Indian epic poetry

Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya (or Kāvya; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: kāvyá) or Kappiyam ( Tamil language: காப்பியம், kāppiyam ). The Ramayana and Mahabharata, originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into many other Indian languages, and The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature and Sangam literature are some of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth.

The ancient Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, also termed Itihāsa ("History") or Mahākāvya ("Great Compositions"), refer to epic poems that form a of Hindu scripture. Indeed, the epic form prevailed and verse remained until very recently the preferred form of Hindu literary works. Hero-worship was and is a central aspect of Indian culture, and thus readily lent itself to a literary tradition that abounded in epic poetry and literature. The Puranas, a massive collection of verse-form histories of India's many Hindu gods and goddesses, followed in this tradition. Itihāsas and Purāṇas are mentioned in the Atharva Veda and referred to as the fourth Veda.

The language of these texts, termed Epic Sanskrit, constitutes the earliest phase of Classical Sanskrit, following the latest stage of Vedic Sanskrit found in the Shrauta Sutras.

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