The Epics and the Bhagavad Gita

Abstract

The Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana are two great epic poems, India's equivalent of the Iliad and the Odyssey, though much longer. The former took shape over a period of about 800 years, from approximately 400 BCE to 400 CE, whilst the latter was compiled in the period between 200 BCE and 200 CE.