The Role of Legends

Hindu mythology is rich with legends of Gods, Godesses, Demons and Heroes. Legend, typically, is a short episodic, traditional, highly ecotypified historicized narrative. It is performed in a conversational mode, reflecting on a psychological level, a symbolic representation of folk belief and collective experiences. It serves as a reaffirmation of commonly held values of the group to whose tradition it belongs.These stories have been passed down from generation to generation and immortalised through paintings and sculptures. The aim of these legends may have been to set up guidelines for behavior in society based on the morals in these tales. Sins such as greed, pride and lust are punished by divine retribution. Legends are an engaging and entertaining form through which behavior can be controlled, by playing on their primal fear of Nature and Gods.

The Timeline

The history of the world is divided into 4 Yugas or Periods that occur in a cyclical manner. A whole cycle consist of two golden ages, two silver ages, two bronze ages, and two iron ages. This is based on the lunar cycle and is correlated to the zodiac signs. The Yugas are symbolic of the phases of a man’s life and are in the ratio of 4:3:2:1. Each avatar is characteristic of a certain Yuga. The first two Yugas (4+3) could correspond to the 7 days of creation in the Bible as well.