Persons who lived from Ramayana to Mahabharata

Persons who met Rama as well as Krishna.

Ramayana took place in is treta yuga, and Mahabharata was dwapara yuga. There is gap of millions of years in between this period. Still I found three characters that lived in Ramayana as well as Mahabharata : They were Jambvan, Hanuman, and Parshuram.

JAMBVAN, the bear is a known and popular character in Ramayana, who was one of the head in Rama’s army to fight the battle with Ravana. He took a lead part in the Rama and Ravana battle and took an active role in Rama’s victory against Ravana. He was in forefront in many instances and he is well known in Hindus. He was perhaps alone bear in an army of monkeys. 

Again he has a small role to play in Mahabharata. Veda Vyasa is very descriptive  of all characters who fought Mahabharata battle for 18 days, But a little has been portrayed about war between Krishna and Jambvan which continued for 28 days in a cave. It was for a Syamantaka mani which Jambvan took from a lion, who got it by killing its possessor. As Krishna was blamed for stealing that mani, Krishna fought Jambvan for that mani to clear his name. Jambvan was defeated or he accepted his defeat and in return offered his daughter Jambvanti’s marriage with Krishna.

JAMBVAN

HANUMAN, one of  the most popular characters of Ramayana, and  without his help Rama may not have found Sita in Ravanas captivity. Or we may say Rama could not have won battle with Ravana. There is no need to describe the importance of Hanuman in Ramayana.

But again in Mahabharata he is given a short character. He had an interaction with Bheemsen on one occasion during the vanvas period of Pandavas. Draupadi requested Bheem to bring some scented flowers, Bheem reached that place where and found those flowers. But, he saw an old monkey Hanuman sleeping, and his tail obstruction path. He asked the old monkey to get away from there. Hanuman asked Bheem to lift and move his tail and walk ahead. And then Bheem tried with all his might and courage but was unable to lift the old monkey’s tail. Bheem then realized the monkey was no ordinary monkey. Then the  monkey then took his real avatar of Hanuman and Bheem realized his mistake of arrogance. Bheem is said to be brother of Hanuman, as both were son of Pawan Dev (God of wind).In another instance Hanuman was on flag of Rath of Krishna, throughout Mahabharata war.

HANUMAN

PARSHURAMA in Ramayana had short Character. He  came to Sita’s  swayamvar roaring  when Ram broke Shiva’s Bow, in two half. Actually that Bow was gifted to Parshuram by Lord Shiva. He kept it with King Janak for Sita‘s swayamvar. None were successful to lift the bow until Rama, snapped in it into two half. Parshuram threatened to kill  Rama But later he  realized his mistake that he was looking at his own subsequent reincarnation, as his own bow fled to Rama .

In Mahabharata Parshuram was known as enemy of Kshitriya clan, and killed all Kshitriyas on the earth 18 times. He was guru or teacher to the greatest warriors of the epics like Bhishma and Karna.  Later Parshuram fought with his student Bhishma  when  Amba sought his help after she was  abducted by Bhishma, who later refused to marry her. The battle lasted twenty-three days, by the end of which, both warriors were bloodied and filled with arrows. All Gods rushed to Bhishma to stop the fight, when he was using deadly weapon pashupatastra against Parshuram.

Parashurama also trained Karna to such a point that he declared Karna to be equal to himself in the art of warfare and archery. He also gave him knowledge of the powerful Brahmastra

Again in one incidence Parashurama was generous enough to gave all his weapons unto Drona, making him supreme in the science of arms.

PARSHURAM

So we can more or less treat all these three characters, immortal or Amar. Parshuram is said to be incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and Hanuman of Lord Shiva. But for Jambvan, the bear warrior, there is no such description.

Apart from these three characters, many sages like Narada, Bharadwaja, Durvasa, Agastya,Vishwamitra, Vibhisana and the architect Mayadanava who was father of Ravana's wife Mandodari in Ramayana, build Indraprastha Palace Hall for Yuddhistira in Mahabharata period, were present in both periods.