T.H. Griffiths_]
INTRODUCTION
The ideas of the human family are few, as is apparent from the study of
the literature of widely different nations. Thus the "Ramayana" ranks in
Hindoo with the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" in Greek literature. The
character of Rama corresponds with that of Menelaus, for both the
European and the Asiatic heroes have had their wives carried off from
them--although Sita, the bride of Rama, is chaste as an icicle from
Diana's temple, while Helen is the infamous type of wanton wives,
ancient and modern. The Hindoo Lanka is Troy, and Ayodhya is Sparta. The
material civilization of the cities in the Hindoo epic is more luxurious
and gorgeous than that which Homer attributes to Greece in the heroic
age. Such splendor and refinement as invests social life at Lanka and
Ayodhya never appear amid the severe simplicity of Argos or Troy. The
moral tone seems perhaps higher in India than in Greece during the
periods described in their several epics--at least as far as mutual love
and forbearance go--and the ideas of marriage and conjugal fidelity are
equally exalted.
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