Special features of two Ramayanas

CHENNAI, AUG 12. It may be astonishing to know that some episodes contained in the Tamil version of the Ramayana by Kamban have been incorporated in the Hindi adaptation of the epic by Sant Tulsidas. The former's work is based on the original contribution in Sanskrit by Valmiki. A Tamil scholar was giving a discourse on Kamban's poem centuries ago at Kasi (now Varanasi) which among others was attended by Tulsidas when he noted certain important events and later included them suitably in his own text. One refers to the gray hairs noticed by Emperor Dasaratha near his ear to indicate that it was time for his retirement from his office.

Kamban had a lot of problems in bringing out his adaptation. According to one legend, he wrote it while he was in Tiruvotriyur (near Chennai) offering prayer in the temple to Goddess Kali who held the lamp, for him to write, on a condition that it should be composed overnight. Another version was that, poor as he was, help came from a philanthropist, Sadayappa Vallal. In Kamban's days such a work had to be approved by a team of scholars and when he took the manuscripts to Srirangam, he was asked to obtain the approval by the Dikshithars in Chidambaram. The task was not that easy to make all the Dikshithars to assemble at one time, at one place. However, they were all together on a sad occasion as a young member of their clan died of snake bite. Kamban read that portion of his Ramayana by the side of the deceased, where Rama was terribly grief-stricken as His brother lay unconscious, hit by a rare dart. On the arrival of Garuda, the effect of the arrows was removed and Lakshmana survived. Kamban's recitation made the Dikshithar boy get up later.

Kamban was also commanded by an incorporeal voice to mention about the inspiration provided by Nammazhwar. The invocatory verse in Kamba Ramayana does not refer to any particular deity but in utter humility the poet says later that he had dared to write it like a cat on the shore eager to drink the Ocean of Milk before it.

In her discourse, Srimati Jaya Srinivasan, said Tulsidas, a contemporary of Akbar, was deeply attached to his wife. Once when he was unable to suffer his wife's temporary absence he crossed a swollen river holding a log (which was later found to be a corpse) and getting into her room with the help of a rope (which indeed was a huge snake dangling from a tree). Instant detachment dawned when his spouse asked him why this mad fondness for her body made of reprehensible ingredients. At Kasi, he composed his work in a language being used by people. There are several commentaries for it.

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