वाल्मीकि Valmiki, “Ramayana”; and, व्यासः Vyasa, “Mahabharata”, 500 BC.

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4 years ago

Susan B. Katz, “The Story of Gandhi (1869-1948): A Biography Book for the New Readers”, 2020 was the topic of an earlier blog post.

Here I present: वाल्मीकि Valmiki, “Ramayana”; and, व्यासः Vyasa, “Mahabharata”, ancient Indian “epic poems”, written 500 BC. Below is a map of “Hindu Holy Sites” both within and outside of the Republic of India. “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” are sacred texts in Hinduism.

A sign of “humanity” is poetry.

Epic poems are book-length verse-writings of “humanist” (prose-writing is for “scientist”).

इतिहास “Itihasa” refers to written descriptions of important events in “Hinduism”.

This includes the Mahabharata, & the Ramayana.

However, a story is considered to be इतिहास “itihasa” only when the author of the story is part of the story.

व्यासः Vyasa, who wrote the Mahabharata; and, is himself a character in the story.

वाल्मीकि Valmiki, who wrote the Ramayana ;similarly, is himself also a character in the story.

Susan B. Katz, “The Story of Gandhi (1869-1948): A Biography Book for the New Readers”, 2020 was the topic of an earlier blog post.

Here I presented: वाल्मीकि Valmiki, “Ramayana”; and, व्यासः Vyasa, “Mahabharata”, ancient Indian “epic poems”, written 500 BC.

Rāma राम is Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being; and, thus “Ramayana” is fundamental to Hinduism.

Mahābhāratam महाभारतम् is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa.

Bharata भारत is the name of the “Republic of India” today.