Aryan religion--are even now in India occasionally enacted by the Jatras
of the Bengalis and the Rasas of the provinces in the west, and, just as
their forefathers did ages and ages ago. An episode from the history of
the god Vishnu, in relation to his marriage with Laxmi, was a favourite
subject for the early Indian Drama. Of Vedic Mythology Professor Max
Müller observes that in it "There are no genealogies, no settled
marriages between gods and goddesses. The father is sometimes the son,
the brother, the husband, and she who in one hymn is the mother, is in
another the wife. As the conceptions of the poet vary so varies the
nature of these gods."

The Hindoo dramatic writer, Babhavñti--the Indian
Shakespeare--introduced with success in one of his dramas, like in our
"Hamlet," "a play within a play," and much in a similar way as our early
dramatists used in their plays, the "dumb shows."

Between the native Tragedy and Comedy, as in China, there was no
definite distinction, and, although both contained some of the best and
noblest sentiments, yet the racial philosophy of caste enters greatly
into the construction of each.

In the Hindoo Mythology we have prototypes of the gods of the Egyptian,
Grecian, and Roman Mythologies. The god Vishnu, who, in Aryan Mythology,
is the wind and "Traverses the heavens in three strides," is the
greatest of all heathen deities. His dwelling-place was "The aerial
mountains, where the many horned and swiftly moving cattle abide." In
Grecian Mythology Hermes or Mercury took on some of the characteristics
of Vishnu.

In the Eleusinian Mysteries of the Greeks, the signs and symbols that