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by Dr. Senarath Tennakoon

A legend is a story that may or may not be true. These old stories and the beliefs contained in them are organised under the branch of study called mythology. Primitive man's mind has not been idling at all. It has been trying to observe and explain the so-called wonders or the mysteries or the extraordinery events as best as it could.

The primitive man has been creative and inquisitive as well as sensitive to the issues like the beginning of the world, the creation of man and the discovery of fire and water etc.

Mythology can be looked upon as the very beginning of scientific thinking, as there was the act of asking questions and providing answers.

For the modern man these legends and myths may appear to be unscientific, absurd, fantastic misbeliefs. Yet these are colourful, interesting and symbolic in outlook. Even today, we tend to stand in awe of the power of lightning and thunder, despite science and technology have provided answers to the behaviour of clouds, winds and rain.

According to Greek historian, Hesoid, from Chaos (a vast space of nothingness), the Gaia (the earth) appeared as well as the night and the day. Uranus (the sky) was the first child of Gaia. Gaia also created mountains and the sea. Now, Gaia had to create people for her world. What did she do? Gaia, united with her son Uranus.

In short the earth and the sky lived together. As a result, the first human race the Titans was created. There were twelve Titans, six male and six female. When Uranus saw that the Titans were ugly and horrible, some with one eye in the middle of the forehead, he shut them in the bottom of the earth.

But the mother Gaia, was fond of them and she was extremely sad about their fate. Although she persuaded her children to murder their father, only one of them, Cronos was bold enough to cut and kill Uranus to peices with the sickle made and given to him by his mother.

It is believed that the black blood that cozed from Uranus turned out to be the 'Furies' that were strongly against the sinners and mercilessly punished the sinners. Cronos became king and he released his brothers and sisters. In fact he married a sister named 'Rhea' and they had six children.

Baby's clothes

The legend goes on to say that Cronos believed that he would be killed by one of his sons. So he swallowed them at birth. But Rhea was able to save one of them, by delivering this son in a cave. He was zeus. Cronos was shown a stone dressed in baby's clothes.

He swallowed it. Later it was zeus who grew in the forests of Ida; who poisoned Cronos with a drink called potion, which made Cronos vomit out the previously swallowed children and the stone. Zeus and his brothers and sisters occupied the Mount Olympus and became the array of Greek gods (Hettiarachchi, 1993)

Saviour

The credit of creating human beings goes to one of the Titans Prometheus. Prometheus used to make solid figures from clay and gave life to them. These were the first human beings. They were just like the gods. Smaller in size devoid of magical powers.

Prometheus was a kind-hearted Titan. He taught the human beings several arts and crafts, like ploughing the earth to grow corn, building houses for dwelling, making tools for hunting etc. But the human beings were in dire need of fire for cooking food. Here too Prometheus was their saviour.

According to one school of thought Prometheus stole a fire spark from a fire of the gods while attending a party of the gods. The other says, that Prometheus stole fire from the sun.

The early Greeks believed that the sun was driven by winged horses around the world. THe kind-hearted Prometheus climbed the eastern hill and waited till the sun started his daily round the world journey. He lit his torch from sun's fire and gave it to the human beings and taught them how to use fire.

The Olympic torch signifies Prometheus act. The legend is made more colourful by the anger of Zeus against Prometheus. He punished Prometheus by chaining him on the top of the mountain Caucasus and allowing him to scorch in the summer sun in summer and freeze in winter.

Further Prometheus was tortured by an eagle. But he could not be killed. Zeus however punished the human beings through Pandora, the pretty first woman made out of clay. Pandora was given as a gift to Promethus brother, Epimetheus. Pandora brought with her a gift given by Zeus, which she opened through curiosity. It is believed that all the evil qualities of the human beings gushed out from the box except Hope.

Deluge

According to another legend, which is popular among the Sinhalese, the world had been repeatedly created and destroyed. The sun destroyed it seven times; the wind three times, and a deluge of rain once. The flood waters rose up to the Brahma heaven.

The Mahabrahma then dropped a lotus seed into this water. This seed went right down to the earth. A lotus plant germinated out and it stalk and leaves reached the Brahmaloka. The lotus flowers and leaves appeared on the surface of the flood water.

Two Brahamins picked flowers for the five Buddhas; Vipassi, Kakusanda, Konagama, Kassapa and Gotama. The flood waters receded and the two Brahamins descended to the earth by climbing down the lotus stalk. The earth was in total darkness and there was no sign of animal or human life. There was nothing to quench their hunger too.

Fire of desire

So they had to eat mud! It is claimed that the fire of desire broke in their system and one of them became a man and the other a woman!. They began to procreate. While the earth became a beautiful place with the sun, the moon, the stars and planets their progeny populated the earth.

When their numbers increased they assembled together and elected a queen-"Mahipala Devinnanse", to rule over them. This queen married a man and he was called "Mahasammatha Rajjuruvo".

He became the king. But many desired to have Mahipala as their wife. One terrible one was the Vasawarthi Maraya. He bit the queen's breast as a viper and caused severe illness. Again it entered her genitals as a lizard causing illness. But according to another legend it is said that the Sakra created the first human couple and when the population increased he dropped a crown from the heaven which fell on the lucky person to become the king.

It fell on the direct decendent of the first couple. He was Mahasammata and he became the Chakrawarthi. The Sakra gave this Chakrawarthi a flying elephant and the people respected, obeyed and honoured him (Wijesekara, 1987)

Garden of Eden

According to the chapter 'Genesis' of the Old Testament that deals with the history of the Jews, God created Adam and Eve the first man and woman respectively. The serpent came in between them. The serpent became friendly with Eve and persuaded her to feed Adam with the forbidden fruit.

Eve too ate it. No sooner than Eve had tasted the forbidden fruit, she became aware of her nudity. She tried to hide her nudity. It is said that Adam gave her a leaf to cover her nudity.

Although some believe that the forbidden fruit was an apple while some think it is a papaw and leaf was a papaw leaf.

This incident took place in the Garden of Eden situated in Persia. But the Muslims beleive that the Garden of Eden is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a tall mountain called the Adam's Peak too. According to Yoga, the unchanging and the unmoving energy is the Real which has been differently named - God, Parameshwar, Allah etc. The Real has different forms of energy which change and move. These are known as the unreal as these are temporary in nature. It is the unreal forms of energy that create the creatures of the universe (Bhanot, 1995).

Of the Hindu trinity, Brahma is the active creater of the universe, Vishnu the destroyer and Mahesh (Shiv), the preserver. It is believed that after the destruction of one universe, Vishnu falls asleep, floating on the causal waters.

When another world needs to be created Brahma appears on a lotus that springs from the navel of Vishnu. The newly created world exists for a period 2,160,000,000 years, which is equal to just one day of Brahma's calendar! When Brahma goes to sleep after the end of his day the world and all that is there in is consumed by fire. When he awakes again he restores the whole creation.

This phenomenon goes on till the hundred years of Brahma's life are completed. When this period ends, he himself loses his existence and all the other gods and sages and the whole universe dissolve into their constituent parts (Kailash Nath Seth,1993).

A very early Upanisad of the 8th century B.C mentions about the five steps in cosmic evolution - the inorganic, (the physical) the biological (the psychological, logical) the Mental; the intellectual and lastly the spiritual.

According to Radakrishnan, we are at the logical level which has to grow into the spiritual level. (Radhakrishnan, 1975).

Unlike the scientific theory that states, that the evolution of man through the primate going back to the unicellular organism; the legends were a garb of mythology.

References:

1. Hettiarachchi N(1995), The British Council, Readers Project, Colombo

2. Kailash Nath Seth(1993). Gods and Goddesses of India myths and legends, Diamond pocket books, New Delhi, India.

3. Malalasekara, G.P(1967) Society and Culture, Lecture in Sinhala at the Literary Festival on 11th September 1967.

4. Radhakrishnan.S(1975), The Creative Life - Evolution of Science and Man p32-37, Orient Paperbacks, Ravindra Printing press, Delhi.

5. Wijesekara N(1987), Deities and Demons - Magic and Masks, M.D Gunasena & Company Ltd, Colombo.

6. Bhanot T.R(1995)Yoga;Dreamland Publishers, Nia Sarak, Delhi Dr.Senarath Tennakoon MA(Linguistics)Kelaniya, Diploma in Journalism(London) MD,DTMH,MCMA (Colombo) Board Certified Specialist(Com.Med).

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