The body of Hindu narrative literature outside the Vedas, comprising the two great epics (the Itihasa, namely the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) and the Puranas, a class of mythological and genealogical texts.
- Itihasa means "thus it happened" and refers to the epics: the Ramayana (attributed to Valmiki, the adi-kavya or first poem) and the Mahabharata (attributed to Vyasa, the longest epic in the world).
- The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's discourse to Arjuna, is part of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata; the Mahabharata has eighteen parvas (books).
- The Puranas number eighteen Mahapuranas (such as the Vishnu, Bhagavata, Matsya and Markandeya Puranas) and treat five themes (the pancha-lakshana): creation, re-creation, genealogy of gods and sages, ages of the Manus, and royal dynasties.
- The Puranas are an important source for political history, since they preserve king lists and dynastic genealogies (for example of the Mauryas, Shungas, Andhras and Guptas).
- These texts are part of the smriti (remembered) tradition, distinct from the shruti (heard) tradition of the Vedas.
The Itihasa-Purana distinction, Valmiki-Ramayana (adi-kavya) and Vyasa-Mahabharata, the eighteen Mahapuranas, the pancha-lakshana, and the Puranas as a source of dynastic king lists are standard literature and source facts.
The epics (Ramayana, Mahabharata) are the Itihasa, separate from the eighteen Puranas; the Bhagavad Gita sits inside the Mahabharata; all of these are smriti, not shruti like the Vedas.
Itihasa (Ramayana by Valmiki, Mahabharata by Vyasa) and eighteen Puranas, smriti texts and a source for dynastic genealogies.