By Kambar (Kavichakravarthy Kamban)
Translated in English by P. R Ramachander
Kamba Ramayanam-Bala Kandam 5 (Padalam 16)
16. Poo Koi padalam
Chapter on plucking of flowers ( The sun rises again and at that time the pretty ladies requests their lovers as well as mates to pluck pretty flowers for them. They go to a forest near river Sona and get engaged in this job. The poet also describes lot of occasions when love tiff occurs.)
890.Getting angry at Hiranya the night which had stars as its teeth,With the swinging his thousand hands which were thousand rays of the sun,Emerging from the golden pillar which can be called as Udayagiri,That lion man with great luster like the Sun God came out.
891. After completing all his morning rituals Dasaratha started in his chariot,With all the kings saluting him . The army that was accompanying him,Making the places in between rivers as well as mountains as gardens ,Making all the depressions that they saw as crowd of red lily flowers,And making all the water bodies that they saw as lotus tanks,And they all reached the banks of the Sona river.
892. After deciding to stay on the banks of river Sona,Lord Sun rose up in the sky and kings and their sons ,Along with their wives reached the cool scented gardens,Surrounded by pure lakes as well as ponds ,To happily play by playing plucking the tender flowers bored by bees.
893. Seeing them with bow like eyebrows and reddened black eyes ,The peacocks thinking that they may wound them went away from there,Hearing the sweet songs sung by them , the parrots became ashamed,AS they were not able to sing like that and went away.And seeing their walk with sound of anklets , swans also went away.
894. With Ear studs made of pure gold which give out light ,And with ear globes , with shining with bees ,Flying around making sound when those ladies ,Were playing with their friends , seeing that ,Men wearing garlands made of scented and opening flowers ,Over their chest were not able to recognize them,As different from the flowering trees and stood there confused.
895. All the koels in that garden hearing the talk of conversation,Which was with sweet words and like pretty songs,Between the ladies with broad hips decorated by Gold and gems,And having cool hair over which honey had spread ,Were jealous and closed their mouth due to shyness ,Who can dare to speak before those capable of sweet talk?
896. With eyes which were like poison to those whom they do not like ,When they looked at with desire using lovely nectar like looks,And touched with their red lotus flower, the flowering plants ,Which had grown tall, showered the tender flowers on their feet,And bent their heads in salutation , for who can remain ,Without saluting those damsels with hips like vanchi climbers?
897. When those pretty ladies who are similar to the lady of the lotus,With their flower like soft hands , even the lions who have,Manes decorated by flowers and who had sword like ,Terrifying looks were getting terrified and ,The mountain like shoulders would also bend before them,And so if I said that the tender flower branches bowed ,Before them , Is it improper to tell like that.
898. The creeper plant like ladies with foreheads which are like moon’s crescent In the ponds and rivers are looking like a Blue lotus flowerd on a red lotus,And seeing that the bees producing sweet sound thought that,“It is a great wonder to see flower on flowers and started crowding their faces,”And they did not move away in spite of efforts to drive them away,Because those who love to see new things , would not leave them easily.
899. Towards the males who had shoulders as strong as very hard rocks,Who had properly made lustrous body and wore garlands made of flowers,The peacock like dames , some of them like climbers with fully open flowers .Were lying down fully jaded and some others,Were standing straight like the unattainable flowering plants.
900. The ladies seeing that the plants where all their flowers had been plucked ,Which had lost all its prettiness , worried about how those plants,Would look to their husbands , made those plants wear their garlands,Bangles as well hip belts and ear globes and seeing them bend ,And later stared at those cool flowering branches with great desire.
901. The crowd of bees which normally step on wide open flowers And wander drinking honey started hovering round ,The decoration less hairs of ladies without any honey drenched flowers ,But who wore scented flower garlands which they did not like ,Unlike the flowers which were liked by them earlier , because,Wherever good qualities are there, people get all pleasures there.
902. One who is equal in prettiness and is an ornament to Goddess Lakshmi ,
Seeing her own image holding a flower on the white crystal rock,Thought , that lady would become like soul to my dear husband,And stood there with eyes shedding tears and flower in hand.
903. One lady who was like a creeper having face like moon surrounded by clouds,Seeing the garland worn on shoulders of her king was being worn by , Another lady who was like peacock , rained tears from her sword like eyes,On the tip of her own breasts which knew the nature of cloth tying her breasts.
904. When a king who was greatly in love with his wife , seeing her coming like a peacock,To find out her state of mind hid himself in a creeper enclosure of that faultless garden,She who is always with her husband and one who has never lived away from him,Struggled like the body in search of the soul and with great anxiety searched for him all around.
905. One lady having love tiff with her husband who always used to hold a spear ,Developed a tinge of redness due to anger in her black eyes decorated by Kajal,Saluted a koel and pointed to it a flower which was not reachable,And requested that bird, “ Please pluck that flower and give it to me.”
906. One hero seeing the tender coconut on a tall coconut tree said,“How great, these coconuts are similar to the breasts of the ladies”,Hearing that his wife asked “ To the breast of which lady that you have seen,,Are these coconuts similar ”and with a sorrowful mind and With,A face covered with sweat , let out hot and painful breaths.
907. When a hero whose shoulders increase in size as soon as he hears ,The word “war”, who had shoulders which resembled mountains ,Who was similar to love God was plucking flowers to his wife,And when she who had cloud like hairs and who had a matchless voice like Koel,Closed his eyes from behind and when he asked , “who has closed my eyes,”,She felt as if burnt by fire and suspecting his virtue let out a deep breath.
908. To the several wives who were extending their palm,Which were like lotus flower not growing on slushy mud,Requesting the king to pluck and give them flowers,He placed those fresh flowers which drip honey , on his palm,And was standing in between them without saying no and also not giving,And was standing like a wild miser, because he was helpless.
909. When the lover who was liked by her, mentioned the name of another woman,Before this wife who had eyes applied with Kajal ,She stared at him,With her spear like eyes which would hurt him in his heart,And becoming shy for having stared at him like that before others,She moaned and holding a flower by her tender hand she smelt it,And due to heat of her tortured breath, the flower immediately wilted.
910. That king who moves round in chariots use to wander round,With the kajal applied eyes of all his wives , each born in great families ,Following him wherever he goes like the bees which follow the elephant in rut.
911. A man who has a pretty form beyond reproach , when he divided equally the flowers,Between one of his wives who had a forehead similar to the crescent of moon at dusk,And the other who was a very pretty one who was worshipped by all who see her,Both of them threw away all the flowers and not liking to stand before him went like peacocks.
912. Without bothering to take care of her with great fragrance ,Without bothering about the dress getting untied , without bothering,To notice that pearls from necklaces falling down all over the garden,Are they searching for their own souls which is in their own body,Or is it some other important material or is it the flowers that drip honey?
913. A lady who was comparable to goddess Lakshmi who speaks with sweetness ,Of the sound of Yaazh was not moved when her husband who is the king,Who had incomparable strength saluted her, but after he went away ,With a melted mind she became sad and thinking of a devious trick ,Deep in her mind , she drove her pet bird and followed it to the place where husband was there,
914. One who had become greatly thoughtful when all the five arrows of love God,Pierced on his chest wearing pretty flower garlands , without understanding what to do,Went and weakly stood before a lady who had applied sandal paste on her breasts and had a long hair ,And asked her “Oh Kurukathi plant would you flower a Mandhara flower and give it to me?”
915. One who wanted to find fault on her husband , without any diminished anger ,Developing a love tiff and when it was seen by her that her husband was becoming happy ,Without waiting there , decorated herself with the flowers she collected with difficulty ,And on seeing her own image in the mirror , felt sad that he was not there to see her.
916. If my husband who feeds the God of death using his lustrous spear , Does not come here to see my made up form with decorations,I Would not agree to live in this world, for how did this make up help me?Saying this she would give away all her ornaments to the lady who guards the funeral pyre.
917. In case of one lady , the waist was sorrowing due to its not able To lift the breasts which were coming out of the cloth tied over it ,And in case of another she was holding a big golden cup in her tender shivering fingers,To feed the parrot which was hiding in between two huge stones.
918. When one lady was walking like a swan , she seeing a swan coming near her ,Under the impression that she was her relation , she became friendly with it and told the swan,“You are my friend , if people see you without cloth they would find fault with you”And then she was agreeable to give her cloth to that she swan which was young.
919. Another lady with a voice like sugar syrup ,covering her snake hood like hipsWith a thin cloth , got scared of a peacock which was coming near to her ,As it was an enemy of the snake and hid herself behind a flowery branch,Which had bunches of flowers and closed her eyes using another flowery branch and got weak.
920. Another lady with matchless beauty , with playful anger told her lady friend,“Oh honey , Oh daughter of a flower , I will now hide myself ,And you please find me out, “ and hid herself behind the leaves,Which were ready to harvest and then hid her blue lotus like eyes by her hand and then laughed.
921. One very able hero wearing the string of his bow on his left hand,And holding a tender lotus flower on his very strong right hand ,And with great pride was wandering like a sun in the midst of the big lotus forest,Of the pretty faces of ladies with hair of the colour of darkness of night.
922. When those pretty men hold a red bow made out of the sweet fresh sugarcane,Brought from the field , even the God of love became ashamed hearing ,The lisping voice of their pretty and very innocent wives,And thought that it was a divine art of words repeated by them.
923. The cowherd who resembled the God of love played in their flutes Which were decorated with flower garlands , a song similar to the sound of bees in the garden,To signal the time to go back to his herd and like a big bull returning home, In between the herd of cows,Men were returning home ,Surrounded by ladies with eyes with kajal , looking like blue lotus in the evening,
924. Though there is a saying that “ That those sages who are strong,In penance are capable of protecting themselves from the bow of love god,”But the truth is that even a simple glance from the tip of eyebrow,Of these ladies who harvest flowers is capable of defeating them.
925. One lady with a with a scented hair and a crescent like forehead,Was sitting on the mind of her husband who had climbed the Punnai tree to harvest flowers,And so even though one man has wisdom flowing like a spring from his mind, Would they ever be able to win over those ladies with huge breasts.
926. One husband who had climbed on a branch of tree to pluck flowers,Was not able to move his mind or his eyes from the god given beauty of his wife ,But was plucking buds of flowers and leaves and dropping them down.
927. One man who had shoulders like a big staff weapon ,Seeing the face of his wife , whose hairs are habituated by bees,Seeing the vibrations of her mouth of the colour of the red fruit ,Understood using his mind that she was angry and trembled.
928. After doing activities like this for some time ,Those men and women lost interest in plucking ,And decorating with flowers in that cool garden,And reached a water front with a desire,Of playing in water with white foam and flow.
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About Kavichakravarthy Kamban
Historians place him in the 9th century CE, But surely Kamban belongs to the third great wave of Tamizh literature that started with the Sangam period (dated before the Common Era), followed by the widespread impact of Bhakti literature of the Alwars (vaishnavite saints) & Nayanamars (shaivaite saints). Kamban Authored Ramanaya in Tamil…Known as Kamba Ramayanam..
Kambar has been the milestone for the Tamil scholars that none had reached. He was also known as “Kamba Naatazhvar” at his time. Many Tamil authors from the modern world have written the books on the poet Kamban.
FAQs
Kambar or Kavichakravarthy Kamban (1180–1250) was a medieval Tamil poet and the author of the Ramavataram, popularly known as Kambaramayanam, the Tamil version of the epic Ramayana.
Valmiki Ramayana and Kamba Ramayanam are two versions of Ramayana written in the Sanskrit and Tamil languages respectively. … Kamba Ramayanam is originally called as Ramavataram. Although Valmiki Ramayana is the original version of the story of Rama, Kamba Ramayana is believed to be based on the work by Valmiki.
The Kamba Ramayanam, is a Tamil epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki’s Ramayana (which is in Sanskrit), the story describes the life of King Rama of Ayodhya.
The book is divided into six chapters, called Kandam in Tamil. The Kandams are further divided into 123 sections called Padalam (படலம்) in Tamil. These 123 sections contain approximately 12,000 verses of the epic.