Talk:Purāṇa:The Epics and their Greatness

By Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami

If the Purāṇas are described as constituting an Upāṅga (subsidiary) of the Vedas, the Itihāsas (the two epics) are so highly revered that they are often placed on an equal footing with the Vedas themselves.

The Mahābhārata is traditionally known as the Pañcama Veda — the fifth Veda. Of the Rāmāyaṇa it is said:

Vedavedye pare puṁsi Jāte Daśarathātmaje Vedaḥ Pracetasa āsīt Sākṣād Rāmāyaṇātmanā

(As the Supreme Being, who is to be known through the Vedas, was born as the son of Daśaratha, the Vedas themselves were born as the son of Pracetas [Vālmīki] — in the form of the Rāmāyaṇa.)

This verse extols the Rāmāyaṇa as a living embodiment of the Vedas — not merely a poetic work, but śāstra in narrative form.

Itihāsas in the Heart of the People

The stories of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata are deeply woven into the very cultural and moral fabric of India. They are said to be in the blood of the people. Even though today not many read these epics directly, just a few decades ago they were part of everyday life and memory.

If people of previous generations were widely respected for their honesty, virtue, and moral uprightness, a major reason was their being steeped in the teachings of the Itihāsas. In Tamil Nadu, rajas granted lands to learned scholars to give year-round discourses on the Mahābhārata in temples.

Until as recently as thirty or forty years ago, villagers gathered in the hundreds to hear a pūṣāri narrate the stories of the Mahābhārata through song and drum (uḍukku). These performances were the community’s equivalent of cinema and theatre, but unlike modern entertainment, they had no ill effects. On the contrary, they inculcated truthfulness, compassion, courage, and self-sacrifice.

The esteem in which the Mahābhārata was held can be gauged from the Tamil custom of naming the temple of the village goddess as Draupadī Amman Kōyil, a tribute to one of the central figures of the epic.

Puranic Dharma vs. Epic Dharma

The larger Purāṇas contain many independent stories, each focused on a particular dharma. In contrast, each Itihāsa is one continuous story, with embedded sub-stories that all revolve around a central theme and character(s). The Purāṇas might present several different dharmas through distinct narratives. But the Itihāsas aim to illustrate all dharmas through one vast and interwoven narrative.

For example:

• The story of Hariścandra in the Purāṇas exemplifies the dharma of truthfulness.
• Śravaṇa’s tale speaks of filial devotion.
• Nalayani stands for pativratā-dharma — a wife's loyalty and chastity.
• Rantideva represents self-sacrifice and unbounded compassion.

But in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, we find all these dharmas embodied across different characters and contexts — making them holistic guides to life.

The Itihāsas, thus, are not merely stories from the past — they are living texts, ever-relevant, offering an encyclopedic view of Dharma through every shade of human experience.