moral side the heroes of the epic profess great belief in
the power and awfulness of this god Duty. And so far as go rules of
chivalry, they are theoretically moral. Practically they are savage,
and their religion does not interfere with their brutal barbarity. The
tendency to cite divine instances of sin as excuse for committing it
is, however, rebuked: "One should neither practice nor blame the
(wrong) acts of gods and seers," xii. 292. 17-18.

From an eschatological point of view it is most difficult to get back
of the statements made by the priestly composers,[13] who, in their
various reeditings of the epic, uniformly have given the pantheistic
goal as that in which the characters believe. But it is evident that
the warriors were not much affected by this doctrine. To them there
was one law of righteousness exceeding all others--to die on the field
of battle. And for such as did so, over and over again is the
assurance given that 'happiness in Indra's heaven' is their reward.
And probably a true note is struck in this reiterated promise. To the
mass of the vulgar, union with _brahma_ would have been no attractive
end.

It is interesting to see the remains of the older belief still
flourishing in midst of epic pantheism. Although Indra has no such
hymn as has S[=u]rya, yet is he still lauded, and he is a very real
person to the knight who seeks his heaven.[14] In fact, so long as
natural phenomena were regarded as divine, so long as thunder was
godly, it was but a secondary question which name the god bore;
whether he was the 'chief and king of gods,' or Vishnu manifesting
himself in a special form. This form, at any rate, was to endure as
such till the end of the cycle. There are other Indras. Each cycle has
its own (i. 197. 29). But sufficient unto the age is the god thereof.
If, relinquishing the higher bliss of absorption, the knight sought
only Indra's heaven, and believed he was to find it, then his belief
practically does not differ much from that of his ancestor, who
accepts Indra as an ultimate, natural power. The question arises
whether, after all, the Indra-worship of the epic is not rather
popular than merely old and preserved. Certainly the reality of the
belief seems quite as strong as that of the ever-newly converted
sectary. It may be doubted whether the distribution of theological
belief is very different in the epic and Vedic ages. Philosophical
pantheism is very old in India. The priest believe