Epics

Unlike many other religions, Hinduism has no single scripture. There are many scared texts, all of which mean different things to different schools of Hinduism.

Arguably the epics are the key to understanding India, as they have shaped the cultural life of the South East Asian region, depicting historic as well as legendary accounts of Kings and outlining philosophical debates. Some have said that their impact on Asian culture is comparable to Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata started as an oral tradition; its stories told by wandering holy men and dance troops. It is believed that after 2000 years of being told in the oral tradition, the sage Vyasa wrote it down and the today surviving text runs to 100,000 couplets, making it the world's longest epic poem.

It is a powerful text that inspires the reader with its vivid visions of the universe, the divine and humanity. It is the story of a feud between the Kaurava and Pandavas families, interwoven with many other legends that have shaped Hinduism.

The Bhagavad-Gita
The Song of the Lord! It is part of the Mahabharata and the best known of the Hindu scriptures. This poem is a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna as they both were fighting the war against evil.

The Ramayana
The most popular Hindu epic, it depicts the story of the Royal couple of Ayodhya - Rama and Sita. For the past two thousand years the Ramayana has been among the most important literary and oral texts of South Asia. This epic poem provides insights into many aspects of Indian culture and continues to influence the politics, religion and art of modern India.