ABSTRACT
While appearing to deal exclusively with Kannada literature, this chapter actually discusses a pan-Indian phenomenon: the great corpus of translations and versions of The Mahābhārata and The Rāmāyana in every Indian language produced in the last thousand years. What is their value vis-à-vis the Sanskrit epics in the original? How do we need to judge them? Why did these great and resourceful poets rewrite or rediscover them in their own languages? The chapter seeks to examine questions of creativity and relevance of this pan-Indian feature, keeping the great work of Homer-Vyasa-Valmiki-Virgil in the background.
