Mythology is a study of Myths. A myth as defined in the dictionary is “A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable”. The origin of the word is traced to a Sanskrit word “Mithya” with the same meaning.

When the beliefs and dogmas of bygone generations are challenged by later generations because they cannot be substantiated by the “evidence base” of the prevailing time and are discarded as misconceptions, they become part of the “mythology” of that culture. All religions are cradles to many “myths” as seen through the eyes of modern man. Our ancestors clearly did not refer to their beliefs as myths and to whole or parts of their religion and culture as mythology. Many mythological beliefs must have started as simple observations, events or experiences for which there was no obvious explanation. These can then be constructed into a story and a …