Epics

• Mahabharata (Vyasa) consists of a mass of legendary and didactic material that tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas set sometime in 3102 BC.
• Mahabharata is a poem made up of almost 100,000 couplets divided into 18 parvans or sections.
• Mahabharata is an exposition on dharma (codes of conduct).
• Bhagavad Gita (The Blessed Lord’s Song) is one of the greatest and most beautiful of the Hindu scriptures.
• Bhagavad Gita is regarded by the Hindus in somewhat the same way as the Gospels are by Christians.
• Ramayana (Valmiki) consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.
• Ramayana reflects the Hindu values and forms of social organization, the theory of karma, the ideals of wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor and promises.
• The poem describes the royal birth of Rama, his tutelage under the sage Visvamitra, and his success in bending Siva’s mighty bow, thus winning Sita, the daughter of King Janaka, for his wife.
• Panchatantra (Frame Story) is a collection of Indian beast fables originally written in Sanskrit.
• The introduction, which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to a learned Brahman named Vishnusarman, who used the form of animal fables to instruct the three dull-witted sons of a king.
• Sakuntala, a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa, tells of the love between Sakuntala and King Dushyanta.
• King Dushyanta is a noble and pious king who upholds his duties above personal desire.
• Sakuntala, on the other hand, is a young girl who matures beautifully because of her kindness, courage, and strength of will.
• After a period of suffering, the two are eventually reunited.
• Emotion or rasa dominates every scene in Sanskrit drama.
• The Little Clay Cart (Mrcchakatika) is attributed to Shudraka, a king.
• The characters in this play include a Brahman merchant who has lost his money through liberality, a rich courtesan in love with a poor young man, much description of resplendent palaces, and both comic and tragic or near-tragic emotional situations.