Indian Mythology (LL)

The culture of historic India is one of the oldest and most constant that has ever existed on Earth. In 2,500 B.C., merchants from India's first civilization sailed the Arabian Sea, trading with such ancient and distant Mesopotamian cities as Agades and Ur. By the time Greece entered its Golden Age in the fifth century B.C., the Rig Veda, the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought, was nearly a thousand years old. Despite its great antiquity, however, India's culture remained intact and as vibrant as ever when the sun set on the great British Empire. Hinduism is still practiced by 500 million people or more.

Geographically, India is an arrow-shaped peninsula located on the southern side of the Asian continent. It is large, with an area of over a million square miles. On the north, it is bordered by high, wall-like mountain ranges on all sides: the Hindu Kush on the northwest, the Karakoram on the north, and the Himalayas on the northeast. Its pointed tip is protected by the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east. It's climate ranges from temperate in the north and arctic in the mountain ranges to tropical in the south. India has a wide variety of terrain: mountains reaching 25,000 feet in altitude, tropical jungles, barren deserts, and fertile tablelands, river valleys, and coastal plains. In the spring, much of the land is baked by a fiery, merciless sun, and in the summer it is flooded by unending monsoon rains.

Around 4,000 B.C., the first Indians to inhabit this wild land gave up the nomadic life of hunters and gatherers. On the banks of rivers close to the mighty Indus, they founded many small farming villages. By 2,500 B.C., they had created the Harappan Culture, India's first civilization. The Harappan Culture had two important cities, Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, each a masterpiece of urban planning. They also had dozens of smaller farming and fishing villages scattered over an area of 200,000 square miles. At the port of Lothal was a brick shipyard over 700 feet long, capable of loading merchant ships at both high and low tides.

About 1,500 B.C., the Harappan Culture began to suffer a decline, probably due to working their land until it was barren, the resultant increase in monsoon flooding, and perhaps even the geology of the region, which, over the course of a thousand years, was slowly moving their sea and fishing ports away from the sea.

The Aryans[]

Whatever the reason for the decline of the Harappan Culture, the death blow came when Aryan tribes began filtering through the Khyber, Bolan, and other passes ("ghats") of the Hindu Kush. Coming from the steppes of Central Asia, these fierce nomads invaded and settled in Asia Minor, Persia, and India.

Armed with swift, horse-drawn chariots, the Aryan tribes quickly captured and destroyed Harappa and the northern cities, ravaging everything in their path. The Aryans were wandering herdsmen who spent only slightly less effort on intertribal warfare than they did on intercultural feuds. Cows and bulls, from which came their food and clothing, were the measure of their wealth. In their hands, the complex urban culture of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro faded into oblivion, along with its writing, craftsmanship, art, and architecture.

The Aryans did leave one artifact that was to prove more important to India than all of the cities and art works of the Harappas. The Aryan priests built up an exhaustive record of their religious beliefs and practices. Composed in a complex poetic style passed along by memory and recitation for a thousand ages, these hymns were compiled in four great books called the Vedas. This period in Indian history, from 1,500 B.C. to 500 B.C., is called the Vedic Age. It was during this period that the fundamental principles of Hinduism, principles that endure to this day, were laid down.

During the Vedic Age, the lifestyles of the Aryans themselves underwent many changes. As they pushed south, fighting each other and conquering the non-Aryan natives of India, the Aryans began to trade their nomadic ways for agricultural lifestyles. The shift to a more stable economic base did little to change their essential character, however. They remained a fearless people of enormous pride, utterly convinced of their own racial and social superiority over those they conquered. The Aryans forced their conquered victims to live in clusters outside their villages, treated them with nothing but contempt and scorn, and banned them from participating in Aryan religious rites.

The principle of segregation also extended to the Aryans themselves, however. They divided their citizens into classes. At the top of the order were the hereditary nobles, from whom the raja (chief) was chosen. The priests, who were responsible for religious teaching and observances, came next and third were the ordinary tribesmen. Below all of these classes, of course, were the conquered peoples.

As the Aryan agricultural communities became more stable and victor and vanquished fused, the Aryan class system underwent many changes. The chiefs became hereditary, power-hungry kings, and their communities became kingdoms of varying size and power. The classes became subdivided and even more rigid, and moving from one class to another became even more difficult.

The greatest change came in the relationship of the priestly class to the nobles. By giving a new meaning to religious ritual, the priests managed to raise themselves in status even above the kings. Over the years, the priests had developed enormously complex rituals out of the ceremonies of the Rig Veda (the first Veda). As the Aryan kingdoms were taking shape, they began to teach that if a ritual were performed incorrectly, the cosmic order (called "rita") would be upset and catastrophe would follow. Of course, the priests were the only ones that could perform the rituals properly. Therefore, they became exalted even above the kings.

By the close of the Vedic Age, the Aryans had transformed themselves from simple nomads into the caretakers of a vast and complex civilization. Their rajas were no longer tribal leaders, they were hereditary kings commanding vast areas throughout India. Their family life was based upon religious concepts of divinely ordained, hereditary classes, with the brahmins (priests) at the top, followed by the kshatriya (kings and warriors), vaishyas (merchants, artisans, etc.), and finally the shudras (serfs). Their everyday actions were ruled by a multitude of proscriptions and restrictions. Religion had become a complex series of painstaking rites based upon concepts beyond the comprehension of common people, and priests were the most powerful members of the communities.

Late Vedic Beliefs[]

The power of the Vedic priests lay in their intellectual prowess, so it should come as no surprise that they developed a long tradition of philosophical compositions regarding the Vedas. One of the most important of these, the Upanishads, contained many of the themes that inspired the originators of Buddhism, Jainism, and many other less popular religions. Since Legends & Lore is concerned primarily with the Vedic pantheon and its later mythology, these religions will not be discussed—except to note that their origins can be found in the concepts developed toward the end of the Vedic Age.

In addition to planting the seeds of Buddhism and Jainism, the Upanishads provided the foundation of the most popular religion in India to this day, Hinduism. Legends & Lore makes no attempt to translate modern Hinduism into AD&D® game terms, but the transition between the beliefs of the late Vedic Age and those of early Hinduism is so smooth and gradual that it is impossible to describe one without touching on the other. Many of the concepts discussed below will unavoidably have an Hinduistic echo to them.

In searching for the meaning of life and the fundamental truth of the universe, the Upanishads accepted the many gods of the Vedic pantheon. But they also sought to unify the multiplicity of the world. They achieved this by postulating the existence of the Brahman, a single world spirit that enfolded all of existence. The importance of this concept to Indian culture cannot be underestimated, for it allowed the Vedic priests to exert their influence over the worshipers of (literally) millions of different gods. Instead of converting those who worshiped deities different than their own, the priests simply sanctioned the worship of these diverse gods as different aspects of the one truth, the Brahman.

Brahman cannot be defined exactly. It is the Divine essence which is hidden in all beings, and of which all beings are a part. Everything that exists—the gods, men, animals, plants, even rocks—is simply a manifestation of the Brahman. The spirit that animates each person (and god, animal, plant, etc.) is an imperceptible part of the Brahman called the "Atman."

The only way for an individual to attain a state of bliss, according to this mode of thought, is to experience the essential unity between the Atman and the Brahman. Until an individual succeeds in doing this, he is doomed to be reborn again and again. Thus, reincarnation is one of the fundamental concepts of ancient Indian thought.

The nature of the individual's reincarnation depends upon the second fundamental concept: "karma". Simply stated, karma is a form of cause and effect. It postulates that a good result will follow a good action, and a bad result will follow a bad action. Those leading a good life will be rewarded by a better position in their next reincarnation. Those leading a bad life will be punished by receiving a lower position (perhaps even as an animal) when they are reborn. Each man's position in life is a direct and unavoidable consequence of his actions in his last life. Note that this doctrine reinforces the rigid class structure adopted in the late Vedic Age.

Dharma, the third basic concept of ancient Indian thought, helps a person achieve good karma during his lifetime. Dharma is the duty to which a man is bound by his station in life. If he does as his dharma dictates, performing his duties according to his station in life, then his karma in the next life will be good. If he fails to follow his dharma, then he might find himself reincarnated as a beggar, slave, or worse.

Another important concept to the Vedic priests ("Brahmins") is their concept of time. In the western view, time is a steady, linear progression. Once an event has occurred, it is in the "past" and will not reappear in the "future." To the Vedic mind, however, time is cyclical. Everything that has happened in the past will happen again, and it is impossible for anything to happen that has never happened before. They view time as a revolving circle that binds together everything in the universe, including the gods. Therefore, when they perform a ritual, they are mystically repeating some event crucial to the continuation of the universe, such as its death and rebirth.

Ascetic Characters[]

For main article, see Ascetic Characters (LL).

Optional Rule: Dharma, Karma, and Reincarnation[]

For main article, see Dharma, Karma, and Reincarnation (LL).

Sage Advice (Dragon Issue #203)[]

These are unofficial suggestions for using the optional spheres of priest spells from the Tome of Magic with the deities of the Indian pantheon in Legends & Lore:

Brahman: Wizard spells (as an ascetic) from two schools of magic only.
Indra: Major: Chaos, War; Minor: Time.
Varuna: Major: Law; Minor: Thought, Wards.
Mitra: Major: Law; Minor: Thought, Travelers.
Yama: Major: Law; Minor: Thought, Time.
Agni: Major: Chaos; Minor: Time, Travelers.
Surya: Major: Law; Minor: Time, Wards.
Savitri: Major: Time; Minor: Travelers, Wards.
Soma: Major: Chaos; Minor: Time, Thought.
Ushas: Major: Law; Minor: Time, Wards.
Siva: Major: Time; Minor: Numbers, Thought.
Kali: Major: Chaos; Minor: Time, Thought.
Brihaspati: Major: Thought; Minor: Law, Wards.
Rudra: Major: Time; Minor: Numbers, Thought.
Puchan: Major: Travelers; Minor: Time, Wards.
Ratri: Major: None; Minor: Chaos, Time.
Vayu: Major: None; Minor: Time, Wards.
Tvashtri: Major: None; Minor: Numbers, Thought.