Mundaka Upanishad: A Comparative Analysis

Religious documents were common place in Mayan and Indian societies during ancient times. The Mayans’ religious document is known as the Popol Vuh and the Hindu’s is called the Mundaka Upanishad. These documents contain details about how each society believes the world was created and how to properly worship their creators. In this manner the Hindu’s Mundaka Upanishad resembles Buddhism and Christianity whereas the Mayans’ Popol Vuh more closely adheres to practices found in Greek polytheism.
There are very few things that the Hindu and Mayan religions agree on, but one of them is that some divine force existed before humans. For Hindus this divine force is known as Brahma who came from Brahman. Since Brahma is the only the only deity that Hindus worship, their monotheistic …show more content…
Thus, the first two humans created became the first four humans to exist, and in Greek and Mayan stories humans were made from materials found on earth.
Whereas the Mayans came from maize and water, the Greeks came from mud and water. The Mayans were also similar to Greeks in that humans were made in the image of their gods and in both Greek and Mayan religions the gods were led to the materials that they used to create humans by animals. In Greece, it was Prometheus; who saw pigs playing in mud that led to the creation of humans, and for the Mayans it was a fox, coyote, parakeet, and a raven that led the gods to discover yellow and white ears of corn near other delicacies like chocolate. Water that was found beside the mud was then used to create humans was also used by both Prometheus in the Greek stories and by the Mayan gods in Mayan stories to create the life sustaining blood of