Itihasa

Itihasa (Sanskrit: Itihāsa, "historical event"; from iti, ha and āsa, lit. "so indeed it was") as defined by Amarakosha (I.6.4) refers to purvavritta, i.e. events of the past. In the Vedic age, those portions of the Brahmanas which narrated events of bygone days were known as itihasa and had some ritualistic importance. The recitation of the itihasa-purana in the pariplava nights was a part of the Asvamedha ritual. Later, the connotation of the term widened to cover all such narratives which related to past events – partly facts and partly myths.

Sources of Itihasa

Itihasa, as it has come down to us, consists of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana (sometimes the Puranas too, are included). The Mahabharata includes the story of the Kurukshetra War and also preserves the traditions of the lunar dynasty in the form of embedded tales. The Puranas narrate the universal history as perceived by the Hindus – cosmogony, myth, legend and history. The Ramayana contains the story of Rama and incidentally relates the legends of the solar dynasty. The classical Indian poets usually derive the story of their poetry and drama from the Itihasas. In our time, these traditions have been most carefully reconstructed from the available texts and arranged in chronological order by F. E. Pargiter in his compendium Ancient Indian Historical Tradition.