A Radiant River, Light of Love: Reflections on Sati in India, Murder-Suicide in the Old Norse Epic Tradition, and Other Manifestations Establishing An Ancient Yet Common Indo-European Culture

An ancient common framework, the heritage of the Indo-Europeans, clearly stretches across the Indic, German, and Old Norse cultures. It appears throughout their mythical and religious traditions. There are evident similarities in the functions of the various gods, the concepts of time, the state of mystical furor in combat, the idea of becoming-animal, and their glorification or deification of intoxicating man-drinks and drunkenness by heroes as presented in the Rig Veda and Mahabharata of ancient India and in the Prose Edda of Norse Mythology. However, very powerfully, this unity of culture is revealed as well through the mythological treatment of love, primal passion, and murder-suicide. It appears for Scandinavia in the Sigurd-Brynhild saga, which is presented at length here, a parallel to the Indian ritual of sati (suttee). One can see in these social structures the sacred history of the Indo-Europeans as it has been transmitted through, variously, Old Norse and ancient Indian heroic epics and mythology. Although both societies arose before Greek philosophy or the modern discourse of psychiatry, we can discern shared concepts of primal passion, love, and romantic tragedy as well as their reflection in the mindset and culture of the Indo-European people.