except
for brief periods and must beg for all their food. They
are not allowed to kill any living creature, and Jain
monks wear a veil or mask over their mouths, so they
don’t accidentally swallow any insects.

36. ► Small in number, with some 4 million adherents
worldwide, Jainism has been influential,
nonetheless. Laypeople, or followers who are
not priests or holy men and women, observe a
less rigorous code of conduct, and support the
priesthood. Many of them are businesspeople
who have flourished, in no small part, because
Jainists enjoy a reputation for scrupulous
honesty in commercial activity that does not
directly involve killing any living thing.