Rama - The man and the avatar
The task and its magnitude
When Kamban sat down to re-create the work of Valmiki in Tamil, the waves of a couple of thousands of years have already washed over the banks of the world. We are unable to say how many thousands of years, but undeniably a minimum of 1500-2000 years should have rolled past from the time of Valmiki to the time of Kamban. Indian classical literature – and Tamil literature in particular – had already assimilated the Ramayana. We have seen how
cilappadhikaram, a Tamil epic composed about 700-800 years before Kamban, speaks of Rama as an avatar of Vishnu. (See:
As old as
hills)
Therefore, while Kamban had the advantage of the child sitting on the shoulders of its father and thus enabled to see more of the festivities than the father standing in the crowd, he had the burden of an onerous responsibility pressing on his shoulders. The Tamil Azwars, Kulasekara Azwar in particular, had left their powerful impress on the minds of the people, before Kamban, and Rama was by now none other than the Lord Supreme.
One can see this image throughout the work of Kamban, holding Rama above the Trinity – Brahma, Shiva AND Narayana.
‘mup-param-poruLukku mudhalvan,’ he would say in the Bala Kanda, The Lord of the Supreme Three, referring to Rama. A worried Kumbakarna, mistaking the approaching Vibishana in the battlefield, misunderstanding his intention as his coming back from the side of Rama, advises him to go back. (See:
Why did you come
back?) Citing many an argument for Vibishana to remain by the side of Rama, Kumbakarna says
‘mUvarkkum thalaivar aana mUrtthiyaar,’ The One Supreme Lord of the Trinity (not One of the Three; but over the Three)
‘ulagai mutrum kaavarkkup purinidhu nindraar,’ has come down (to the earth) for the sake of protecting the world,
‘kaakuttha vEdam kaatti,’ donning the ‘role’ of Rama. Prof A S Gnanasambandan has gone into this question of why Kamban brought in the idea of this ‘Supreme One, over ‘ the Three,’ in his ‘Kamban – a fresh look’ (Kamban – pudhiya paarvayil) We will take up a discussion at an appropriate point, later.
We hear the same phrase again and again throughout the epic from many – not saintly – characters of the Kamba Ramayana. A liberated Viradha – or Kabandha for that matter – a slain Vali, or even the most unyielding Indrajit in his last advice to Ravana, repeat this idea over and over again. The last words of Viradha as in Valmiki and as in Kamban deserve to be compared. One has to see the awe with which Viradha worships Rama. The celebrated and oft-quoted line
‘paadhangaL ivai ennin padimangaL eppadiyO,’ ‘if this is what Your Feet can do, what am I to say of Your vast and varied forms!’ is uttered by none other than
Viradha.
And therefore, when Kamban attempted his masterpiece, he had the advantage of having a master craftsman as his forerunner; which at the same time was his disadvantage! He had to balance between the drama and the character. He had to hold the Supreme in Its position due. And, at the same time, see to it that the dramatic – the deeply emotional, realistically expressive, and undeniably moral and wonderfully elevating – values blend in, gel with the exalted stature of Rama that he had already gained about a thousand years before he started his magnum opus.
That’s what Sri V V S Aiyar observes, when he takes up the study of Rama. “In Kamban’s time, therefore, the ideal man had grown into very God, the mere repetition of whose name with devotion would lead unto heaven. What Kamban has done is to give the impress of the master-artist to the character that had grown into its fullness and grandeur by the devotion-filled meditation of generations of the sons of India.” And that was no easy a task! Hear what Sri Aiyar has to say:
“This, however, was no ordinary task. It is easy to pile epithets upon epithets and constantly
repeat that Rama was a divine king. But to create the poetical impression of the divinity of Rama’s character and to maintain the epic in all places at the level that will alone harmonise with such an impression is a vastly difficult thing. And Kamban has eminently succeeded in this extremely difficult work.”
Here, you have a hero, who is already known to the masses, worshipped by them, who commands the respect and devotion of one and all – be they Hindus, Buddhists or Jains as every religion has its own version of the Ramayana, and an exalted Rama – and here you have an epic that demands the depiction of intense human feelings, a high emotional-drama, and a character who is The Supreme, and yet human in every sense of the word. You cannot go against the dignity that the character demands; nor can you sacrifice the dramatic impact or value.
That explains why Kamban re-weaves the whole carpet, re-decorate the cornucopia, re-works, recasts and reconstructs on the very same blueprint, preserving the base and building up a magnificently towering structure, not moving much away from his forerunner.
Take for instance how he handles the way
in which Rama accepts his exile and the arguments in extenso that take place between the father and the son, Dasaratha and Rama.
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