17) asserts a
similar fact of the Scythians, and Pausanias (iv. 2) of the Greeks.
("Hist. Sans. Lit." p. 48). The Pandavas and the Kauravas are called
esoterically cousins in the Epic poem because they were two distinct yet
Aryan tribes, and represent two peoples, not simply two families.
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In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is taught the occult philosophy by Krishna
(personification of the universal Divine Principle); and the less
mythological view of Orpheus presents him to us as "a divine bard or
priest in the service of Zagreus .... founder of the Mysteries .... the
inventor of everything, in fact, that was supposed to have contributed
to the civilization and initiation into a more humane worship of the
deity." Are not these striking parallels; and is it not significant
that, in the cases of both Arjuna and Orpheus, the sublimer aspects of
religion should have been imparted along with the occult methods of
attaining it by masters of the mysteries? Real Devanagari--non-phonetic
characters--meant formerly the outward symbols, so to say, the signs
used in the intercommunication between gods and initiated mortals.
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