ABSTRACT
Lawrence A. Babb closes his fine study of popular Hinduism in Central India, The Divine Hierarchy, with the following words:
In the texts the distance between man and the great deities is given a temporal character. Ages ago there was a time, known to us through scripture, when the great deities lived and warred with the enemies of man and gods alike on the very ground men inhabit today. But this was a time when the great questions were being decided—issues of far greater moment than humanity’s petty troubles. High divinity and the world of human experience have subsequently separated. In this kali yug, this present age of darkness and evil, divinity touches the world hestitantly, and not always to the advantage of mankind. 1
