Hindu belief and mythology color every aspect of life and culture in India. They are the basis of countless works of art, from plays about Rama written in the 700s to modern Indian movies based on mythic stories. Temples and images of the deities are everywhere. Festivals— such as the ten-day autumn celebration of Rama and his wife, Sita—keep the traditional gods, heroes, and myths alive. Even place names have sacred associations. The city of Calcutta, for example, comes from Kalighat, the place where sacrifices to the goddess Kali once took place.
Besides inspiring generations of Indian artists and thinkers, Hindu mythology has appealed to many in the West as well. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American writer of the 1800s, wrote Brahma, a poem celebrating the creator god. In the same era, English-speaking readers became familiar with the legends of Savitri through Edwin Arnold’s poem Savitri, or Love and Death. A poem by the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called The God and the Bayadere (dancing girl) deals with an appearance on earth of the god Shiva.
English composer Gustav Holst wrote a chamber opera—one meant to be sung, not acted, with a small orchestra—called Savitri. Holst also translated many hymns from the Rig-Veda into English and wrote music to accompany them. These four sets of songs are grouped together under the title Choral Hymns. Bertram Shapleigh, an American composer, wrote Vedic Hymn, also based on a text from the Rig-Veda, and a piece of orchestral music called Ramayana. A 1989 film of the Mahabharata written by Jean-Claude Carriere and directed by Peter Brook has brought the ancient epic to modern movie audiences.
World History
