Ithihasas : A Strand of Non-Elitist Historiography

The ithihasa is a particular genre of literature in Sanskrit whose two prominent examples include Mahabharata and Ramayana. This article, by trying to examine the origins of the genre, aims to point out at the non-elitist roots of the same. Some important sources analyzed includes the Vedic corpus, Brahmanas, Dharmashastras to oral traditions from the 19th century Punjab, which links the epics themselves or its propagators with the lower stratum of the society. The article tries to filter out the sense of inferiority associated with the authors of the epics, the Sutas and the Kushilavas. The article also points out incest and polyandry as being evidence of the non-Aryan tradition that had survived in the Ithihasas despite the fact that the present day text had been subjected to Brahmanical redactions for centuries.