Itihasa-Purana ▼

Itihasa-Purana is a Sanskrit term referring to two genres.

• Itihasa literally means "thus indeed it was" (iti-ha-asa), referring to past events. In practice, it denotes the two Sanskrit epics: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
• Purana means "ancient" or "belonging to olden times." It refers to a genre of texts dealing with cosmogony, genealogies of gods/sages/kings, cosmic cycles (yugas), and moral/religious teachings — the eighteen Mahapuranas (like the Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Shiva Purana) and various Upapuranas.

I am planning to tell stories from this genre. I am not going to translate or retell the entire texts when it comes to the Itihasas. What I plan to do here is:

Take the Ramayana of Krittibas and the Mahabharata of Kashidas.

Go through them. Share the unique tales that they share, which are not found in their Sanskrit counterparts. I shall also try and look at tales that are contained in the Sanskrit texts but which are not present in the Bengali adaptations and share those.

If a Bengali adaptation has skipped parts but has the main context, I shall skip that part.

For the Puranas, I plan to take some Upapuranas and share the stories that they contain.

Enjoy these stories and share these with others.

Tales from the Mahabharata

Tales from the Ramayana

Tales from the Puranas