5 ideas
King Harischandra, tested by the sage Viswamitra, keeps a promise even though it costs him his kingdom. He sells his wife and son into servitude and takes work as a cremation-ground attendant. The episode shows truthfulness held as an absolute, even against every personal and family cost.
Savitri follows Yama, the god of death, as he carries away her husband Satyavan's soul. Her persistence and wisdom please Yama, so he grants her boons, but he excludes her husband's life. She then asks to bear sons by Satyavan, and a faithful wife can only fulfill that boon if her husband lives. Yama is trapped by his own word and must return Satyavan.
Each one's contempt leaves one category unprotected, such as a woman or a mere human. Their downfall arrives through exactly the opening their arrogance left, so the power they earned becomes the instrument of their destruction.
The village storyteller's audience already knows how every epic ends, so suspense is not the point. The value lies in how the teller elaborates, digresses, pauses and colours familiar episodes over many nights. Pleasure and meaning come from recognition and interpretation, not surprise.
Epic figures become shared reference points for everyday conduct, so values pass through performed narrative rather than formal instruction. The myths stay alive because each teller adapts them to a present-day audience.