ABSTRACT
Foremost amongst the many valuable relics of the old-world literature of India stand the two famous epics, the "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata," which are loved with an untiring love by the Hindus, for they have kept alive, through many a dreary century, the memory of the ancient heroes of the land, whose names are still borne by the patient husbandman and the proud chief. Both the "Bamayana" and "Mahabharata" are very lengthy works which, taken together, would make up not less than about five and twenty printed volumes of ordinary size. The epics are a storehouse of Brahmanical instruction in the arts of politics and government; in cosmogony and religion; in mythology and mysticism; in ritualism and the conduct of daily life. Being religious books, the "Bamayana" and "Mahabharata" are, more or less, known to the Hindus. In wild legends shall discover subtle allegories veiling sober history and in archaic notions shall recognize, with admiration, the structure of modern philosophy.
