legend

Published on 12th March, 2022, in Times of India. In ancient times, ‘itihasa’ meant stories ‘witnessed’ by the storytellers. So Ramayana is ‘itihasa’ because it was witnessed by Valmiki who wrote the story. Mahabharata is ‘itihasa’ because it was witnessed by Vyasa who wrote the story. The Brihaddevata is a Vedic text full of such ‘itihasa’, where rishis reveal how a mantra enabled them to summon a god. This was different from Puranic stories about Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva that were not witnessed by humans. Today, all these can be classified as mythology — as they are beliefs about the past. Some prefer classifying 'itihasa' ..