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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
The Epics and Folk Literature
The important place legends hold in national life has been shown excellently by Dr. H. L. Hariyappa. Says he "Now and then.... the hunger of the soul asserted itself, the monotony of existence, the transitoriness of life, birth and death, above all, the futility of appeal to an invisible God - these ideas began to sway over the mind of community.... For the average man with his preoccupations and his class formed the teeming millions a set of prepared ideas about the Supreme Power is necessary .... The average man, again, would feel gratified to find some concrete story on which his faith can lay anchor.... The medium of legend to communicate religious. and even philosophical ideas has been found fruitful through ages. Nothing can exert greater credence on human mind than when it is described as having happened....
"At such a time, the service rendered by the Epics and the Puränas for enliven ing the souls of the people can hardly be exaggerated. Here did Lomaharṣaṇa carn the gratitude of all by presenting the ancient legends to the people in a that pleased their mind."
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In view of this, the important place the two great epics occupy in the cultural history of India hardly needs to be stressed. "If a nation is to be united it is by the tradition it inherits and cherishes. And India's unshakeable belief in and regard for tradition has been writ large in the Great epics and in the puränas and hast been upheld by the sky-scraping towers of temple."2 How completely the various. tales of the two great epics have pervaded all the walks of our national life has been shown by Dr. R. N. Dandekar in these words about MBh which can be applied, mutatis mutandis, even to the other epic. "Men and women in India, from one end of the country to the other, young and old, rich and poor, high and low, simple and sophisticated, still derive entertainment, inspiration and guidance from the Mahabharata. The first tales which an Indian grandmother tells every evening are taken from the MBh. The moral lessons which are taught to boys and girls in Indian. schools are more often than not illustrated by stories from the great epic. The heroes of the MBh are still held by the youth of this country as their ideals. In times of stress and trial, the MBh has brought a message of hope as much to an illiterate villager as to an experienced statesman. Indian writers, ancient and modern,
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Jain Education International
1 Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages, H. L. Hariyappa, Poona, 1953. pp. 134-135.
2 ibid
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