It is to the Tamil culture what the Iliad is to the Greek culture, states R. Parthasarathy.[13] It blends the themes, mythologies and theological values found in the Jain, Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions. It is a Tamil story of love and rejection, happiness and pain, good and evil like all classic epics of the world. Yet unlike other epics that deal with kings and armies caught up with universal questions and existential wars, the Silappathikaram is an epic about an ordinary couple caught up with universal questions and internal, emotional war.[16] The Silappathikaram legend has been a part of the Tamil oral tradition.