Ramayana V/S Mahabharata

The two great epics of the world have many similarities with each other as depicted below, though written in different Yugas. Ramayana was written in Treta yug by Valmiki while Mahabharta by Ved Vyas in the Dwapar yug.

Incarnation-Ram and Krishna were supposed to be incarnations of Lord Vishnu in both the epics.

Birth-The divine births of Rama, Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughan from the yagya in Ramayana while in the Mahabharata Pandavas were born due to boon given by Saint Durvasa to Kunti. In the Ramayana, Rama's brothers, Lakshmana and Shatrughna, and Rama's sons, Luva and Kusha, were twins. In the Mahabharata, the youngest of the Pandava brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva were also twins. Bali and Sugreeva were also twins.

Guru-In both epics they were favourites of their gurus and helped them .In Ramayana they killed demons to protect guru Vasisht’s ashram while in Mahabharata they fought and defeated king of Panchal to take revenge for their guru Dronacharya.

Swamvar - Ravana and Karana were not able to participate in the swamvar and were turned away respectively in both the epics.

Vanvas- Ram along with brother Laxman and wife Sita had to go to vanvas for 14 years as per the direction of his step-mother Kaikeyi who wanted throne for her own son Bharat. While Pandvas along with wife Draupadi had to go to vanvas for 14 years including 1 year of agyatvas after loosing their kingdom in the game of dice.

Basis of War-Ravana had carried Sita forcibly to avenge his sister sarupnakha’s disgrace. Draupadi had humiliated Duroyodhna, in turn he tried to disrobe her after winning her in the game of dice.

Incident-Ram had killed Bali by treachery while the later was fighting with brother Sugreeva. Arjun shot arrows on Bheeshm Pitamah while taking cover of enauch Shikhandi.

Characters-Hanuman and Bheem were the two strong and powerful characters in each epic.

Life Boon-Ravan and Duroyodhana were having boons but were back stabbed. Ravan was having elixir near his naval which was targeted by Rama as told by Vibhishan.While Bheem was told to hit Duroyodhana under the belt by Krishna as it was only weak point left after the boon given to him by mother Gandhari.

Appearance of Authors- Vyasa comes several times in the Mahabharata, siring children and offering advice. Valmiki, gave refuge to Sita in his ashram when disowned by Rama.

If one goes through the stories themselves, the characters of the Ramayana are easily identifiable into good and bad, with very little grey area, demons are also shown to be capable of loyalty and friendship. The Mahabharata, on the other hand increased the complex characters full of such dark and grey area, in which gods are also not averse to treachery and deceit, while Lord Krishna gave ultimate Geeta Sar to give logic and relevance of their deeds.

But like all stories the final result from both the epics was same, that Dharma always prevails in the end.