The Sanskrit hero

"Focusing upon the hero Karna, Kevin McGrath develops a view on the nature and function of the hero in epic Indic poetry. Making use of models taken from Indo-European and preliterate studies, a scheme emerges for 'heroic religion', having to a large extent shaped not only the Indic epics, but also cognate Indo-European epics, such as Homer's Iliad." "As a result this work goes beyond Indology and is also intended for classicists and comparative religionists."--BOOK JACKET.