CHAPTER IV
THE GREAT GODS OF THE EPIC
IN the epic we find in developed and elaborate form a conception which is entirely or at least mainly lacking in the Vedic period, a doctrine of ages of the world which has both striking points of contrast with and affinity to the idea of the four ages set forth in Hesiod. In the Greek version, however, the four ages are naively and simply considered as accounting for all time,[1] while in the Indian they are only the form in which the Absolute reveals itself, this revelation being followed by a period of reabsorption, after which the ages again come into being. In the process of evolution the first, or Kṛta, age is preceded by a dawn of four hundred years and closes in a twilight of equal duration, while its own length is four thousand years.[2] This is the golden age of the world, in which all is perfect. Neither gods nor demons of any kind yet exist, and sacrifices are unknown, even bloodless offerings. The Vedas themselves have no existence, and all human infirmities, such as disease, pride, hatred, and lack of mental power, are absent. None the less, the four castes—the priest, the warrior, the husbandman, and the serf—come into being with their special marks and characteristics, though this differentiation is modified by the fact that they have but one god to worship, one Veda to follow, and one rule. In this age men do not seek the fruit of action, and accordingly they are rewarded by obtaining salvation through absorption in the absolute. On the twilight of the Kṛta age follows the dawn of the Tretā, which lasts for three hundred years, while the age itself continues three thousand and ends in a twilight of three hundred years. In
