+HANUMAN AND THE VANARS REJOICING AT THE RESTORATION OF SITA.+ (Reduced from Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon”) _face_ 70 +MEN WITH KNIVES AND SKEWERS PASSED THROUGH THEIR FLESH.+ (From a Photograph) _face_ 76 “+THE TERRIBLE DEMON KING OF LANKA AND HIS NO LESS FORMIDABLE BROTHER.+” (From a Photograph) _face_ 80 +THE TEMPLE AND BATHING GHÂTS ON THE SACRED LAKE AT KURUKSHETRA.+ (From a Photograph) _face_ 200 +THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN.+ (Reduced from Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon”) 220 GREAT INDIAN EPICS GENERAL INTRODUCTION Foremost amongst the many valuable relics of the old-world literature of India stand the two famous epics, the “Ramayana” and the “Mahabharata,” which are loved with an untiring love by the Hindus, for they have kept alive, through many a dreary century, the memory of the ancient heroes of the land, whose names are still borne by the patient husbandman and the proud chief.[1] These great poems have a special claim to the attention even of foreigners, if considered simply as representative illustrations of the genius of a most interesting people, their importance being enhanced by the fact that they are, to this day, accepted as entirely and literally true by some two hundred millions of the inhabitants of India. And they have the further recommendation of being rich in varied attractions, even when regarded merely as the ideal and unsubstantial creations of Oriental imagination.