The Indian subcontinent has an abundance of languages, cultures and peoples. And yet the most commonly known epics are just two of them: The Mahabharata and the Ramayana. In this list, I aim to maintain a list of epics apart from those two massive works. The modern nation of India has twenty-two official languages at the central/federal level - and numerous other languages, some of which are recognized at the state level, and some of which may not be officially recognized. Add to this the countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka and your number only goes up. For years I have been fascinated by folklore and what it means to a culture. Here, I will aim to maintain a list of the biggest stories from each culture in the subcontinent.

This page will be frequently updated as I find more stories and as I finish reading them.

Contents

1. Tamil
2. Tulu
3. Manipuri
4. Khasi
5. Punjabi
6. Pan Indian

Tamil

The Five Great Epics

Let’s start with Tamil stories since tamil is my mother tongue. I stumbled upon the five great Tamil epics on wikipedia a few years ago: Silappatikāram, Manimekalai, Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, Valayapathi and Kuṇṭalakēci. These epics are from the Sangam Era and the exact date they were written has not yet been accurately determined.

The most interesting thing about these epics is that they were written by Tamil Jains and Tamil Buddhists, who are nowhere to be found in modern Tamil Nadu.

Seerapuranam by Umar Pulavar

An 18th century work by the celebrated Tamil Muslim poet Umar Pulavar, this work is a retelling of the life of Prophet Muhammad.

Modern stories

• Ponniyin Selvan: a story about Raja Raja Chola, written by Kalki. This is being made into a movie in 2022.

Tulu

Tulu is a language spoken by people in the Southern Part of Karnataka, comprising cities like Mangalore and Udupi.

Epic of Siri is the largest and most prominent epic in the Tulu language. There exists a translation by a Finnish folklorist(Lauri Honko) but I am yet to read that.

Manipuri

The Manipuri language is known as Meitei. Historically, an indigenous and polytheistic religion called Sanamahism flourished in Manipur. In 1729, the King Gharib Nawaz forcibly converted the majority of the population to Hinduism. There are numerous myths and legends that are part of Sanamahism and I have selected two of the most popular ones:

• Numit Kappa : a fascinating story of the ancient Meitei world where there were two Suns!
• Khamba Thoibi: a love saga between Prince Khamba and Princess Thoibi, this is considered the greatest epic of the Meitei

Reading

In 1908, when Manipur was part of Colonial India, TC Hodson wrote a comprehensive book called “The Meitheis”, describing in detail the folklore and folktales of the Meitei people. Read it here. I am looking for a modern version that is written by a Manipuri author.

Khasi

The Khasi people are one of the three socio-cultural groups that inhabit Meghalaya. Some Khasi people also live in Bangladesh.

A book called “Folk tales of the Khasis” was written by Mrs KU Rafy during Colonial India. It is in the public domain and you can read it here. Once again, I am looking for a modern, more recent version.

Punjabi

There are multiple tragic romances in Punjabi folklore. Heer & Ranjha is one of the most popular ones.

• Heer & Ranjha
• Sohni Mahiwal
• Mirza Sahiban
• Sassi Punnhun
• Momal Rano
• Umar Marvi
• LiLa Chanesar
• Noori Jam Tamachi
• Sorath Rai Diyach

Pan Indian

There are some stories that are popular throughout the subcontinent and have been translated into multiple languages.

• Mahabharata
• Ramayana
• Panchatantra
• Jataka Tales