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Indian Myth and Legend (1913)

Illustrated by Warwick Goble

To the left, we show a rare copy of Indian Myth and Legend - illustrated by Goble and published by The Gresham Publishing Company (London) in 1913.   This 1st Edition example retains the original decoratively black- and gilt-stamped green cloth cover.               On the right, we show the Title Page from the 1st Edition.

Indian Myth and Legend (1913) is an illustrated introduction to the mythology of India prepared by Donald A Mackenzie -

topic deal with in the text being summarised by the following chapter titles: "Indra, King of the Gods"; "The Great Vedic

Deities"; "Yama, the First Man, and King of the Dead"; "Demons and Giants and Fairies"; "Social and Regligious Developments

of the Vedic Age"; "Mysteries of Creation, the World's Ages, and Soul Wandering"; "New Faiths: Vishnu Religion, Buddhism,

and Jainism"; "Divinities of the Epic Period"; "Royal Rivals: The Pandavas and Kauravas"; "The Tournament"; "First Exile of

the Pandavas"; "The Choice of Draupadi"; "Triumph of the Pandavas"; "The Great Gambling Match"; "Second Exile of the

Pandavas"; "Defiance of Duryodhana"; "The Battle of Eighteen Days"; "Atonement and the Ascent to Heaven"; "Nala and

Damayanti"; "Wanderings in the Forest"; "Nala in Exile"; "The Homecoming of the King"; "Story of Rama: How Sita was

Won"; "The Rape of Sita"; and "Rama's Mission Fulfilled".

The Introduction written by the Mackenzie provides some further insight into the themes explored throughout his work.

Goble's contributions to Indian Myth and Legend are further examples of his superb interpretation of Eastern themes.

Our Greeting Cards and Reproduction Prints
 

For connoisseurs of Goble's work, we have prepared sets of 8 Greeting Cards displaying each of his colour images for the 1st Edition of Indian Myth and Legend and on the left, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear.               Code: WG IML CS(8) Price: US$40.00

When presented on Greeting Cards, these images are prepared as tipped-on plates - in hommage to the hand-crafted

approach typical of prestige illustrated publications produced in the early decades of the 20th Century. Each card is

hand-finished and and the images are presented on Ivory card stock with an accompanying envelope. The rear of each

card carries information about Warwick Goble, this wonderful suite and the profiled illustration - we have left the

interior of the cards blank so that you may write your own personal message.

Should you wish to order a Reproduction Print of one or more of these images, we have provided some options below.

Each of these large format prints is also accompanied by information about Warwick Goble, this suite and the profiled

illustration.

To purchase, simply click on the appropriate "Add to Cart" button and you will be taken through to our Shopping Cart

secured through PayPal. Multiple purchases will be consolidated by that feature and shipping and handling costs to any

destination in the world are accommodated by our flat-rate fee of US$20 for every US$200 worth of purchases.

Of course, should you wish to discuss some customised options, we welcome your contact on any matter through

ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com.

In the meantime, enjoy perusing these wonderful images from Warwick Goble.

The colour illustrations
 

Frontispiece   Sita finds Rama among the Lotus blooms	Prelude to the Great Baharata War   Shantanu meets the Goddess Ganga	Triumph of the Pandavas   Arjuna and the River Nymph	The Great Gambling Match   The Ordeal of Queen Draupadi
Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C1 10x15 Price: US$50.00	Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C2 10x15 Price: US$50.00	Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C3 10x15 Price: US$50.00	Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C4 10x15 Price: US$50.00
Atonement and the Ascent to Heaven   The Return of the Heroes slain in Battle	Nala and Damayanti   Damayanti and the Swan	Nala and Damayanti   Damayanti choosing a Husband	The Rape of Sita   Rama spurns the Demon Lover
Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C5 10x15 Price: US$50.00	Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C6 10x15 Price: US$50.00	Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C7 10x15 Price: US$50.00	Reproduction on 10x15" sheet Code: WG IML C8 10x15 Price: US$50.00

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Mackenzie's Introduction to Indian Myth and Legend

This volume deals with the myths and legends of India, which survive to us in the rich and abundant storehouse of Sanskrit

literature, and with the rise and growth of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism and other religions. The reader is introduced

to the various sacred works of the Hindus, including the ancient invocatory hymns of the four Vedas, the later speculative

and expository "Forest Books" in which "the Absolute is grasped and proclaimed", and those great epic poems the Ràmàyana,

which is three times longer than the Iliad, and the Màhàbharanta, which is four times longer than the Ràmàyana. In no

other country have the national poets given fuller and finer expression tot he beliefs and ideals and traditions of a people,

or achieved as a result wider and more enduring fame. At the present day over two hundred million Hindus are familiar in

varying degrees with the legendary themes and traditional beliefs which the ancient forest sages and poets of India invested

with much beautiful symbolism, and used as mediums for speculative thought and profound spiritual teachings. The sacred

books of India are to the Hindus what the Bible is to Christians. Those who read them, or hear them read, are believed to

be assured of prosperity in this world and of salvation in the next. To students of history, of ethnology, and of comparative

religion they present features of peculiar interest, for they contain an elaborate sociology of the ancient Aryo-Indians, their

political organizations, their codes of laws, their high ethical code, and above all their conceptions of God, the soul, and the

Universe. Some knowledge of them is necessary for those who desire to approach with sympathy the investigation of the

religious beliefs of our Hindu fellow men and to understand their outlook upon life and the world.

The Introduction deals with various aspects of the study of these ancient myths and legends which have been the inspiration

of a national literature infused with much grandeur and sublimity. The historic Aryan controversy, of which the science of

comparative mythology is a by-product, is passed under review, and it is shown to what extent philological theories

regarding race problems have been modified during recent years as a result of the adoption of broader and more exact

methods of ethnic and archæological research and the ever-extending study of comparative mythology. There has also been

condensed much important data dealing with the early phases of Aryo-Indian civilization accumulated for historical purposes

by industrious and painstaking Sanskrit scholars who have been engaged in investigating and systematizing the internal

evidence of the various religious poems and treatises. It will be found that no general agreement has yet been reached

regarding Aryo-Indian chronology, but it now appears to be well established that although there were early cultural as

well as racial "drifts", fresh invasions, which had far-reaching results in the social and religious life of northern India,

occurred at a late period in what is known as the Vedic Age. In consequence, the problem presented by this ancient

civilization tends rather to grow more complex than to become simplified. Its origin is still wrapped in obscurity. At the

very dawn of history Aryo-Indian culture had attained a comparatively high state of development, and a considerable

period must be allowed for its growth. Even some of the ancient Vedic hymns, addressed by priests to the deities, are

styled "new songs", which suggests the existence of an older collection. Many of them also afford indications that

immemorial beliefs were in process of change and fusion. The sublime deities, Varuna and Mitra (Mithra), for instance,

were already declining in splendour. Yet they must have been closely associated with Indra, king of the gods, in the

unknown Aryan homeland, as is made evident by and inscription recently deciphered at Boghaz Köi, in Asia Minor, which

refers to them as deities of the mysterious Mitanni people who were of Aryan speech like the settlers in the Punjab. There

is no evidence, however, that the Mitanni rulers gave recognition to the fire god Agni, who in India was exalted as the

twin brother of Indra. The problem involved may not be devoid of ethnic significance, although the identity of the

Agni-worshipping section of the early raiders remains obscure.

During the early Vedic Age in India prominence was given to the gods: the social organization was of patriarchal

character; the goddesses remained shadowy and vague, some being, indeed, little more than figures of speech. A great

change took place, however, after the invasions of the Bharata and other tribes who are now referred to as "late comers".

Profound and speculative thinkers attained to the pantheistic conception of the world soul; new doctrines, which are not

referred to in the Vedic hymns, regarding the ages of the universe and transmigration of souls, received wide acceptance as

the result of missionary efforts: the Vedic gods were reduced to the position of minor deities and new goddesses rose into

prominence, one indeed being Bharati, throw much light on the significance of the immemorial practice. White and black

horses were alternately favoured, and it is evident that the practice was not only associated with solar worship, but was also

intended to secure fertility - crops, and therefore rain in the first place, increase of flocks, hers, human offspring and the like -

as is undoubtedly the case among the modern-day Buriats. In India the horse was also offered up as a sin offering, a late

conception, evidently. A prominent feature of this sacrifice in most countries was the decapitation of the sacrificial victim.

Recent evidence from Egypt suggests that the sacrifice of the ass may have preceded the sacrifice of the horse. Professor

Flinders Petrie has found in a triple tomb in the early dynastic Tarkhan cemetery the skeletons of three asses with the heads

cut off and placed beside them. He suggests that the animals were killed to accompany their owner to the other world.

The Buriats still sacrifice horses at graves, professedly for the same reason. As this custom was not prevalent throughout

Ancient Egypt, it may have been an importation, connected, perhaps, with the myth about the sun-ass which gallops round

a hill-surrounded world followed by the pursuing night serpent. An isolated reference is also made to the sacrifice of the

ass in a Twelfth Dynasty story about a Naga-like demigod, a fact which emphasizes the historical importance of the material

embedded in folk tales and mythologies. In this connection it may be noted that certain developed myths suggest there may

have been either a cultural contact of Ancient Egypt with India, through an unidentified medium, or an infusion of religious

ideas into both countries from a common source. In an Indian creation myth Prajápati weeps creative tears like the Egyptian

sun-god Ra, whose rays are tears from which all things spring, as Maspero shows.

In India the juice of the soma plant was identified with the vital principle, and the demons were the poisoners of crops and

plants; in Egypt honey-flowers and sacred trees sprang from the fertilizing tears of deities, while the tears of demons

produced poisonous plants, diseases and the like. Like the Egyptian Horus, the Indian Prajápati, or Bahma, sprang from a

lotus bloom floating on the primordial waters. The chaos-egg myth is also common to both mythological systems. Brahma

issues from a golden egg like Ra, and a similar myth is connected with the Egyptian Ptah and Khnumu, and with the

Chinese P'an Ku, while the egg figures in Eur-Asian folk tales which contain the germs of the various mythologies. All

mythologies have animistic bases; they were, to being with, systematized folk beliefs which were carried hither and thither

in various stages of development by migrating and trading peoples. Each separate system bears undoubted traces of racial

or local influences; each reflects the civilization in which it flourished, the habits of thought and habits of life of the people,

and the religious, ethical, and political ideals of their rulers and teachers. When well-developed myths of similar character

are found in widely separated districts, an ethnic or cultural contact is suggested. Such myths may be regarded as evidence

of remote racial movements, which, although unsupported by record or tradition, are also indicated by ethnological data.

It is hoped that the reader will find much suggestive material in this connection in their study of the myths and legends of

India. They will also find that many of the tales retold in this volume have qualities which make universal appeals, and that

some are among the most beautiful which survive from the civilizations of the ancient world.

Not a few, we are assured, will follow with interest, the development from primitive myths of great and ennobling ideas

which have exercised a culturing influence in India through many long centuries, and as still potent factors in the domestic,

social, and religious life of many millions of Hindus.

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