Hindu mythology seems dramatically underrepresented in popular fiction (in the US at least)

I just finished reading Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light and found myself awestruck at how I've been interested in mythology-based fiction for nearly two full decades now and haven't once accidentally fallen upon a piece inspired by Hinduism until now. I've come across ancient Greek/Roman, Norse, Sumerian, Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan, and probably plenty more that I'm failing to rattle off the top of my head, but Hindu was never one that came up. Granted, I also didn't go out of my way to look for it, but that's kind of the point. I didn't really go out of my way to look for any of the others either, they just kind of fell into my lap for one reason or another.

Lord of Light isn't explicitly an accurate representation of Hinduism (or Buddhism as is also included), but even the basic inspiration it draws from to craft its story is incredibly interesting as somebody with a general fascination with mythology as a whole. The portrayal of Hindu gods/deities (as of my now very limited exposure) seems closer to Central American mythologies than European mythologies. Again, not that they're the same, but finding similarities and differences to compare/contrast is one of the primary aspects which makes mythology-based reading so interesting to me. Reading universe origin stories, or how ancient civilizations rationalized different parts of the world's creation/development, it's so much fun to see the various paths each culture took to their respective conclusions.

This book has definitely inspired me to take a bit of time to search for more unpopular mythological texts, and even now writing this post I'm realizing that aside from Egyptian, I haven't really given much Africa-based mythology (of which I'd imagine there may literally be hundreds just based on the sheer volume of cultural variety across the continent) much attention either.

Now I shouldn't really be surprised that I've failed to come across African or various "eastern" mythological works in a country like the US, but I'm glad I've opened my eyes a bit, and I'm excited to embark on this journey forward!