This book studies several mythical motifs, found in the Veda (especially in the Rgveda) on the one hand and in one or both Sanskrit epics on the other: Agni's hiding, the theft of the Soma, Indra's rape of Ahalya, Upamanyu's salvation by the Asvins, and finally the representation of the Great War of the Mahabharata as a sacrifice. While it is often said that the subsequent Indian literature only paid "lip-service" to the Vedas without really knowing and even less understanding these texts, the present study not only shows that many Vedic myths are still kept alive in the Epics, but more importantly that their deep underlying meaning was perfectly understood by the epic mythmakers, and reactualized to fit the changed religious conditions of epic times.