suggest that it was the result of a former misdeed on the victim’s part.  But the very iteration, the insistence on new explanations of this doctrine, show that the popular mind still clung to the old idea of demoniac interference.  Occasionally the naivete with which the effect of a mantra is narrated is somewhat amusing, as, for instance, when the heroine Krishn[=a] faints, and the by-standers “slowly” revive her “by the use of demon-dispelling mantras, rubbing, water, and fanning” (iii. 144. 17).  All the weapons of the heroes are inspired with and impelled by mantras.

Sufficient insight into the formal rules of morality has been given in the extracts above, nor does the epic in this regard differ much from the law-books.  Every man’s first duty is to act; inactivity is sinful.  The man that fails to win a good reputation by his acts, a warrior, for example, that is devoid of fame, a ‘man of no account,’ is a bh[=u]mivardhana, [Greek:  achthos aroures] a cumberer of earth (iii. 35. 7).  A proverb says that man should seek virtue, gain, and pleasure; “virtue in the morning; gain at noon; pleasure at night,” or, according to another version, “pleasure when young, gain in middle-age, and virtue in the end of life” (iii. 33. 40, 41).  “Virtue is better than immortality and life.  Kingdom, sons, glory, wealth, all this does not equal one-sixteenth part of the value of truth” (ib. 34. 22).[59] One very strong summing up of a discourse on virtuous behavior ends thus:  “Truth, self-control, asceticism, generosity, non-injury, constancy in virtue—­these are the means of success, not caste nor family” (j[=a]ti, kula, iii. 181. 42).

A doctrine practiced, if not preached, is that of blood-revenge.  “The unavenged shed tears, which are wiped away by the avenger” (iii. 11. 66); and in accordance with this feeling is the statement:  “I shall satiate my brother with his murderer’s blood, and thus, becoming free of debt in respect of my brother, I shall win the highest place in heaven” (ib. 34, 35).

As of old, despite the new faith, as a matter of priestly, formal belief, all depends on the sacrifice:  “Law comes from usage; in law are the Vedas established; by means of the Vedas arise sacrifices; by sacrifice are the gods established; according to the rule of Vedas, and usage, sacrifices being performed support the divinities, just as the rules of Brihaspati and Ucanas support men” (iii. 150. 28, 29).  The pernicious doctrine of atonement for sin follows as a matter of course:  “Whatever sin a king commits in conquering the earth is atoned for by sacrifices, if they are accompanied with large gifts to priests, such as cows and villages.”  Even gifts to a sacred bull have the same effect (iii. 33. 78, 79; ib. 35. 34; iii. 2. 57), the occasion in hand being a king’s violation of his oath.[60] Of these sacrifices a great snake-sacrifice forms the occasion for narrating the whole epic, the plot of which turns on the national vice of gambling.[61] For divine snakes are now even grouped with other celestial powers, disputing the victory of earthly combatants as do Indra and S[=u]rya:  “The great snakes were on Arjuna’s side; the little snakes were for Karna” (viii. 87. 44, 45).[62] They were (perhaps) the local gods of the Nagas (Snakes), a tribe living between the Ganges and Jumna.