Title Literary sources for the study of Indian History.docx ✅

Bhishma while he lay dying on a bed of arrows. Another one is the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna on the eve of the war which is known better as the Bhagavad Gita. The Ramayana too like the Mahabharata has two main recensions- the northern and the southern. The language of the northern recension is more polished and refined than the southern one. The epic consists of 7 Kandas (books), of which the first one is the Bala Kanda and the last one being the Uttara Kanda. The basic story is about Rama, the prince of Kosala; his banishment to the forest, abduction of his wife Sita, Sita’s rescue and the return to the capital-Ayodhya to become the king. The core of the text seems to be the work of a single individual traditionally identified as Valmiki. Archaeological evidence however does not tell us whether there is any historical basis to the events or characters of the Mahabharata or the Ramayana. Apart from the Valmiki Ramayana there are several other versions of the Ramayana, two of the important ones being the Paumachariu (Jaina version) and the Dasharatha Jataka (Buddhist version). In Paumachariu however Ravana is presented as a tragic hero who is killed by Lakshmana, not by Rama. Many consider the Mahabharata as the Brahmanical response to certain historical events such as: the increasing popularity of religious traditions like Buddhism and Jainism, the rise of dynasties such as the Nandas and Mauryas, who extended support to them were seen by some Brahmanas as threatening to the Brahmanical order. The Mahabharata was their response to this perceived crisis. Now we take a look at the Puranas as a source literary of evidence for reconstructing the Indian history. The Puranas mean ‘old’. According to tradition the Puranas were composed by Vyasa, but it is clear that in the form in which they have come down to us, they were not the work of one person or age. There are 18 Mahapuranas and many more Upapuranas. The Puranas may have overlapped with the Vedas to some extent. The Puranas are said to have five characteristics (panchalakshanas) i.e. they discuss mainly on 5 topics: Sarga (creation of the world), Pratisarga (re-creation), Manvantaras