Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/27

Ethic of the Rāmăyana to seventh century ); but of course the essential subject-matter is much more ancient. The version given in the present volume amounts to about one-twentieth of the whole Rāmāyana. It is a condensed translation, in which all the most essential matters are included; while no episode or figure of speech has been added for which the original does not afford authority.

Ethic of the Rāmāyana

Not the least significant feature of Vālmīki's epic lies in its remarkable presentation of two ideal societies: an ideal good and an ideal evil. He abstracts, as it were, from human life an almost pure morality and an almost pure immorality, tempered by only so much of the opposite virtue as the plot necessitates. He thus throws into the strongest relief the contrast of good and evil, as these values presented themselves to the shapers of Hindu society. For it should be understood that not merely the lawgivers, like Manu, but also the poets of ancient India, conceived of their own literary art, not as an end in itself, but entirely as a means to an end—and that end, the nearest possible realization of an ideal society. The poets were practical sociologists, using the great power of their art deliberately to mould the development of human institutions and to lay down ideals for all classes of men. The poet is, in fact, a philosopher, in the Nietzschean sense of one who stands behind and directs the evolution of a desired type. Results have proved the wisdom of the chosen means; for if Hindu society has ever as a whole approached the ideal or ideals which have been the guiding force in its development, it is through hero-worship. The Vedas, indeed, belonged essentially to the learned; but the epics have been translated into every vernacular by 7