CHAPTER ONE The Epic Genre : Indian Experience The genesis of epic poetry makes an interesting study as it leads us to remote antiquity when various strata of Vedic literature were taking shape. It seems that the penchant for tales and anecdotes was not quenched in the Vedic hymns; hence the first generations of ancient bards came into existence. They sought to transform the chaotic variety of human records of mythic tales, proto-historical events and allegories into what may be called a cosmos of epic imagination. These records therefore seem to have the quality of emerging from the stream of time itself. It may be recalled here that the interpretation of the human world is said to have evolved through three stages, viz., mythic, epic and historical. The epic stage came in vogue when ancient men developed the concept of a model super-man or culture-hero. Thereafter the floating legends and tales crystallized into a new totality centring around such model man or culture-hero. The primary epics orepics of growth are thus the outcome of a process of prolonged accretions and synthesis. Scattered ballads of various description by and large clustered together to form legend-cycle within a couple of centuries and then these, too, were rechiselled by the final generation of bards ving more skill and expertise. The tendency of telling a story is inherent in human mind from time immemorial and the Vedic Aryans were no exception as well. That is why, the samhitãs contain such hymns having elements of ancient ballads which may be regarded as one of the primary sources of epic narrative. These are the Samivada Sukta or dialogue hymns of the Rgveda (e. g. x. 10, x. 95) which, according to Oldenberg, were (1)
