My concern about the use of mythology tag

Question

One of my question has been edited and tagged under mythology. The question was about Mahabharata and Hindus believe that Mahabharata is not a myth but an authentic history. Myth and history are contradictory.

Of course, I know that there are two meanings for the word myth: (1): a traditional story (2): a widely held but false belief or idea.

There was a similar question here. Keshav, in his answer there, has stated that the tag is being used in the meaning of a traditional story. But the word mythis now widely being used in the context of a false idea. That would naturally cause confusion to a normal user, especially to the new ones.

Actually, even I was taken aback when I first saw my question tagged under mythology. So, what if we have a separate tag to be used with questions about ancient Hindu history?

Answer 1

It is a very valid question. To say that myth mean a traditional story is incomplete and misleading, mythology means the study of myth.

A myth is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as

an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mythology as such:

the myths of a particular group or culture

ideas that are believed by many people but that are not true

I assumed that we are studying history here and not false beliefs.

Answer 2

Whether or not the Mahabharata is 100% authentic history and true or partially true or just myth is not important. What I do believe is that it came from God and that it is meant to teach us lessons as to how to be Hindus.

Don't get lost in the wrong argument. It is better to be a person who follows the moral values taught in the Mahabharata and believe they are myths than to be a person who does not follow the values taught in them and believe they are authentic history.

Answer 3

The mythology tag should not be used because:

1. To avoid confusion with the pejorative usage of the term.
2. Gives the impression that these stories are not historical. For example, calling the Mahabharata war a "myth". There is also no way to distinguish between "real" history and "mythical" history, because both happened in the past.

The word "Mythology" is the study of "Myths". According to Wikipedia,

Mythology or godlore refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people[1] or to the study of such myths.[2] Myths are the stories people tell to explain nature, history, and customs.

Then, once you click on the hyperlink for myth, you will read,

A myth is a traditional story consisting of events that are ostensibly historical, though often supernatural, explaining the origins of a cultural practice or natural phenomenon.

Definition of ostensible,

stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.

However, wikipedia does state,

The word "myth" is derived from the Greek word mythos (μῦθος), which simply means "story".

This is the literal etymological meaning of the word "myth" used in academic circles,

The term is common in the academic fields of mythology, mythography.[11] or folkloristics. Use of the term by scholars has no implication for the truth or falsity of the myth.

Ok, but then the next line says this,

In fact, depending on the field the terms legend, fiction, fairy tale, folklore, fable and urban legend can be used interchangeably.[12]

In popular usage,

A myth can be a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact. This usage, which is often pejorative,[13] arose from labeling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well.[14]

And it is this popular usage of the word that most people who come to Hinduism SE will see, not the usage of the word known by academicians. In fact, most people will think we are fools for calling our own stories "myths".

There is a reason why the word "myth" has two meanings, and it is not a coincidence.

It is also not a coincidence that the Sanskrit word "mithya" means "not real". It is a linguistic cognate with the word "myth" in other languages. The reason why myth has two meanings is quite clear from a linguistic perspective, and is a known occurrence in linguistics, that is, in course of time, the word is applied to something else and then takes on that new meaning. So, in the case of myth, one of two things happened:

1. Myth originally meant "not real", then the word was later applied to traditional and religious stories thought to be false, and the word finally meant "traditional stories", but with the connotation that the stories aren't true.

2. Myth originally meant story, then the word was later applied just to traditional stories (to distinguish them from stories not mentioned in scriptures), then the traditional stories were thought to be false, then the word myth took on a new meaning as "false".

This is at the same time as the word "history" meant "true history".

For example, the word "gay" etymologically and originally meant happy, but then later meant same-sex attraction. Nowadays, gay primarily means the latter definition.

There is no point in continuing to use a word that means different things for different people, this causes confusion

Also, there are better alternatives, such as "sacred stories", "divine stories", etc.

Answer 4

The answer given by Amit already mentions that a "myth" is "that which is not true" and "mythology" is "the study of myths". Now, that is exactly the opposite of what we believe the stories in Puranas and Itihasas to be.

There is no justification IMO in using the tag given that we already have all the relevant tags.

For example, if a question is about a story (it seems that it is a story is the only reason of using mythology as tag) which is present in the Puranas, we can tag the question with Purana. If the story is in some other scriptures, we can tag it with relevant tags accordingly. Why "Mythology" is even needed? Why and how it is important? Just because it was created by some user, we should continue using it for ever?

So, there is no valid reason we can give to justify the act of continuing using this tag on Hinduism.SE. It is purely redundant.

And, for people who have fondness for mythology, they can join the site Mythology.SE. It's specifically designed for them.

Some user, elsewhere, suggested the term ancient stories as a replacement. This is good. Because the stories, which some people here are too obsessed to call as mythologies, are basically Pouranic (or Purnaic) Katha-s. Or stories or incidents that happened in Purakala i.e in ancient times.

Another user suggests the term legend, this is also quite good IMO. But mythology should be removed or changed to something else.

Another point to be concerned, is the fact that, mythology is never defined in Hindu scriptures. So, Hinduism does not define what mythology is.

And, if we remove this tag or alter it to something else, there is nothing lost with respect to anything. So, i don't understand what the arguments to keep this tag are from our opponents.

Because it was created by an user who then used to have many misconceptions about Hinduism himself, itself is a good enough reason to remove it or to alter it. Plus we have more valid reasons on our side too.

So, in short:

1) Mythology is disrespectful. It gives the impression that the stories our scriptures say are false, which is equivalent to saying Rishis, like Vyasa, are lying
2) The word Mythology itself is non-existent in Hindu scriptures or in Hinduism. So, there's no way we could allow it to be the top tag here, which is the case now. We don't need it actually
3) Creation of this tag itself was a mistake made by an user who was then full of misconceptions about Hinduism. So, that mistake should be corrected.
4) Altering the tag to something more appropriate does not harm in any way.
5) Keeping the tag does not benefit in any way either.