It was a common practice to relate and recount stories of gods and heroes. The recital of narrative poems was a fundamental part of the religious ceremonies at festivals. The first traces of epic poetry in India are probably to be determined in Vedic Sanskrit literature, precisely in the hymns of the Rig Veda. It has also been noticed that most Indo-European epics have their central themes based upon, religion and kingship, physical strength, fruitfulness and productivity, health, riches, beauty etc. Kunti in Mahabharata), they were brought up in humble surroundings they possessed marvellous potential and died young (eg. Heroes were born of their illegitimate mother`s union with a divine force (eg. Over the world, it has been seen that epics bear certain similar qualities. Their acts began to conform very much to mythological patterns. And since the poetry aimed more to educate than to record actual facts, more often than not, the protagonists were exaggerated and idealised, transformed into `Utopian` characters. One of the primary functions of such poetry is to stir the spirit of the warriors by recollecting past glory and supplying them with models of ideal heroic behaviour. "Epic" in a way thus becomes synonymous with heroic oral poetry. Epic poetry has been used the world over, in different ages and countries to transmit from one generation to the other, the tales of the celebrated deeds of their national heroes. Since poetry had arrived before prose and because underlying all written forms is some oral strain, the epic too was born out of an oral tradition. An epic may be based upon subjects as myriad as heroic legends, myths, beast fables, philosophical theories etc. Primary examples would be Homer`s Iliad and Odyssey. ![]() ![]() In literary usage, the term encompasses both oral and written work. The term `epic` is utilised mostly to describe a long narrative poem, that relates specific heroic deeds. ![]() Originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into Kannada, Tamil and Hindi languages, it incorporates some of the oldest epic poetry ever created and some works form the basis of Hindu scripture. Indian epic poetry (standing for Itih?sa in Sanskrit and literally meaning - history, or, stated in a didactic way - "so it happened") pertains to that body of epic poetry, that has been penned in the Indian subcontinent (strictly implying the then periphery of India as a country, including present-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the other parts of neighbouring countries of Maldives and Tibet). In such circumstances, it demands a necessary situation that the framing of epic poetry in India be delineated in detailed format, with its stately splendour and gargantuan glory. There is, in fact, an immensity of bulk about this, as about every other department of Sanskrit literature, which to a rather more limited mind, can become absolutely bewildering to such enormousness. The Hindus, like the Greeks, have only two great epic poems - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, enlaced in ancient wonders of Sanskrit literature, considered the most primeval harbingers of the long legends of Epic poetry in India. Poetry, born amidst the majestic panorama of the Himalayas and fostered in a climate which had inflamed the imaginative potential, had developed itself with Oriental extravagance. In India, literature, like the whole face of nature, is balanced upon a gigantic scale.
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