k virtue, gain, and
pleasure; "virtue in the morning; gain at noon; pleasure at night,"
or, according to another version, "pleasure when young, gain in
middle-age, and virtue in the end of life" (iii. 33. 40, 41). "Virtue
is better than immortality and life. Kingdom, sons, glory, wealth, all
this does not equal one-sixteenth part of the value of truth" (_ib_.
34. 22).[59] One very strong summing up of a discourse on virtuous
behavior ends thus: "Truth, self-control, asceticism, generosity,
non-injury, constancy in virtue--these are the means of success, not
caste nor family" (_j[=a]ti, kula_, iii. 181. 42).

A doctrine practiced, if not preached, is that of blood-revenge. "The
unavenged shed tears, which are wiped away by the avenger" (iii. 11.
66); and in accordance with this feeling is the statement: "I shall
satiate my brother with his murderer's blood, and thus, becoming free
of debt in respect of my brother, I shall win the highest place in
heaven" (_ib_. 34, 35).

As of old, despite the new faith, as a matter of priestly, formal
belief, all depends on the sacrifice: "Law comes from usage; in law
are the Vedas established; by means of the Vedas arise sacrifices; by
sacrifice are the gods established; according to the rule of Vedas,
and usage, sacrifices being performed support the divinities, just as
the rules of Brihaspati and Ucanas support men" (iii. 150. 28, 29).
The pernicious doctrine of atonement for sin follows as a matter of
course: "Whatever sin a king commits in conquering the earth is atoned
for by sacrifices, if they are accompanied with large gifts to
priests, such as cows and villages." Even gifts to a sacred bull have
the same effect (iii. 33. 78, 79; _ib_. 35. 34; iii. 2. 57), the
occasion in hand being a king's violation of his oath.[60] Of these
sacrifices a great snake-sacrifice forms the occasion for narrating
the whole epic, the plot of which turns on the national vice of
gambling.[61] For divine snakes are now even grouped with other
celestial powers, disputing the victory of earthly combatants as do
Indra and S[=u]rya: "The great snakes were on Arjuna's side; the
little snakes were for Karna" (viii. 87. 44, 45).[62] They were
(perhaps) the local gods of the Nagas (Snakes), a tribe living between
the Ganges and Jumna.

The religion of the epic is multiform. But it stands, in a certain
sense, as one religion, and from two points of view it is worthy of
special regard. One may look upon it