31. The Ramayana and Mahabharata Gave Him His Current Characteristics
The Ramayana and Mahabharata are ancient Hindu epics that began to take shape hundreds of years after the writing of the Vedas. In the Ramayana, Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, must rescue his lover, Sita, from the demon-king, Ravanna. In the Mahabharata, Krishna, an avatar of Shiva, supports the Pandava brothers in their struggle to attain the throne. The Ramayana and Mahabharata helped shape Hinduism as it currently exists today, much as the Iliad and the Odyssey helped develop Greek mythology.
