A goddess of destruction, usually portrayed with a fearsome and grotesque collection of accessories-a necklace of skulls and a belt of severed arms or snakes-Kali is connected to human sacrifice and is often depicted as dancing on Shiva's sexually aroused corpse. But even in this image of pleasure and pain, there is regeneration. And in the Hindu vision, destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin. When she dances on Shiva's corpse, Kali actually reanimates him.

Kali also is responsible for a colorful word in English-thug. For centuries, bands of professional assassins in India were known as Thugs-the term derives from the Hindustani word "thag," meaning a thief-a criminal society in India, whose members committed murder and robbery in honor of Kali.

Krishna An avatar of Vishnu, the dark-blue-skinned Krishna is also worshipped as a god in his own right, and is one of the most popular Hindu gods, a Hindu Heracles. Krishna is often shown with a flute in his hand and his consort, the milkmaid Radha-a manifestation of Vishnu's wife, Lakshmi-standing at his side.

Krishna is born, in one account, from a single black hair that Vishnu plucks from his head and places in a woman's womb. Created to rid the world of evil, Krishna battles with a bull-demon, a horse-demon, and Kansa, his uncle, the evil king, who has been told by an oracle that he will be murdered by one of his sister's children. Kansa decides to kill the children before they harm him, but through an incredibly complex series of events, Krishna and all of the children are saved by the other gods. Still trying to do away with Krishna, King Kansa sends the demon Putana to nurse the newborn with poison milk, but even as a baby, Krishna is unusual. He kills the demon Putana by sucking all the life from her body as he nurses.

As a young man, Krishna is known for his irresistible good looks and virility. In a story that is often depicted in Indian art, he steals the clothes of a group of milkmaids as they are bathing. The women come before him, naked, and bow, and Krishna returns their clothes to them.

The legend of Krishna's death echoes that of the Greek hero Achilles. As Krishna sits in meditation, a hunter pursuing an antelope sees the soles of the god's feet and thinks they are an animal's ears. When the hunter shoots an arrow into Krishna's foot, he hits a vulnerable spot and kills him-so an Achilles' heel could also be called a Krishna's sole.

Lakshmi Wife of Vishnu, Lakshmi is the goddess of good fortune and bestower of wealth. Goddess of perfect beauty, she is born fully formed from the froth of the ocean-just as Aphrodite, the Greek's ideal beauty, was. Symbolized by the lotus flower-which represents the female principle: the womb, fertility, and life-giving waters-Lakshmi is the personification of maternal benevolence. In very ancient traditions, Indian rulers underwent a symbolic marriage to Lakshmi, just as Mesopotamian kings married Inanna in a rite to ensure the bounty of the earth.

Parvati Another avatar of the divine mother Devi, Parvati ("mountain") is the reincarnation of Shiva's first wife, Sati, and becomes his second wife. Daughter of the sacred Himalayas, Parvati is also the affectionate mother of Ganesha, and a recipient of Shiva's tremendous spiritual and sexual energy, which she releases to the world. In one myth, Shiva initially rejects Parvati because of her dark skin, but he changes his mind when she makes her body glow. This suggests that Parvati may have originated as a pre-Aryan aboriginal goddess who was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon.

Sati The daughter of an ancient god called Daksha, Sati marries Shiva over her father's objections. This leads to an argument over inviting in-laws to dinner-talk about archetypes!-and a bloody feud when Daksha summons all of the other gods to a special sacrifice, but snubs his son-in-law. Enraged, Sati throws herself onto the sacrificial fire. Learning of this tragedy, Shiva kills many of the guests at the feast and decapitates Daksha, replacing his head with that of a goat. Daksha repents and becomes a loyal attendant to Shiva, who performs a dance of destruction after which Sati is reincarnated as Shiva's second wife, Parvati.

Are you dizzy yet?

The legend of the dutiful, loyal Sati lives on in an unfortunate reality. In the traditional Indian practice known as suttee, Indian widows throw themselves on their dead husband's funeral pyre in suicidal self-immolation. Known in other ancient cultures, the practice of suttee may have been introduced into India as late as the first century of the Common Era, and became a fairly widespread practice after that. Banned by British colonial authorities in the nineteenth century, the tradition continued sporadically. A recent criminal case in India involved the prosecution of eleven people who were accused-but later acquitted by a special court-of encouraging a widow to commit suttee in 1988.

Shiva, the Destroyer The all-knowing punisher of the wicked, Shiva is the four-armed god of great power known as the Destroyer because he periodically destroys the world so it can be re-created. Shiva possesses a "third eye," from which comes the fire that destroys the Creation.

Often depicted dancing, Shiva haunts graveyards and lives with demons and other supernatural beings. But Shiva is beyond simple distinctions of good and evil, and his followers consider him a merciful god, despite his fearsome characteristics. In Hindu philosophy, Shiva avoids taking an active part in human affairs, and Hindu art often shows him in solitary meditation on a mountain.

Vishnu, the Preserver One of the main gods of Hinduism, Vishnu has a kindly nature, and is called the Preserver by worshippers who believe that he tries to ensure the welfare of humanity.

In the complexity of Hindu mythology, Vishnu creates, preserves, and destroys the world over and over in a pattern of yugas, which are ages of time. The current period is called the Kali-Yuga, a dark age characterized by dissension, war, and strife, in which materialism rules desires, virtue is nonexistent, and the only pleasure is found in sex. Vishnu sometimes descends from heaven to the earth as one of his avatars when the universe faces a catastrophe or when humanity needs comfort and guidance. In several myths, he must battle some sort of asura (demon) who is threatening either the gods or the universal order. While Vishnu has countless avatars, or physical incarnations, these ten are considered of principal importance:

Matsya is the fish avatar who plays a role in the story of Manu, the first man, by warning him of the flood that is coming.

Kurma is the tortoise avatar who supports a sacred mountain on his back during a battle with demons.

Varaha, the boar avatar, uses his tusks to lift the earth, in the form of a beautiful woman, out of the ocean after she falls in. In another version, a demon who has stolen the Vedas pushes the earth into the sea, and the boar rescues the earth and the sacred scriptures with its tusks.

Narasimha, the half-man-half-lion avatar, kills the invulnerable demon who brings terror to the world.

Vamana, the dwarf-priest avatar, tricks an asura by requesting the amount of land he could cover in three steps. The demon, named Bali, agrees, and Vishnu assumes his full size, covers the whole earth in two steps, and crushes Bali with the third step.

Parashurama is a brave human of the Brahmin caste who carries a great battle-ax given to him by Shiva to punish all those in the warrior caste (Kshatriyas) who have become arrogant and are suppressing the Brahmins. In winning twenty-one battles, Parashurama proves the supremacy of Brahmins.

Rama, who is usually depicted as a king carrying a bow and arrow, is a popular mortal hero in Hinduism and the central figure in the Ramayana (see below).

Krishna is Vishnu's other divine avatar, and the central character in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad-Gita, in which he assumes the role of Arjuna's charioteer and they engage in lengthy philosophical discourse (see below).

Buddha is the only avatar who can be connected to an actual historical person-the great religious teacher who founded Buddhism (see below). Scholars suggest that Buddha was made an avatar in order to bring his worshippers back into the Hindu fold.

Kalki is the coming avatar who will end the current evil age (Kali-Yuga). In an apocalyptic vision, Kalki will ride a white horse and carry a great sword to punish all evildoers in this world, and usher in a new Golden Age.

MYTHIC VOICES.

Facing us in the field of battle are teachers, fathers and sons; grandsons, grandfathers, wives' brothers; mothers' brothers and fathers of wives.

These I do not wish to slay, even if I myself am slain.

Not even for the kingdom of three worlds: how much less for a kingdom of the earth!

-Bhagavad-Gita 1: 3435 The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical warfare; on the contrary, he has proved its futility. He has made the victors shed tears of sorrow and repentance, and has left them nothing but a legacy of miseries.

-MOHANDAS GANDHI What kind of hero doesn't want to fight?

A war epic might seem like an unlikely favorite of one of the twentieth century's most notable apostles of nonviolence. But Mahatma Gandhi (18691948), the leader of the peaceful resistance movement that secured India's independence from England in 1947, was said to be profoundly influenced by the Indian poem of war and peace, the Mahabharata.

Presumably based on a much older oral tradition, Mahabharata was first recorded between 500 and 400 BCE and was continually refined and edited until as late as 500 CE. At least four times the length of the Bible, it recounts an epic feud between two related families-the Pandavas and the Kauravas-who are the descendants of King Bharata. Over centuries, the word "Bharata" has become synonymous with India, so the epic is considered the story of India itself. Although some of the poem's heroes are taken from history, the dating of the war it is said to be based on-once placed at 3102 BCE-has now been discredited.

One relatively small but enormously important piece of the Mahabharata is the beloved Hindu scripture, Bhagavad-Gita ("song of the lord or blessed one"). The hero of the Bhagavad-Gita is the warrior hero Arjuna, the "Achilles" of the Pandavas-the semidivine son of the ancient god Indra and a mortal woman. As Arjuna prepares to do battle in the ongoing war between the Pandavas and Kauravas, he has an extended conversation with the god Krishna, who has taken on the role of Arjuna's friend and chariot driver. Arjuna is caught in a moral dilemma which he voices in the opening of Bhagavad-Gita. As a member of the warrior caste, Arjuna knows he must defend his brother, the king. However, arrayed on the opposing side are his cousins, other relatives, and teachers, and he is frozen by the thought of killing these acquaintances and relatives for the reward of a kingdom.

As Arjuna wonders what to do, Krishna teaches him-in eighteen-verse chapters as the battle awaits-that people can achieve freedom by following their prescribed duty without attachment to the results of their action. Summing up the Gita, religious historian Peter Occhiogrosso wrote, "Its chief moral argument is that bodies can be killed, but not souls. Since warfare is Arjuna's dharma, or class duty, it's all in a day's work." As Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, "It is better to die engaged in one's own duty, however badly, than to do another's well."

Ultimately, Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna in his universal form: all-devouring time. Recognizing his duty, Arjuna rejoins the battle. Fought over eighteen days, the battle claims the lives of many heroes on both sides. Finally, largely due to some devious tactics suggested by Krishna, the Pandavas emerge victorious.

Why would a hero banish his loving wife?

How pure and perfect must a devoted wife be to please her husband-and the neighbors? That question is central to the Ramayana, the second of India's two great epic poems. At about one-quarter the length of the Mahabharata, it is also more accessible and has been popular for centuries. Set in Adodhya, in northern India, and featuring Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu and the oldest son and heir of an Indian king, the poem, like other popular hero legends and folktales, is the story of a dispossessed prince, victim of an evil stepmother.

The trials of Rama begin when his stepmother demands that her own son, Bharata, Rama's half-brother, rule as king. Rama's father has promised his wife a wish, and must concede. Rama dutifully accepts his role-his dharma-and is forced into exile, living in the forest for the next fourteen years with his devoted and beautiful wife, Sita-bound by her dharma to remain with her husband-and his loyal brother, Lakshmana. (Bharata, meanwhile, recognizes Rama's right to rule. He places his half-brother's sandals on the throne and agrees to rule from a small village until the day Rama returns.) While in the forest, Sita is abducted by the demon king Ravana, who takes her to his island kingdom of Lanka (identified as what is now Sri Lanka, once known as Ceylon). Rama goes to war against Ravana and his armies, enlisting the aid of monkey troops led by the shape-shifting monkey general Hanuman. One of the most popular of Indian gods, Hanuman is a gifted healer with supernatural powers who understands the curative qualities of herbs. Rama defeats the forces of Ravana, kills Ravana with an arrow, and rescues Sita. But Rama is initially skeptical of Sita's faithfulness to him. After she undergoes a trial by fire and proves her innocence, Rama takes her back and they return to Adodhya, where Rama is consecrated as a king.

But even then, in the last book of the Ramayana, there is gossip about Sita's "infidelity." Knowing the rumors are unfounded, but feeling duty-bound as ruler to respect the people's wishes, Rama banishes Sita, who is pregnant. Having suffered so much, Sita asks Mother Earth to recall her, the ground opens beneath her, and she vanishes forever. Dividing his kingdom between his two sons, Rama enters a river and yields his life, merging his human existence back with the divine Vishnu.

What is Nirvana?

No, not Kurt Cobain's band. The concept of being peaceful and blessed that describes one's state of mind. A state without desire. Of perfection. In Buddhism. But wait. That's getting ahead of the story.

By the 500s BCE, the Brahminism, which had evolved out of Indian myth, was undergoing the usual growing pains that occur when faithful followers take what they have learned and make it their own. Or decide that there might be another version of Truth. Two of the most profound reactions to the theology and social order of the Brahmins emerged almost simultaneously, and both would have lasting influence. The first-Buddhism-developed during the sixth century BCE out of the teachings and beliefs of a religious and social reformer, Siddhartha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha ("the enlightened one"). The second-Jainism-was developed sometime after 580 BCE by Mahavira, whose name means "the great hero."

Known to millions from those rotund little statues that show him sitting with his legs crossed, in the lotus position, his eyelids serenely closed, the palms of his hands turned up, Buddha is a universally recognizable character. He was born Siddhartha Gautama around 563 BCE on the Nepal-India border, about 145 miles (233 kilometers) southwest of Katmandu, according to archaeological excavations completed in 1995. Beyond those meager details, however, there is little concrete information about his life. Buddhist legend suggests that the Buddha's mother, Maya, dreamed of her son coming into her womb in the form of a white elephant. According to folklore, earthquakes attended the Buddha's birth. And Buddha himself claimed that he was an incarnation of the ancient Hindu god Indra.

And then there is the well-known "biography" that starts with Buddha's decadent youth in the palace of his warrior-caste father, King Suddhodhana. When Suddhodhana receives a prophecy that his son will not become a great ruler if he sees the pain of the world, the father tries to shelter his son, even prohibiting the use of the words "death" and "grief" in Siddhartha's presence. Each time his son leaves the palace, Suddhodhana orders the servants to go before him, sweeping the streets and decorating them with flowers. Another legend says that Siddhartha is given three palaces and between 10,000 and 40,000 dancing girls to keep him occupied.

But reality catches up with Siddhartha. After he marries the princess Yasodhara and has a newborn son, the twentysomethingish Siddhartha has a series of visions-or actual encounters. In the first vision, he sees an old man. In the second, he sees a sick man, and in the third, a corpse. In the fourth vision, he meets a wandering holy man. The first three visions convince Siddhartha that life involves aging, sickness, and death-that "everything must decay." The vision of the holy man convinces him that he should leave his family and seek spiritual enlightenment.

Following these insights, Siddhartha renounces his family and wealth, and becomes a wandering monk practicing extreme forms of self-denial and self-torture for the next six years. Living in filth and eating only a single grain of rice some days, he pulls hairs from his beard, one by one, to inflict pain. But Siddhartha eventually realizes that extreme self-denial and self-torture can never lead to enlightenment, and abandons the practices.

One day, Siddhartha wanders into a village and sits under a shady fig tree, known as the bo, or bodhi, tree ("tree of wisdom"), determined to meditate until he gains enlightenment and completes his quest for the secret of release from suffering. As he sits in meditation, Siddhartha is tempted by the evil demon Mara, much as the biblical gospels tell of the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. First, the demon sends his beautiful daughters to seduce Siddhartha. But Siddhartha resists. Then the demon threatens the young man with devils. But Siddhartha stands firm. In a final act, the devil throws a fiery discus at Siddhartha's head, but it is transformed into a canopy of flowers.

After sitting for five weeks and enduring a world-shattering storm, Siddhartha finally achieves enlightenment. The roots of suffering are desires, he discovers, and one only has to reach a state without desire to overcome suffering. Released from all suffering and from the cycle of reincarnation, Siddhartha becomes Buddha and decides to show other people the way, preaching a doctrine of compassion and moderation.

In a religious coming-out ceremony near the holy city of Varansi, Buddha preaches his first sermon to five holy men. This sermon, which includes the "saving truth" of Buddha's message, is one of the most sacred events in Buddhism.

As Buddha continues preaching throughout northern India, he attracts disciples and his fame increases. Soon stories begin to spread among his followers, describing his religious insight and compassion-along with tales of his magical powers. His followers believe that Buddha has lived many lives before being born as Siddhartha Gautama, and the stories describing the events of these lives, called jatakas, become the popular means of understanding Buddha's message, which includes the concept of Nirvana. No, not Kurt Cobain's band.

According to Buddhist belief, the perfect peace and blessedness is a state called Nirvana. Attaining Nirvana enables a person to escape from the continuous cycle of death and rebirth caused by an individual's worldly desires, such as craving for fame, immortality, and wealth. In Buddhism, people attain Nirvana only when such desires are completely eliminated.

Buddha preached that Nirvana can be attained by following a Middle Way between the extremes of ascetic self-denial and sensuality, yet living in the world with compassion and by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of: Perfect understanding, or Knowledge of the truth Perfect aspiration, the intention to resist evil Perfect speech, or saying nothing to hurt others Perfect conduct through respecting life, morality, and property Perfect means of livelihood, or holding a job that does not injure others Perfect endeavor, striving to free the mind of evil Perfect mindfulness through controlling one's feelings and thoughts Perfect contemplation through the practice of proper forms of concentration "Through observation and effort," summarizes Jonathan Forty, author of Mythology: A Visual Encyclopedia, "a person can break out of the laws of karma.... The aim of Buddhists is to step outside this wheel of karmic rebirth and attain nirvana, or release from it and reunification with the One."

At about the age of eighty, Buddha became ill and died. His disciples gave him an elaborate funeral, burned his body, and distributed his bones as sacred relics.

In Indian history, Buddhism reached a high mark of sorts when an Indian emperor named Ashoka converted in 262 BCE, renounced violence, and named Buddhism the state religion (Ashoka died in 232 BCE). In Buddhist tradition, Ashoka had become horrified at the cost of empire-building and embraced Buddhism. Today, Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world and it has been a dominant religious and social force in most of Asia for more than two thousand years. There are an estimated 364 million followers today.

Reacting to the growing popularity of Buddhism, the Brahmins later tried to absorb it by depicting the Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu, which would be a little like traditional Judaism finding a way to absorb Jesus or Mohammed into its list of prophets. It was successful in many respects, because Buddhism gradually faded as a dynamic influence in India. When leaders of the Gupta Dynasty reunited northern India around 320 CE, they brought about a revival of Hindu religious thought, caste lines were reinforced, and Buddhism eventually disappeared as a force in India.

Emerging in about the same era as Buddhism did, the second major offshoot of Hinduism is Jainism. Like Buddhism, Jainism is traced to a man who is believed to be an actual historical individual. Mahavira is said to have been born to aristocratic parents in 540 BCE and was a contemporary of Buddha, though they may have never met. Nonetheless, as with Buddha, certain myths developed about Mahavira. At his birth, the gods were said to have descended from heaven and showered flowers, nectar, and fruit on his father's palace. There are many legends about his extraordinary childhood, but as an adult, he is said to have lived an ordinary life until his parents died. Then, at the age of thirty-two, he gave away his possessions, left his wife and child, and became a wandering monk. The sky glowed like a lake covered in lotus flowers when this happened.

Mahavira's teachings form the basis for Jainism, which is centered on the belief that every living thing consists of an eternal soul called the jiva and a temporary physical body. Attaining release from the world of sorrows can be achieved by renouncing sin and violence, engaging instead in strict penance and extreme, disciplined, nonviolent conduct. In Jainism, sadhus (holy men) and sadhvis (holy women) try to separate themselves from the everyday world through a vow of poverty and may not own any property except a broom, simple robes, bowls for food, and walking sticks. They may not live in buildings except for brief periods and must beg for all their food. They are not allowed to kill any living creature, and Jain monks wear a veil or mask over their mouths, so they don't accidentally swallow any insects.

Small in number, with some 4 million adherents worldwide, Jainism has been influential, nonetheless. Laypeople, or followers who are not priests or holy men and women, observe a less rigorous code of conduct, and support the priesthood. Many of them are businesspeople who have flourished, in no small part, because Jainists enjoy a reputation for scrupulous honesty in commercial activity that does not directly involve killing any living thing.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

EVERYWHERE UNDER HEAVEN.

The Myths of China and Japan The mountain rests on the earth: the image of splitting apart. Thus those above can insure their position by giving generously to those below.

-I Ching (Book of Changes), twelfth century BCE To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue...gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

-Confucius, 551479 BCE The Way of Heaven has no favorites. It is always with the good man.

-Lao-tzu, c. 520 BCE Before heaven and earth had taken form all was vague and amorphous. Therefore it was called the Great Beginning. The Great Beginning produced emptiness and emptiness produced the universe.... The combined essences became they in and yang, the concentrated essences became the four seasons, and the scattered essences of the four seasons became the myriad creatures of the world.

-Huai-nan Tzu, second century BCE What are oracle bones?

How did the ancient Chinese think the world began?