The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.701

c2.s5.701

This supernatural of superstition seems to have become more powerful than the supernatural of religion. The new god has not yet his whole power; the ancient gods are passing away. These divinities are degraded, but are still real. It is in the fairy stories of the Epic that the old gods are active. The Sun says to Sāvitrī, ‘look, all the gods with Indra at their head sit laughing at me’ (iii. 306. 20). But in battle—that is, in the actual Epic—they are visions, they are ghosts of themselves, asleep, spirits; real, but subordinated to the new power. They watch the battle, but take no share in it (viii. 37. 31, etc.). If they take a sudden party interest, they relapse again almost at once, and become dull spectators (viii. 87. 42, 48).