ned in the epic poetry of the time, with
the help of a few additional facts from the law, and some side light
from inscriptions. It is here that Vishnuism and Civaism are found as
fully developed sectarian beliefs, accepted by Brahmanism with more or
less distrust, and in more or less fulness of faith. It is to the epic
that one must turn to study the budding and gradual flowering of the
modern religions, which have cast strict orthodoxy into the shade.

Of the two epics, one, the R[=a]m[=a]yana,[2] has become the Old
Testament of the Ramaite Vishnuites of the present day. The
Bh[=a]rata,[3] on the other hand, is scriptural for all sects, because
it is more universal. The former epic, in its present form, is what
the Hindus call an 'art-poem,' and in its finish, its exclusively
romantic style, and its total lack of nervous dramatic power, it is
probably, as the Hindus claim, the work of one man, V[=a]lm[=i]ki, who
took the ancient legends of Eastern India and moulded them into a
stupid sectarian poem. On the other hand, the Bh[=a]rata is of no one
hand, either in origin or in final redaction; nor is it of one sect;
nor has it apparently been thoroughly affected, as has the
R[=a]m[=a]yana, by Buddhistic influences. Moreover, in the huge
conglomeration of stirring adventure, legend, myth, history, and
superstition which goes to make up the great epic there is contained a
far truer picture of the vulgar custom, belief, and religion of the
time than the too polished composition of V[=a]lm[=i]ki is able to
afford, despite the fact that the latter also has many popular
elements welded into it. There are, in fact, only two national works
in India, only two works which, withal, not in their entirety, but in
their nucleus, after one has stripped each of its priestly toggery,
reflect dimly the heart of the people, not the cleverness of one man,
or the pedantry of schools. For a few Vedic hymns and a few Bh[=a]rata
scenes make all the literature, with perhaps the exception of some
fables, that is not markedly dogmatic, pedantic, or 'artificial.'[4]
So true is this that even in the case of the R[=a]m[=a]yana one never
feels that he is getting from it the genuine belief of the people, but
only that form of popular belief which V[=a]lm[=i]ki has chosen to let
stand in his version of the old tale. The great epic is heroic,
V[=a]lm[=i]ki's poem is romantic; the former is real, the latter is
artificial; and the religious gleaning from e