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Continued from yesterday’s instalment
 Speaking of the Yuddha Kanda, it becomes necessary once again to recall that Kamban paints so totally a different picture and develops the story in his own way, adding depth, beauty,
skillfully building up the scenes and fortifying them in every respect. Though he builds the structure with the same material, retaining all the basic elements of the original, he has his own way of constructing. As Sri VVS Aiyar mentions, “Now the plot in almost all its details is Valmiki’s. But if Kamban takes the situation form Valmiki, he has treated them absolutely in his own way. In the manner of developing the situations, in the gradation by which the climax of each situation is brought about, in the justesse which know how to bring out all its capabilities out of each situation, we feel the touch of the master-artist.”
The Yuddha Kanda in Kamban differs from its original in several respects. In some places he takes a single incident from the original and develops it and in some other places, he brings in entirely new incidents. He presents the characters like Kumbakarna from a totally different perspective. The first encounter between Lakshmana and Ravana is one such incident that Kamban has added to the original.
The first battle between Lakshmana and Ravana is handled differently in Valmiki. It is Indrajit who comes to fight the brothers and the Vanara host in the very first day of the war, in Valmiki. Indrajit lets loose the Naga-astra on the very first day there. Kamban starts the war in a different order. Here we see a small army of Ravana first entering the battlefield, with leaders of a much lower order marching in first, as is the established order in any war, always starting with the lower ranks first and bringing in more forces and top rankers only when such an attempt fails.
 Ravana is apprised of the serious set backs that his army suffered at the hands of the Vanara host, who, with bare hands, stones and trees killed his ‘mightiest’ warriors and he comes out to fight himself. He is encountered by many Vanara leaders like Nila, Sugriva etc. who are not a match to him reel under his attack, soon. Lakshmana is enraged by the events and takes to the field causing extensive destruction in the ranks and files of the rakshasa army, twanging his bowstring like a thunder.
‘aatral saal arakkan thaanum,’
the mighty ogre (Ravana) ‘ayal nindra vayavar nenjam vItru vItraagi utra thanmayum,’ saw his soldiers running away from the field and go scattered
‘vIran thambi kUtrin vem puruvam anna silai nedum kuralum kELaa’ and heard the twanging of the mighty bow that resembled the eye brow of Yama,
‘Etrinan magudam,’ lifted his face up ‘ennE ivan oru manisan ennaa’ ‘is it after all a man who does all this?’ he thought.
Ravana was never prepared to accept the superiority of these ‘puny human creatures,’ when Sita had warned him about them; when Vibishana warned him; when his grandfather Maliyavaan warned him; and before any of these, the very Marïcä warned him about the excellence of archery, warfare and bravery of these ‘creatures’ and was advised times without number not to take them lightly. Now he is for the first time encountered by somebody who matches his prowess and he is not able to believe it
‘ennE ivan oru manisan’ is what he exclaims in his mind. Though the conventional interpretation is ‘is that a man who does all these?’ the words are actually loaded with another import as well. ‘O! What a man!’
More follows...
Published on 08th April 2002
Hari
Krishnan
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