<P> Out of the five, Manimegalai and Kundalakesi are Buddhist religious works, Civaka Cintamani and Valayapathi are Tamil Jain works and Silappatikaram has a neutral religious view . They were written over a period of 1st century CE to 10th century CE and act as the historical evidence of social, religious, cultural and academic life of people during the era they were created . Civaka Cintamani introduced long verses called virutha pa in Tamil literature., while Silappatikaram used akaval meter (monologue), a style adopted from Sangam literature . </P> <P> Tamil epics such as Silappathikaram and Periya Puranam are unique in Indian literature as they employ characters and stories associated with the people and language of the poets (Tamil) and take place within the Tamil country . This is in contrast to other Indian languages which are based on Sanskrit works and deal with Sanskrit mythology based on North Indian works . </P> <P> The first epic to appear in Hindi was Tulsidas' (1543--1623) Ramacharitamanas, also based on the Ramayana . It is considered a great classic of Hindi epic poetry and literature, and shows the author Tulsidas in complete command over all the important styles of composition--narrative, epic, lyrical and dialectic . He has given a divine character to Rama, the Hindu Avatar of Vishnu, portraying him as an ideal son, husband, brother and king . </P> <P> In modern Hindi literature, Kamayani by Jaishankar Prasad has attained the status of an epic . The narrative of Kamayani is based on a popular mythological story, first mentioned in Satapatha Brahmana . It is a story of the great flood and the central characters of the epic poem are Manu (a male) and Shraddha (a female). Manu is representative of the human psyche and Shradha represents love . Another female character is Ida, who represents rationality . Some critics surmise that the three lead characters of Kamayani symbolize a synthesis of knowledge, action and desires in human life . </P>

Which of these is one of india’s great epics