Ramayan and Mahabharat

Ramayan and Mahabharat are undoubtedly the two most important and popular epics of india .Almost Every indian is familiar with them as they either watched them in TV or is hearing about them since their childhood through their grandparents , parents as stories and learnings on how one should lead their life .The reason for them being so popular and important is that they talked about family , difference and disputes within them which quite relatable to common people .

Their existence is said to be back when Buddhism culture was increasing its roots ,the sanyas(renunciation from material life) tradition was growing day by day. The wise people at that time felt that there will be an imbalance created in the society if everybody would turn a monk so to revive the importance of family life ramayan and mahabharat were composed in form of a stories as a solution .Also there were many learnings from vedas and upanishads that were difficult for a common man to understand so they needed to be composed in such a way that common people could understand and what better than stories to do so , this could also be reason for their existence.

Ramayan and Mahabharat both contain the human incarnation of Lord vishnu as their central characters .Lord Rama and Lord Krishna both are on the side of Dharma but if we observe them carefully there are difference in them .Lord Ram was called the Marayada Purshottam(One who follows rules) and Lord Krishna was called the Leeela Purshottam(One who bends rules) but obviously for greater good and to uphold Dharma. The difference could be due to the events taking place in two different yugas ,The events in Ramayan are said to be taken place in end of treta yuga and beginning of dwapar yuga ,whereas events in mahabharata are said to be taken place in end of dwapara yuga and beginning of kaliyuga .

Ramayan and Mahabharat are stories related to Lord Vishnu and hence they fall under the bracket of the Vishnu Purana.They are said to be written in the Vaishnava Tradition.