[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":420},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-47756569":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":29,"sentiment":30,"stance_mix":31,"scored_comments":36,"aspects":37,"strip":46,"post_text":47,"what":48,"said":87,"maker_in_thread":256,"shape":261,"grid":264,"attempts":381,"same_week":382,"maker_shows":39,"maker_hidden":412,"reader_version":413,"card":414},"47756569","Ithihāsas","a character explorer for Hindu epics, built in a few hours","title","Show HN: Ithihāsas – a character explorer for Hindu epics, built in a few hours","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ithihasas.in","ithihasas.in","cvrajeesh",1776107407,2026,176,45,349,4366,8,"notable","learning_science","mythology reference explorer","web_app",[24,25,26,27,28],"mahabharata","ramayana","character graph","hindu epics","mythology","mixed",0.061,{"positive":32,"neutral":33,"mixed":34,"critical":35},9,11,5,7,32,{"idea":38,"execution":41,"design":43,"docs":44},{"positive":39,"critical":40},2,0,{"positive":40,"critical":42},3,{"positive":42,"critical":42},{"positive":40,"critical":45},1,[42,42,45,42,42,34,45,40,42,42,42,42,45,34,40,40,40,45,34,34,40,42,40,42,34,45,45,42,40,34,42,34,42,40,40,40,40,34,34,45],"Hi HN!\n\nI’ve always found it hard to explore the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa online. Most content is either long-form or scattered, and understanding a character like Karna or Bhishma usually means opening multiple tabs.\n\nI built https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ithihasas.in\u002F to solve that. It is a simple character explorer that lets you navigate the epics through people and their relationships instead of reading everything linearly.\n\nThis was also an experiment with Claude CLI. I was able to put together the first version in a couple of hours. It helped a lot with generating structured content and speeding up develo",{"problem":49,"audience":55,"pricing":55,"motivation":56,"time_to_build":60,"stack":64,"openness":85,"stage":86,"team_size":85},{"value":50,"source":51,"evidence":52},"Hard to explore the Mahabharata and Ramayana because content is long-form or scattered","maker",[53],{"id":54},"post",null,{"value":57,"source":51,"evidence":58},"Make the epics easier to explore through characters and relationships",[59],{"id":54},{"value":61,"source":51,"evidence":62},"A couple of hours for the first version",[63],{"id":54},[65,71,75,79],{"value":66,"source":51,"evidence":67},"D3 for visualisation",[68],{"id":69,"by":11,"text":70},"47762097","D3 for Viz, NextJS and Fuse for search",{"value":72,"source":51,"evidence":73},"Next.js",[74],{"id":69,"by":11,"text":70},{"value":76,"source":51,"evidence":77},"Fuse for search",[78],{"id":69,"by":11,"text":70},{"value":80,"source":51,"evidence":81},"Static JSON data",[82],{"id":83,"by":11,"text":84},"47761179","Powered by static JSON","unknown","launched",{"praise":88,"objections":116,"requests":164,"questions":213,"alternatives":240},[89,105],{"value":90,"source":91,"evidence":92},"Clean, pleasant UI and Crimson Dusk theme","commenter",[93,97,101],{"id":94,"by":95,"text":96},"47757496","danish00111","Feels like you created an Obsidian of the entire Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa... I love the Crimson Dusk theme. I think, for the relationship graph, when the clusters get too…",{"id":98,"by":99,"text":100},"47760857","r0b05","Just want to say that the UI is very pleasant.",{"id":102,"by":103,"text":104},"47760200","ultrasounder","Absolutely slick UI and wonderful implementation. As an ardent follower of Santana Dharma I admire OP’s courage and grit to put this piece of work out there. More power to OP and…",{"value":106,"source":91,"evidence":107},"Graph-based navigation suits the relationships in the epics",[108,112],{"id":109,"by":110,"text":111},"47761036","sparin9","This is a genuinely delightful project. The graph-based approach to navigating the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa feels really natural — these epics are fundamentally about…",{"id":113,"by":114,"text":115},"47757177","stinger","I like the attempt but mythology is significantly more layered that just the study of their characters at the end. A single perspective of these stories will help you get the lay…",[117,123,134,149],{"value":118,"source":51,"evidence":119},"Data is incomplete and built from curated summaries, not primary sources",[120],{"id":121,"by":11,"text":122},"47756696","That’s a fair point, and you’re right. Right now the data isn’t directly modeled from primary sources like the Valmiki Ramayana or the Mahabharata. It’s an MVP built quickly…",{"value":124,"source":91,"evidence":125},"Low contrast makes text hard to read",[126,130],{"id":127,"by":128,"text":129},"47757042","ksdme9","Is it just my setup or is the contrast so bad that I cannot read anything.",{"id":131,"by":132,"text":133},"47756887","aanet","Good vis. I wasn't sure what to expect, tbh. A few notes: - The default vis has very low contrast (despite changing theme colors).. perhaps make the contrast stronger. I find…",{"value":135,"source":91,"evidence":136},"Relationship graph is dense and dynasty tree is confusing",[137,141,145],{"id":138,"by":139,"text":140},"47756799","FrancisGerard","Very cool! I like how cool it is to see the graph, but at the current density it’s a bit hard to read. I’ve been working on a similar project for biblical texts. For example,…",{"id":142,"by":143,"text":144},"47761098","quadrifoliate","In the Mahābhārata, what's going on with the dynasty tree of the Kurus? That's a view you get in every single book, and it looks really weird here. I feel like it's important to…",{"id":146,"by":147,"text":148},"47757537","dhruvmittal","Really cool stuff, but I really don't understand the dynasties viz. For example, Kunti somehow has her sons to the left of, right of, and above her, making the relationship…",{"value":150,"source":91,"evidence":151},"Content looks AI-generated and shallow",[152,156,160],{"id":153,"by":154,"text":155},"47762652","yalogin","I like the approach, however, could tell this is done by AI, someone that studied it at the periphery. The characters, if you are automating the creation, should be a lot more in…",{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},"47768120","never_inline","1. Is this actually based on any textual analysis or just AI generated? The popular understanding of the epic material is rather poor and the AI is stupid on it. Eg: Indra would…",{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},"47766048","shantnutiwari","Is this a joke? > Draupadi-- strength 6, wisdom 8 Are you creating RPG characters? Its clear you used AI to create the whole thing, but did you stop to think if it makes sense?",[165,173,184,191,202],{"value":166,"source":91,"evidence":167},"Cite primary sources and references",[168,172],{"id":169,"by":170,"text":171},"47756664","ashtavakra","Good attempt. What were the sources for these graphs? Orginals? Valmiki Ramayanam and Vyasa Mahabharata? Looking at Mahabharata's relationship graph on the website - it feels…",{"id":131,"by":132,"text":133},{"value":174,"source":91,"evidence":175},"Show multiple character perspectives on the same event",[176,180],{"id":177,"by":178,"text":179},"47759016","ethan_smith","Good point. One way to handle this might be to show the same event from multiple character perspectives - like how Karna's story looks completely different depending on whether…",{"id":181,"by":182,"text":183},"47757662","wordspotting","Can you do comparative textual analysis between original sources and popular retellings? Or highlight it better across different versions. E.g. Laxman Rekha incident is not…",{"value":185,"source":91,"evidence":186},"Link characters to the stories they appear in",[187],{"id":188,"by":189,"text":190},"47762840","anilgulecha","it's a novelty to see the connections. One way it will be useful is to connect every character to the stories they're part of - either in the site, or in new tab. this will allow…",{"value":192,"source":91,"evidence":193},"Add edge labels showing relationships",[194,198],{"id":195,"by":196,"text":197},"47757959","atulvi","This is cool, but also add the relationship between two entities on the edge as an edge label. Probably only when one node is highlighted.",{"id":199,"by":200,"text":201},"47766348","deepikaa_s","I like how it's mapped out the relationship graph. The edges could be labelled to follow and validate quickly",{"value":203,"source":91,"evidence":204},"Extend to more epics and caste hierarchies",[205,209],{"id":206,"by":207,"text":208},"47759404","alephnerd","Would love this to be extended well beyond common Western known classics and other similarly complex ones like Ananda Math, Baburnama, etc. This with Amar Chitra Katha would be…",{"id":210,"by":211,"text":212},"47757873","qwertyuiop_","You should also update this with Caste hierarchies.",[214,222,233],{"value":215,"source":91,"evidence":216},"What sources were used for the graph data?",[217,218],{"id":169,"by":170,"text":171},{"id":219,"by":220,"text":221},"47757113","avrionov","Looks great. Which libraries \u002F themes did you use?",{"value":223,"source":91,"evidence":224},"Was the project vibe coded or generated by an LLM?",[225,229],{"id":226,"by":227,"text":228},"47788544","rockstar2001","Is this fully vibe coded?",{"id":230,"by":231,"text":232},"47759027","jauntywundrkind","And where did the stats come from? I find it very amusing & interesting & informative. I'm assuming you had the LLM generate these? That would be so interesting to see the…",{"value":234,"source":91,"evidence":235},"Which database or data storage is used?",[236],{"id":237,"by":238,"text":239},"47760692","the_arun","Do you use any DB? like Neo4J? or static jsons generated at build time?",[241,245,252],{"value":242,"source":91,"evidence":243},"Obsidian graph view",[244],{"id":94,"by":95,"text":96},{"value":246,"source":91,"evidence":247},"Wikidata as a data source",[248],{"id":249,"by":250,"text":251},"47758007","TheLNL","I wonder how using wikidata as a source would work. I haven't checked but I assume these characters would be realtively comprehensively covered.",{"value":253,"source":91,"evidence":254},"hypr.bible character pages",[255],{"id":138,"by":139,"text":140},{"comments":42,"answered":42,"key":257},[258,259,260],{"id":121,"text":122},{"id":69,"text":70},{"id":83,"text":84},{"commenters":262,"max_depth":34,"maker_replies":42,"first_comment_mins":18,"lifespan_hours":263},41,57,[265,267,269,271,273,274,277,281,283,285,286,288,289,291,292,296,300,303,306,308,310,313,314,316,320,323,325,328,330,334,336,338,341,342,344,348,352,354,359,362,365,367,369,373,377,379],[113,40,42,266,114,40],"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fidea",[177,40,42,268,178,40],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[157,45,45,270,158,40],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[94,39,42,272,95,40],"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fdesign",[138,42,42,272,139,40],[109,275,34,276,110,40],4,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[278,275,40,279,280,40],"47761050","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","ButlerianJihad",[169,34,45,282,170,40],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fdocs",[121,34,40,284,11,45],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[181,34,42,268,182,40],[249,34,42,287,250,40],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[230,34,42,287,231,40],[131,290,42,272,132,40],6,[153,35,45,270,154,40],[293,18,34,294,295,40],"47757383","project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdesign","PradeetPatel",[297,18,40,298,299,40],"47757465","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","naravara",[301,18,40,298,302,40],"47758498","amritananda",[304,18,40,279,305,40],"47760379","SilverElfin",[307,18,40,279,299,40],"47765979",[142,32,45,309,143,40],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fdesign",[102,311,34,312,103,40],10,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[146,33,42,272,147,40],[206,315,34,276,207,40],12,[317,318,40,298,319,40],"47763848",13,"inveflo",[219,321,42,322,220,40],14,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[69,321,40,324,11,45],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[195,326,42,327,196,40],15,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[199,329,34,294,200,40],16,[331,332,45,309,333,40],"47758565",17,"lateforwork",[188,335,42,268,189,40],18,[127,337,45,309,128,40],19,[237,339,42,340,238,40],20,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[83,339,40,324,11,45],[98,343,34,294,99,40],21,[345,346,42,327,347,40],"47757345",22,"phyzix5761",[349,350,34,312,351,40],"47761260",23,"connectsnk",[226,353,42,340,227,40],24,[355,356,40,357,358,40],"47760616",25,"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","swaminarayan",[360,356,40,279,361,40],"47760841","vivzkestrel",[363,356,40,279,364,40],"47762050","faangguyindia",[366,356,40,279,361,40],"47762633",[368,356,40,279,158,40],"47768511",[370,371,34,312,372,40],"47757579",26,"random_walker",[374,375,34,312,376,40],"47757911",27,"ms7892",[161,378,45,270,162,40],28,[210,380,42,268,211,40],29,[],[383,388,393,398,403,407],{"id":384,"name":385,"points":386,"category":387},"47742200","boringBar",520,"productivity",{"id":389,"name":390,"points":391,"category":392},"47727960","Pardonned.com",501,"data",{"id":394,"name":395,"points":396,"category":397},"47739174","Oberon System 3",245,"infrastructure",{"id":399,"name":400,"points":401,"category":402},"47778306","tracksuccession.com",191,"web_saas",{"id":404,"name":405,"points":406,"category":402},"47749674","BrightBean Studio",190,{"id":408,"name":409,"points":410,"category":411},"47705413","Craft",177,"dev_tools",false,"v2",{"id":415,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":412,"cat":20,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rec":29,"s":416,"top":18,"kw":417,"maker":11,"domain":10,"tier":19,"attempts":40,"strip":418,"url":9,"mix":419,"praise":90,"objection":118,"sub":21},47756569,0.06,[24,25,26,27,28],"3313351033331500015503035113053530000551",[32,33,34,35],1793991151360]