The Epics

The epic of Rama, avatar of Vishnu, deals, like the Mahabharata, basicallywith the question of Dharma. As the saga unfolds, characters ace moral dilemmasand have to decide on the right course of action, from Dashratha having tochoose between a promise made to his wife and his love for his eldest son, toRama’s having to decide whether to accept Sita back from her captivity, or puther through a trial by fire to prove her chastity.

As a result, the Ramayana remains the greatest source of stories told tochildren to teach them moral concepts.

There are many versions of the Ramayana apart from the original by Valmiki,and they have interesting variations. For instance, Tulsidas, a devotee of Rama,refused to accept that Rama would send his pregnant wife away to the forest, sohe omitted the last chapter—the Uttarakand—from Valmiki’s story in hisRamcharitmanas.

The Tamil Kamba Ramayana changes parts of the story to better reflect Tamilideas, including Ravana not being as cruel to Sita. But whatever the deviations,the Ramayana remains the most popular Indian epic, Ram Rajya remains the utopiaof just governance, and every year, the Ramlilas reiterate the comforting theorythat good prevails over evil. 

It contains the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most powerful philosophical textsever written. But the Mahabharata is also quite simply the greatest story evertold, with the greatest cast of characters ever assembled.

Compared with the complexity of the codes of honours, shifting allegiancesand high emotions running through the Mahabharata, Western epics like the Iliadand the Odyssey seem puerile. And perhaps the most interesting aspect of this18-chapter, 1,00,000-verse saga is that if the events are interpreted from thepoint of view of any of the major characters—from Bhishma to the Pandavas toDuryodhana to Karna to Draupadi—each person’s actions seem justified fromhis standpoint.

Historians do not agree on the antiquity of the Mahabharata, and estimatesrange from 5000 BC to AD 600. Legend has it that it was composed verbally by theRishi Vyas (who, in a post-modern twist, is himself a major character in theepic, being the father of Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidur), and transcribed byLord Ganesha.

What is certain is that over the centuries, anonymous storytellers have addedto the tale about the warring descendants of King Bharat, from whom our nationgot its name, turning it into a repository of virtually every conceivablestoryline thought up by man.