ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to demonstrate how the Western world of today is continuous with the Greek and Latin legacy in terms of the work of Homer, as much as the role of playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and mainly of the poets Virgil and Dante much later, in building that tradition. This continuity is seen as the necessary background for Darwin’s theory of evolution too to become part of the grand tradition called the West. An attempt is also made here to show how in India such continuity took a different turn after Kalidasa.
The difficult situation of even a poet such as Dante and his problematic portrayal of Prophet Muhammad find a mention here. Equally highlighted is the fact that the Christians retained their faith in the resurrection of Christ in addition to accepting the Old Testament. An attempt has been made to understand the limitations of the attitude adopted by Islam in ruling out the very possibility of another prophet after Muhammad, along with the turns suffered by the notions of heaven and hell as the concept of divinity kept changing.
