vi poems did over the Greeks. The internal conflicts between righteousness and filial affection in the of the god-fearing, yet feeble, old, blind King Dhritarashtra, the majestic charecter of the grandsire Bhishma; the noble and virtuous nature of the royal Yudhishthira, and of the other four brothers, as mighty in valour as in devotion and loyalty; the peerless charecter of Krishna. unsurpassed in human wisdom; and not less brilliant, the charecters of the women-the stately queen Gandhari, the loving mother Kunti, the ever-devoted and all suffering Draupudi-these and hundreds of other charecters of this Epic and those of Ramayana have been the cherished heritage of the whole Hindu world for the last several thousands of years and form the basis of their thoughts and of their moral and ethical ideas. In fact, the Ramayana and the Mahabharat are the two encyclopaedias of the ancient Aryan life and wisdom. portraying an ideal civilization which humanity has yet to aspire after. When you study these charecters. you can at once find out how different is the ideal in India from that of the West. The West says, “Do! Show your power by doing.” India says, Show your power by suffering, “The West has solved the problem of how much a man can have; India has solved the problem of how little aman can have.” (Swami Vivekananda. MyIndia: The India Eternal, Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 1996, 2nd reprint, pp.14–15] பல்லாயிரம் ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னரே. வடமொழியில் இயற்றப்பட்ட இந்த இதிகாசங்கள் இந்தியாவின் அனைத்து மொழிகளிலும் அம்மொழி மரபுகளுக்கேற்பக் கூட்டியும் குறைத்தும் மாற்றியும் படைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. முழுமையாக வும் பகுதியாகவும் படைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. செய்யுள், உரைநடை என்னும் இருவகை நடையிலும் படைக்கப்
