How The Hindu Epics Compared With The Vedas

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Beowulf contain everything we can expect from a great epic literature. It portrays fantastic geographies, exotic characters, exhausting quests, heroic battles with monsters, supernatural beings and natural forces. Most important of all, they are two outstanding stories of a great epic hero who is compelled to meet his destiny and who rises to every challenge with courage and determination.

In my World Literature and World Civilization class, I was recently educated on Mesopotamian civilization, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Old Testament. The history of Mesopotamia and the literature that I have read both have themes, ideas, and concepts that relate them together. For example, The Epic of Gilgamesh has a theme; the wrath of the gods, which is written throughout the poem. This is also present in the Old Testament and felt by the people of the Mesopotamia civilization. A concept in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Mesopotamia civilization is that there needs to be justice for any wrongdoings. There is also the idea in all three that the gods, goddess, and god are more than just the creators, they are guides to the people. The Mesopotamian history and literary works related to each other because they share similar themes, ideas, and concepts with each other.

“Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma ("eternal spiritual path") began about 4000 years ago in India. It was the religion of an ancient people known as the Aryans ("noble people") whose philosophy, religion, and customs are recorded in their sacred texts known as the Vedas” (United Religions). Vedas are written in the ancient language of India, called Sanskrit. Vedas means “knowledge” or “sacred lore.” The Vedas gives great intelligence about the variety of Gods from the Vedic period, 2000 to 500 BCE (Molloy,78).

Many books of literature, no matter what time period they were written or who the author is, have many similarities. The books The Iliad and Bhagavad Gita are great examples of this. These two books consist of many of the same themes and characteristics within the readings that cause them to relate to each other. On the other hand, they also have some characteristics that contradict themselves in different ways. In the book The Iliad the author Homer, explains a story revolving around a Greek hero named Achilles. Both stories have two main characters, Achilles and Arjuna, which really have many of the same characteristics within them. Both Achilles from The Iliad and Arjuna from Bhagavad Gita have many similar aspects about themselves and what's expected of them in their daily life. The main theme characteristics that I’m going to discuss in this essay is what duty each character plays in their culture or what role they are expected to take on. I’m also going to compare War between the two stories. Both readings have many similar views under these topics but also have some differences within them. In this essay, I will be explaining the characteristics that are similar in both stories along with the characteristics that contradict in the pieces.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian myth and the oldest known narrative there is, originally created on clay tablets written in cuneiform. The story focuses on two individuals. Gilgamesh, who is the tyrannical ruler of the kingdom of Uruk. Then his counterweight, Enkidu who resides in the forest and was raised by animals. It may seem that neither would have much in common, considering one is royalty and one is a wild man. However, these two characters balance each other despite their differences, which results in a beautiful friendship, but both will lose as well as gain in the end.

Gilgamesh was said to be written around 3300 to 2990 B.C., while the Bible was said to be written around the 6th century B.C. The Bible has around 40 contributors, but only one real author, which is God. According to the authors of “Who Were the Authors”, “Humanly speaking, the Bible was written by approximately 40 men of diverse backgrounds over the course of 1500 years.” God guided these men to write this piece of literature for future Christians. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew while the New Testament was originally written in Greek. No specific person has ever been named to be the author of Gilgamesh, which was written in cuneiform, as it is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world. Pictured in Figure 1, is one of the original tablets. The Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh can be compared in many ways; however, the most common way is by the similarities and differences in the floods that occur. “This [Gilgamesh] story contains the closest parallels to the biblical account…” writes Lloyd Bailey. Both Gilgamesh and the Bible have two big floods that change humanity in more ways than one. To really understand and compare the floods in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, both pieces of literature need to be thoroughly examined in every way that their natural disasters are similar and different: the creators and their reasons for making the floods, the hero of the flood, the period of grace, the two arks and their passengers, and the bird scene.

In the text that has been covered in class we often see how the gods so often turn their backs on their heroes i.e. “Odyssey” by Homer. However, our God promises He will never leave us or forsake us. There are many gods in the Greek mythology yet one god could be for the hero and one could be against; they can completely counter act what the other god is doing. They lack in communication i.e. “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Our God is three in one Father, Spirit, and Son, yet there is no lack in communication because they are one. In the Greek stories there are monsters and all other sorts of enemies and they all do whatever their little hearts desire (this is seen in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic of Gilgamesh). We believe in one enemy his name is Lucifer (Satan, The devil). He is the king of lies, deceit, and temptation. He is the deceiver. He is everything bad rolled in to one creature. People may not

(1) The black demon saw a beautiful woman and out of all the nobel women. He picked the one that was about the be married. He kidnapped her on her wedding night. It shows that the black demon does things impulsively. He does not care of the consequences. It shows that since he is a demon. He does not fear the consequences of men. When he saw her he could not longer live without her. When he kidnap her. He locked her in box showing that he does not trust the women he kidnap with other men. It also means he wants to keep her pure. She was kidnap on her wedding night so she did not have sex yet so the demon believed she was pure. The untainted virgin that has not been violated by men was his and his only. When he traveled he took her out of the box and wanted to sleep beside her. It shows when he his comfortable. He would sleep better beside her. The women was the demon's most prized possession. It is like comparing the women to a boy's secret toy. When a boy is around someone he would hide his secret toy from everyone. When the boy is alone he would take it and worship it. This meaning is similar to Metamorphoses when Apollo wanted Daphne. Even though she refused him. He impulsively try to rape her. She was turned into a tree, but he still tried to rape the tree. Another text with the similar meaning is in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Any women Gilgamesh desired he would take married or not. Since he was part god and king. He did not care of consequence like the demon.

Since the beginning of civilization many religions and cultures have come and gone. One of the few that has stood the test of time is Hinduism. Hinduisms base flourishes from the practical view of human life, belief in eternal truth and it’s ability to make small adaptations to it without compromising its core values. Hinduism is the oldest known religion in the world and also the third largest in the world. Most of its one billion followers live in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Even with its immense amount of followers and lengthy existence, many non followers are unaware of its history, beliefs, and practices.

Moreover, the Vedas illustrate how much geography, culture, language, and politics were shaped by religion and how much Hinduism was shaped by it (BBC Religion Profile, Hinduism)

In The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Bhagavad-Gita, gods play an important role in society and the way of life. In the Bhagavad-Gita, people portray their gods as almighty and perfect beings. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian people see their gods as imperfect, human-like beings. The way the people depict their gods, determines how long the religion will last and how much power the gods withhold.

Both of the religions Hinduism and Judaism are similar but different in their own ways. Hinduism worships many gods and goddesses, whereas Judaism is a confirmedly monotheistic religion. In the Hinduism religion the bedrock is the belief that the Vedas is sacred and the caste system decribed in it. “Hinduism is a guide to life, and the goal of which is to reach union with Brahman, the unchanging ultimate reality”(75). The dharma or moral law that need to be followed. There are many gods that were worshiped and each person may worship a different god. Images of the gods in homes or temples were presented where each person can show devotion to their personal gods by singing hymns or offering flowers before the images. The Hindus believe in many things such as that the universe undergoes and endless cycle of creation, believe in karma, that the soul reincarnates, the belief that all life is sacred.

The Mahabharata is a famous Indian epic consist of more than 100,000 verses and 18 parvas (books) written by Ved Vyasa and is the longest Sanskrit epic ever written. Mahabharata, older of the two, is conveyed from composition of the Rig Veda, ancient Indian compilation of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. You also see Mahabharata mention few names of monarchs, mentors and priests that occurs in the late Vedic period sources. However, with passing centuries its historical root cannot now be established because new characters and incidents have developed and

Hindus are extremely respectful and prideful people with many strong core beliefs. These beliefs have been passed down through the ages in The Ramayana. Throughout this epic poem, Rama, his family, and many others exemplify what it means to be Hindu. Rama is considered to be a perfect Hindu and follows all aspects of Hinduism flawlessly. This includes following duty, honor, responsibilities based on a person’s place in society, and most important to Rama, family. In the epic The Ramayana, family is portrayed as the most important aspect to the Hindu belief.

An epic is a long, episodic narrative poem that recounts the adventures of a historical or mystical hero. Episodic narratives have a larger story broken down into closely connected, but individual and separate sections. Some important qualities that distinguish an epic are unrealistic antagonists, the Gods and Goddesses playing important roles, and a story involving the re-establishment of a proper leader. “The Odyssey”, by Homer, is an epic because Odysseus (the hero) faces supernatural antagonists, the gods and goddesses play an important role, and Odysseus is being restored as a rightful leader.