Epics in Imprints-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

The All India character of the myths
is the first and foremost feature to
be indicated. If there is any
common core of Indian Literature if
there are materials that are shared by
Indians all over the country, it is the
mythology of India. That the main
components of this body of mythology is
derived from the Sanskrit epics or
Puranas or the Buddhist lore do not make
it sectarian or even communal in the
pejorative sense. They have created a
deep structure of perceptions on which
are constructed new usages and
allegories, fables and parables, types and
archetypes. These deep structures have
become a part of the psyche of the whole
literary community, irrespective of the
levels of education, among them and the
ideology and religious faith that divide
them in varying degrees. Their presence
in the subconscious and the
unconscious of the community is partly
manifested in the proverbs and idioms,
and certain lexical items within which
the myths lie dormant and sometimes
almost in unrecognizable forms, only to
come to life at the magic touch of the
proper person. They are the part of the
semantic structure of the language and
they are materials which penetrate into
languages quite often creating
ambiguity and misunderstanding.
Myths then are even more a strong
binding force than the materials of
history. The history used by the Indian
authors was more often than not
conformed to a particular region to
which the authors were emotionally
ALL INDIA CHARACTER OF MYTHS
SISIRKUMAR DAS
FEBRUARY - AUGUST 2003
attached. The STOFF of historical plays
and narratives was derived mainly from
regional histories. The stoff provided by
mythology, was more universal,
relatively more widely known. Further,
myths by their very nature are secular;
they are stories about gods and heroes,
stories coming down from the antiquity
and therefore parts of the cultural
heritage of a given society.
Firdausi the great Persian poet
celebrated the exploits of the kings of
Persia long before its Islamisation; his
own faith in Islam did not stand against
his love for the Pre-Islamic past of his
country. The European Christian poets
could respond fondly to their pagan
heritage without any qualms as they
accepted their Greco-Roman heritage,
not only as legitimate but also as natural.
In India too despite the narrowness of
certain scholars or fanatical iconoclasts,
myths irrespective of their Hindu or non-
Hindu sources Indian or non Indian
provenance have been always admired
by writers and by the readers cutting
across religious differences.
The other point is that mythological
themes are recurrent in Indian drama
and poetry but are rarely used in prose
narrative. The history themes are
frequent in prose narrative as in the
drama and in poetry. The novels for
example refuse to accommodate as it
were mythological themes unless
worked out allegorically. Myths contain
in them an association of ancientness,
if not an element of transcendental