Ramayan & Mahabharat

Few days back, I was explaining about Deepavali, to a Singapore cabbie, when he asked me about the period of Ramayana.
My first response was 14th Century, for which he replied: that means only 600-700 years back !!!
I tried hard to recall & guessed it probably to be around 4th Century.
Anyways, this incident got me thinking, & today I just thought of checking out our Pauranic literature :)

Following are some excerpts from wiki page on Ramayana ….

Traditionally, Ramayana is ascribed to a Valmiki, regarded as India's first poet.[4] The Indian tradition, is unanimous in its agreement that the poem is the work of a single poet, the sage Valmiki, a contemporary of Rama and a peripheral actor in the epic drama.[5] The story's original version in Sanskrit is known as Valmiki Ramayana, written around 4th century B.C.[6] According to Hindu tradition, the Ramayana takes place during a period of time, known as Treta Yuga.[7]

Basing his assumption on these features, the historian H.D. Sankalia has proposed a date of the 4th century BC for the composition of the text.[20] A. L. Basham, however, is of the opinion that Rama may have been a minor chief who lived in the 8th or the 7th century BC.[21]

Here is the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana. Am glad, it turned out to be 4th Century :)

Following are some excerpts from wiki page on Mahabharata ….

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Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and composition layers. Its earliest layers probably date back to the late Vedic period (ca. 8th c. BCE)[2] and it probably reached its final form by the time the Gupta period began (ca. 4th c. CE).[3]

With about one hundred thousand verses, long prose passages, and about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is the longest epic poem in the world.[4] It is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined,[5] roughly five times longer than Dante's Divine Comedy, and about four times the length of the Ramayana. Including the Hariva?sa, the Mahabharata has a total length of more than 90,000 verses.

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Beside being rich with philosophical and religious jewels , the epic also reveals complexity of human relationship in various dimensions which can be related even with the modern complexity of the human relationships.[citation needed]

The Mahabharata claims all-inclusiveness at the beginning of its first parva ("book"): "What is found here, may be found elsewhere. What is not found here, will not be found elsewhere."

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Here is the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata

Cheers
Mo