The victory of good over evil is epitomized in the epic Ramayana (The Travels of Rama, or Ram in the preferred mod-ern form), while another epic, Mahabharata (Great Battle of the Descendants of Bharata), spells out the concept of dharma and duty.

More than twenty-five hundred years later, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi, the father of modern India, will use these concepts in the fight for independence.

The Mahabharata records the feud between Aryan cousins that culminated in an epic battle in which both gods and mortals from many lands allegedly fought to the death, and the Ramayana recounts the kidnapping of Sita, Rama's wife, by Ravana, a demonic king of Lanka (Sri Lanka), her rescue by her husband (aided by his animal allies), and Rama's coronation, leading to a period of prosperity and justice.

In the early twenty-first century, these epics remain dear to the hearts of Hindus and are commonly read and enacted in many settings.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Ram's story will be exploited by Hindu militants and politicians to gain power, and the much disputed Ramjanmabhumi, the birth site of Ram, will become an extremely sensitive communal issue, potentially pitting Hindu majority against Muslim minority.