By Kambar (Kavichakravarthy Kamban)
Translated in English by P. R Ramachander
Kamba Ramayanam-Kishkinda Kandam 1 (Padalam 4)
4. Maramara Padalam
The chapter on Maramara trees.
When requested by Sugreeva to show his prowess by putting an arrow through one of the Mara mara trees, Rama by his arrow pierces all the seven trees. The doubts in the mind of Sugreeva disappears In Valmiki Ramayana as pre request of Sugreeva Rama throws the skeleton of Dhundhubhi to a distance of ten Yojanas, Sugreeva then wants hi m to pierce one of the seven Sala and trees then.)
3865. Sugreeva sweetly lead them saying “This is the path we have to go,And showing them the seven Maramara trees which by their height,Would make the sky shorter and told him , “If your arrow goes ,And pierces one of these trees , the apprehension in my mind would go”.
3866. When Sugreeva who did not have any fault in his mind told like this,Rama the lord of all devas , understanding the thought of Sugreeva,Smiled and took with his very powerful hands the bow , stringed it,And went near those trees which cannot be understood by wisdom.
3867. Those Maramara trees , even if eons change, do not change themselves ,And even at the time when the entire world is destroyed, they would not fall down,And were looking like the seven mountains which lift the earth surrounded by seas,Have come there together and were standing in a group.
3868. Those great seven Maramaras made the full moon and the Sun,To start doing great penance to cross its top ,And the Lord Brahma seeing these trees would say I have seen mountains,As due to their head , He was not able to see its leaves
3869. Due to going under the shade of those great trees, which have spread,On the sky and all the directions , the horses of Sun God never felt tired,And were not sad that they were running in the same way throughout the day ,And in spite of thinking we were not able to find a better reason.
3870. Those seven trees and the stars which have existed for a long time,AS well as planets which were high up in the sky appeared on its sides ,And looked shining more like the flowers of these trees and the white moon,Which had great luster had the black area inside it possibly because of rubbing with these trees.
3871. Due to the branches of those trees which never die growing luxuriantly,They were suitable to be called as Vedas and since they were high up in the sky ,And the swan on which Lord Brahma who created the universes ride,Which were in his land along with the matchless female swan,Preferred to live on one side of those trees due to their height.
3872. Due to the fact that even if the wind blows , its scented flowers,Its leaves and its fruits and many others produced by those trees,Did not fall any where on the earth but fell in the river Akasa Ganga ,Of the tumultuous big heavens and reach the ocean with big tides .
3873. The trees having grown above the top of the head of Lord Vishnu,In his form when he measured the entire world in two steps Could be ,Called as the tall Lord Vishnu and they were more in girth than,The huge Meru mountain which is standing in the middle of the earth.
3874. Like the mind of full of enmity between the son of Charitable Indra,And his younger brother , each of those trees were more hard than,Any other tree within themselves and their deep roots went inside ,The white hood of Adhi Sesha who was lifting the earth in the middle of clear ocean .
3875. Those trees had grown up and measured all directions ,And they were standing with damage over the passage of time ,They were being praised by devas , and taller and stouter than The Meru mountain which is gone round by the sun and moon ,And each of them was equal to the other and ,There was several Yojana (8 miles) distance between them.
3876. That faultless Rama after looking at all those Maramara trees ,Got a desire to send his pure long arrow twanged the string of his bow,Making all the beings in the far off sky and directions deaf ,And creating a fear that they have never felt among the Devas.
3877. When we know that the sound of that twang from that string spread exactly ,
in a similar way , how can we describe the problems faced by those who are near?All the elephants of the eight directions swooned , all directions were confused ,And that sound of placing the arrow on the thing even startled the land of Brahma.
3878. Due the extreme sound raised by the string of the bow of That Rama ,Who destroys sin ,the devas doubting that the end of the world has come,Moved away from the places of their normal stay and only the brother ,Who loved him stood near Rama and if we start telling,About the state of others like Sugreeva and Hanuman , they would get bad name.
3879. When Hanuman who is truthful and others thinking that they want ,To see the sending of the arrow went near and joined Rama and when they were,All praising his mastery in archery , Rama the great archer who made all beings as his slave,Pulled the strong string of his bow properly, and sent the arrow from his bow.
3880. That arrow pierced all the seven Maramara trees and went further into ,The seven underworlds and since there was no “seven” afterwards returned,And even then it would pierce any thing which are having numer “seven”.
3881. The seven seas, the seven upper worlds , the seven mountains , seven sages,The seven horses that draw Sun God , the seven maids thinking that this arrow,Would aim everything that is seven shivered with great scare.
3882. Though they were all scared , since they knew that Rama is a soul like friend ,Of Dharma they all got rid of their fear and at that time Sugreeva took The divine feet of Rama wearing heroic anklets and resembling The just opened lotus flower on his head and started telling the following.
3883. ”You are the earth, you are the sky , You are the other five great elements ,You are the Lord Brahma on lotus flower , you are Lord Vishnu holding the wheel,You are Lord Shiva resembling the red fire , you had created this world earlier,And you have come in search of me who is like a dog to provide help to me.
3884. “Oh king of kings , the good karma that I did in my last birth has helped me.By bringing you here and now on everything is easy for me and nothing is difficult, I would be the slave to your devotees who are like mothers “ said the faultless Sugreeva.
3885. All other monkeys who were suffering for a long time due to Vali said,“We were searching for the God of death to Vali and now we have got him “And they all drank sweet toddy , forgot themselves and with joyful shoulders,Danced and sang and ran here and there with great joy.
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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.