Epics

May 5, 2011 November 16, 2018

Epics (Kavya in Hindi) refer to long narrative poems. In India, there are two main epics viz. Ramayana and Mahabharata.

It was written by Maharishi Valmiki and consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (Kandas) and 500 sargas) and tells the story of Rama.
Verses in the Ramayana are written in a 32-syllable meter called anustubh and ranges in 50000 lines in total. Ramayan is known as Adi Kavya (first poem of India) and Valmiki is also regarded as India’s First Poet.
Father Kamil Bulke, author of Ramakatha, has identified over 300 variants of Ramayana. It inspired Tulsikrita Ramayan “Ram Charit Manas” in 1576 by Tulsi Das.

The Mahabharta is attributed to Maharishi Vyas and the tale known as Bharta is a shorter version of 24,000 verses, while the Mahabharta contains 1 Lakh verses and 1.8 million words which make it 10 times longer than “Iliad and Odyssey combined” and 4 times of Ramayana.
It is divided into total 18 parvas (chapters) plus the Harivamsa supplement.
Bhagavad Gita is part of Bhishma Parva of Mahabharata.
The largest chapter in Mahabharata is Shanti Parva.