1. India’s Ancient Epics and Tales (Volume A)
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2. India, 1200 B.C.E.–100 C.E.
The Indian subcontinent stretches from the borders of Iran and Afghanistan to those of Myanmar, and from the edges of Tibet and China to the Indian Ocean. The ancient Greeks knew this region as Indos, a term adapted from the Persians.

3. History before the time of historical records
Indus-Harappan, trade culture
Indo-Aryan, agrarian culture
Sanskrit
the Vedas
Harappan civilization had extensive contacts with Mesopotamia during the time that Gilgamesh was being composed in Sumerian. A technological people, the Harappans had a writing system. They were displaced by the Indo-Aryans, who arrived around 2000 B.C.E.; they established an organized agrarian village society distinct from the urban society of their Indus-Harappan predecessors, who had focused on trade. The Indo-Aryans brought the language that eventually became Sanskrit. The first works were hymns and ritual formulas composed in Sanskrit, gathered together in a discourse called the Vedas.

4. Vedas and Upanisads sacred texts visionaries (rsis) poets (kavis)
ritual formulas (mantras)
commentary (śāstras)
rule books (sūtras)
Vedic hymns are in verse, given by the gods to visionaries (rsis) called poets (kavis). The texts are not poetry, but rather are ritual formulas (mantras) that are sacred revelations, and which are explained using specialized commentary (sastras) and rule books (sutras).
The image shows Visnu as Matsya, returning the Vedas to Brahman (17th century)

5. Hinduism self-generation primordial substance godhead Purusa (spirit)
Brahman (Upanisads)
moksa
atman
One of the most influential ideas in Hinduism is that the universe, as it exists, is fashioned in a vast process of self-generation, in which all primordial substance out of which it is made is godhead itself. Godhead is the absolute and undifferentiated original matter of the universe, and it divides itself into everything that exists. In some Vedic hymns, this all-pervading godhead is called Purusa (spirit); in the Upanisads, it is renamed Brahman (anthropomorphic god of creation). The soul, spirit, or self (atman) that animates every living creature is nothing but a piece of Purusa or Brahman; union with the elemental stuff is possible only if it can achieve moksa (liberation) from its differentiated existence.
The image shows Rama’s death (17th century). The long caption includes the following: “Rama and his procession reaching the banks of the river Sarayu outside of Ayodhya, while Brahma and the other gods appear above to witness Rama’s ascent.” Students will note persons diving into the waters, who have attained moksa, as shown by their ascent into the celestial realm with Rama at the top left.

6. Brahmana Caste
The Hindu canon as a whole was transmitted orally throughout the ancient period. Specialist priests and scholars belonging to the brahmana caste were trained from early childhood to memorize an entire work in multiple form. A good Vedic priest, for example, can recite all 1,028 hymns of the ten books of the Rg-veda, confirm their correct order, and reproduce any individual verse at will as well as orally list every occurrence of a given word in the text.
The image shows a brahmana performing the puja ritual. Taken at Taptapani, Orissa. The offering is made to deities, guests, and important persons, based on exchanging a gift for a blessing. At temples, where it is believed the patron deity resides rather than visits as a guest, the ritual involves “awakening” rather than “invoking” the god.

7. Rg-Veda Vedic hymns Punjab small republic hereditary monarchs
With the expansion of agriculture and cattle breeding to support the first towns and cities (i.e., Ayodhya), the first political form in India emerged: the small republic centered around an urban capital, ruled by a lineage of hereditary monarchs. The first Vedic hymns, the Rg-veda samhita, were composed in Punjab as the Indo-Aryans pushed farther east.
The image depicts Raja Drupada, begging Shiva to grant him a boon (1616). The image includes a very long caption, and a short excerpt is cited here: The subject of this painting by the artist Pemji is the Razmnama, or Book of Wars, a Persian translation of India’s great epic, the Mahabharata. In this illustration, King Drupada visits the god Shiva to request the gift of a son; Shiva grants him instead a daughter who will one day turn into a man. Students might compare this story, incidentally, with the tale of transformation in Ovid’s Metamorphoses concerning Iphis.

8. Ramayana caste brahmanas, ksatrivas, vaisyas, sudras endogamy
political leadership
Valmiki’s Ramayana, composed and transmitted orally from its onset, is classified as the first poem in Sanskrit because it emphasizes imaginative and aesthetic excellence outside a religious context. In this framework, Visnu is the “supreme god” who manifests all aspects of godhead; and Vedic rituals are essential for pleasing various gods and ensuring that individuals can pursue moksa. At the same time, the epic depicts a hierarchical society divided into four caste-groups by birth: brahmanas (priests), ksatriyas (warriors), vaisyas (traders), and sudras (servants). Caste is divinely ordained and immutable; an individual, therefore, cannot migrate from one caste to another based on talent or accomplishment. The system is maintained through endogamous marriage, in which legitimate spouses must belong to the same caste-group. The Ramayana also depicts a society of villages and small republics, in which dynasties of kings do not yet pursue imperial ambitions: the role is to preserve the divine order of things.
The image shows a pediment depicting the battle of Lanka (in the Ramayana). University temple Preah Khan at Angkor.

9. Mahābhārata end of republican ideal Hinduism “untouchables” polygamy
The Mahabharata represents a world of powerful monarchies and medium-sized kingdoms, from which the older republican ideal was beginning to fade. The evolving world was shaped by Hinduism. Composed a little after the Ramayana, the Mahabharata describes a village society that coexists with a more complex urban world: the land is divided into many sizable dynastic kingdoms on the verge of imperial formations. The four caste-groups have separated into five, with the addition of “untouchables” and foreigners. While the Ramayana upholds the ideal of monogamous marriage within caste boundaries, the Mahabharata explores multiple marriages and reproductive relationships. The later poem adopts more complex views on how action (karma) can accord with divine law (dharma); many judgments regarding the rightness and wrongness of particular actions founder in uncertainty.
The image shows Arjuna’s penance in the Mahabharata (ca. 1825–40). Housed in the Brooklyn Museum.

10. Bhagavad-gitā
The Bhagavad-gita, which is part of the Mahabharata, tackles the dilemmas of karma in the most difficult of situations: when is war just, how can violence and killing ever be justified, and under what circumstances can human beings even conceive of taking up arms against family and loved ones? The arguments about the human and the divine, and about social and political organization, launched by the Indo-Aryans toward the end of the second millennium B.C.E. reach their poetic culmination in the encyclopedic structure of the Mahabharata a thousand years later.
The carpet depicts Krishna and Arjun on the chariot (18th century). Housed in the Smithsonian Freer Sackler Gallery.

11. Jataka Tales Buddhism, Jainism mosksa versus nirvāna karma
reincarnation
Great Vows (mahavrata)
Siddhartha
The strongest criticism and rejection of Hindu theology of Brahman and atman came from two near contemporaries of Valmiki: Mahavira, the last of Janism’s founders, and Siddhartha-Guatama Buddha, who launched Buddhism. Jainism is based on cultivation of the self to attain nirvana by practicing five vows (Mahavrata): nonviolence, truthfulness, nonstealing, celibacy, and nonpossession. Buddhism argued that there is no god beyond god (as postulated in Hinduism), no creation by differentiation, and that the universe therefore has no substantial reality. Our perception of the self, therefore, is an illusion, and the only end of life can be a “snuffing out” (nirvana), which is the exact opposite of what Hindus call mosksa (the liberation of a substantial atman from a material body, so that it can reunite with the ultimate substance, Brahman). Buddhism does, though, accept the reality of karma and rebirth. Buddhism is present in the Jataka tales, part of the canon of Theravada Buddhism in the Pali language.
The image is a photograph of a wall painting from the Degaidoruwa temple (17th century), depicting the Satthu Battha story from the Jataka.

12. Changes internal religious division religious dissent
arrival of new faiths
diversity and pluralism
The Indian subcontinent was not politically united; this pattern continued into the Common Era down to modern times. The ancient period witnessed internal religious division, with Jainism and Buddhism dissenting from Hinduism, and with the arrival of other faiths including Zoroastrianism (ca. 11th century), Christianity and Sikhism (16th century), and Islam. Diversity and pluralism, therefore, define the distinctive context of early epics and tales.

13. India
The Indian subcontinent, as depicted in this map, developed as a distinct cultural zone, with different language and social traditions than its Asian neighbors China and the Middle East. The earliest settlements in this region centered around Harappa and the Indus Valley. Alexander the Great, leading a powerful army, invaded the subcontinent in 326 B.C.E. Despite winning early victories, Alexander’s armies eventually revolted, refusing to move further east into India. At this point, the army traveled south along the Indus before beginning to move away from India, back through the deserts of the Middle East. Also depicted on the map is the journey of Rama (see the Ramayana of Valmiki, NAWOL, Volume A, Section II). This important figure in the Hindu tradition spent many years in exile before returning to be crowned king in Ayodhyā, his home city.

14. Test Your Knowledge
Indo-Aryan culture, which displaced Indus-Harappan culture starting about 2000 B.C.E., focused primarily on which of the following?
a. military conquest b. large-scale monoculture c. trade and industry d. family farming
Answer: D
Section: The Prehistoric Origins of Indian Literature
Feedback: Indo-Aryan society developed around family farms. This produced some of the basic social structures that shaped, and continue to shape, Indian culture.

15. Test Your Knowledge
What was the primary language used to produce Indian literature even into the nineteenth century?
a. English b. Indian c. Latin d. Sanskrit
Answer: D
Section: The Prehistoric Origins of Indian Literature
Feedback: Indo-Aryans used a language that would evolve into Sanskrit, the primary language in which Indian literature was produced for some three thousand years (1200 B.C.E to 1800 C.E.).

16. Test Your Knowledge
The earliest works composed in South Asia were hymns. These were organized into four groups called: ___________ .
a. Vedas b. Upaniṣads c. kāvya d. mantras
Answer: A
Section: Orality and Writing in India
Feedback: These early hymns, written in Sanskrit, were collected in four groups called the Vedas, which in turn gave rise to a growing body of written works called “scripture” (1200–700 B.C.E.). The Vedic period lasted until about 500 B.C.E.

17. Test Your Knowledge
Hinduism, the primary religion in ancient India, is characterized by which of the following?
a. monotheism b. polyandry c. polytheism d. brahmanism
Answer: C
Section: Society, Politics, and Religion
Feedback: Hinduism is polytheistic. Attributes of a supreme but intangible “godhead” are understood to manifest in a wide range of divine figures, including Śiva, Viṣṇu, and Brahmā.

18. Test Your Knowledge
Alternative religious beliefs to Hinduism found expression in which of the following?
a. the Rāmāyana b. the Mahābhārata c. the Bhagavad-gītā d. the Jātaka tales
Answer: D
Section: The Religious Contexts of Epic and Tale
Feedback: By the sixth century B.C.E., alternatives to the Hindu belief system were being expressed. Buddhist belief, particularly as it contrasted to Hinduism, found expression in the fourth-century B.C.E. Jātaka tales.

19. This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for The Norton Anthology
of World Literature