Maadai-Kara is the title hero of the best-known Altai heroic epic, an ancient khan who in his old age has lost his former strength. His land and countless people are overrun by the invading khan Kara-Kula, who carries off the herds and folk into bondage; Maadai-Kara himself is taken captive. Before the catastrophe his infant son is hidden away and raised by the spirit-master of the Altai, growing to become the avenging hero Kögüdei-Mergen. Maadai-Kara thus stands at the head of the epic's action, the fallen elder whose deliverance is the object of his son's quest. The epic was sung by the celebrated storyteller N. U. Ulagashev and published in the Nauka Epos narodov SSSR series.