Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/41

The Epic of Hinduism, destined from his birth to a marvellous future, both in faith and art, as the forefront of all undertakings that are to make for success. Less ancient than the primitive Mother of the Dekkan villages, he was nevertheless, it may be, the beginning of organized worship. He was already old when Buddhism was young. Above all, he is the god neither of priests nor of kings, neither of theocracies nor of nations, but in all probability of that old diffusive mercantile culture, the civilization of the Bharatas. To this day he is the god pre-eminently of merchants, and it is a curious fact that in the Indian city, when a merchant is made bankrupt, the event is notified to all comers by the office Ganeshas being turned upside down!

The Epic of Hinduism

First of the popular scriptures of Hinduism—written early in the Christian era, for the now consolidating nation—was the epic poem of Vālmīki known as the Rāmāyana. This is the world gospel of purity and sorrow, but also, no less notably, the fairy-tale of nature. Since the beginning of the reign of Ganesha the age of the making of Buddhism and the Jātaka had come and gone, and with the passing centuries the sway of the Aryan genius had been more and more clearly felt. As in every work of art we obtain a glimpse of the culture that precedes it, so in the Rāmāyana, while there is a great deal that is prophetic of developments to come, we also find ourselves transported into the child-world of an earlier age. Like all such worlds, it was one in which birds and beasts could talk and comport themselves as men. To the folk of that time, it is clear, the forest was a realm of mystery. It was inhabited by scholars and anchorites. It was full of beautiful flowers and fragrance; it was the haunt of 19