Bhargava, Kausika and Vasistha Legends and Their Role in the Rise of Sanskrit Epic Tradition

FAIN: FT-13590-77

Robert Philip Goldman
University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94704-5940)

To research relevant portions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana as well as related material in the Vedic and puranic literature and significant works of epic scholarship which bear on the issue of epic provenance. PI believes that the complex interrelation of the body of myth and legend concerning the priestly family known as the Bhargavas in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, with those of the two other families, the Kausikas and the Vasisthas, may have profound significance for an understanding of the provenance, history and interconnection of the two great Sanskrit epic poems.