Envy - in Myths, Histories and Epics

Envy is a human trait. Moreover, it is a potent and very visible trait. It is often at the core of many incidents of struggle, conflict, death and destruction throughout history. No doubt it has been one of the favorite topics for storytellers, authors, poets. Naturally, it is also found as a driving factor of conflict, wars, struggle and family feud in many epics, irrespective of them being based on myth, historical events of even religious beliefs. 

Often, it is the people with a defeated mentality and a deficiency of some kind that are beset by envy for people around them. They envy those who have more wealth, power and physical ability. It is always the lesser that envies the better, at least in a specific trait. 

Dhritarastra of Mahabharat envied his brother Pandu as the latter was not blind, was more capable and was the rightful ruler. This envy was at the core of Dhritarastra continuing to envy his nephews, the Pandavas, even after Pandu died and Dhritarastra became the ruler. This deep rooted envy was the seed of the higher degree of envy and hatred among his sons against the Pandavas. That was the root cause of the whole war of the Mahabharat that resulted in total destruction of the most of the clan and its subjects. 

Ravana was envious of the beautiful wife of Ram and was tempted to kidnap her, resulting in the war and destruction of his beautiful kingdom. It was envy that led to untimely and dubious death of the monkey king Bali at the hands of Ram. Bali was envious of his brother Sugriva and his wife Tara. This festering envy led to the feud between the brothers and ultimately resulted in Bali getting killed at the behest of his own brother. 

Hitler was envious of the dominant position of Jews in the trade and industry in Germany and the rest of Europe. He considered himself an Aryan and superior to Jews but he also despised the Jews being so successful in trade, commerce, industry and other major aspects of society. He harbored this envy to such an extent that he manipulated the whole populace to perpetrate the holocaust on the Jews. He became the major cause of World War II and ended up being considered as one of the worst villains in history. 

Even in the modern times, the growing inequality in the world has given rise to higher level of envy between civilizations, populations and even states. As a result, a lot of extremism and radicalization has been seen emanating from different corners of the globe, both rich and poor. Neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, far right or extreme leftist views, political radicalization, jihadism etc are all manifestation of some sort of envy harbored by one group against other group or groups. 

Hence, envy is at the core of human conflict, be it between siblings or between civilizations, be it between states or between ideologies, envy is the root of almost all worldly conflicts. If one were to goes by the scriptures and mythologies, envy is also paramount in heaven, among gods, demons and other mythical beings, Envy is an omnipresent phenomena blighting all cognizant beings or entities.