By Kambar (Kavichakravarthy Kamban)
Translated in English by P. R Ramachander
Kamba Ramayanam-Yudha Kandam 12 (Padalam 29)
29. Padai Kakshi Padalam
Chapter on seeing the army
9247. His servants did that job and at that time the emissaries ,Who had to bring the Rakshasa army from different places , came together ,Saluted Ravana and said , “In your city of Lanka there is no sufficient place for the army.”
9248. Ravana who got up with joy asked “From where has this army come?”And those emissaries who were holding their hands in salute over their head,Said, “How can we see one place? Like the seven oceans where tides move about,Has covered the entire world at deluge, for that army , which has come ,On its own , even the entire world is not sufficient place to camp?”
9249. ”Due to dust rising from the earth due to the marching of the enemy,Even the devas who are walked in sky , walked on that dust and felt that,They are walking on earth and that army which is innumerable like,The raising clouds at deluge was looking pretty due to the dust ,And walking towards the city of Lanka , have reached here.”
9250. ”The clouds which cannot shine like the swords , which that army holds ,Are not as black like its soldiers and the clouds cannot raise sound of thunder,Like that army which plays on huge number of drums, and like that carrying ,Weapons sharpened to a luster, along with horses , elephants and chariots ,When that army did not find place to walk on earth , they walked on the sea ,And because of this there is no comparison to them except the clouds.”
9251. “With army which cannot be destroyed coming more and more and surrounding,It became like one world getting hidden in to another world ,And the God of moon light and stars got scared and moved away from that place,And even Sun God , getting scared left off the way that he was following and stood high.”
9252. ”Through the huge open four doors of the city which stood like Meru mountain,Touching the sky that army marched in to the city of Lanka and it is looking like,The God of of death going to the big black sea thinking ,That the earth cannot lift the burden and going to another place .”
9253. ”Thinking that too much time is required to enter the city through the narrow door,All of them climbed over the wall and it looked like all the black clouds of the world,Came together , and that army reached the city of Lanka.”
9254. At that time Ravana climbed on the pretty tower and generally ,Started inspecting that army and getting desire like an ignorant person,Wanting speedily to see al the seven oceans together ,He though he would look as per a method and see them separately.
9255. Like the water of ocean going from one direction to another direction ,With great speed , that army was travelling towards Lanka ,And the emissaries told for the sake of knowledge of Ravana,Like those telling in detail about nature of God as told by the Vedas,The origin and strength of people as per the order of their entry.
9256. ”These people live in the island of teak wood and have come out ,From the fire sacrifice done by the Rakshasas and by their illusion,They had made Devas in stupor and they are best in doing illusion,They have a tall body that touches the clouds “ said they showing one row.
9257. ”Oh lord who has a long forehead, these people are from Durba island,And they are the people who increase the power to Brahma and bring bad name ,To the God of death and it was due to these people that,The Devas who live in the sky lost their fame as well as wealth..They are the people who stand as personification of victory.”
9258. ”These are the people who live in island of silk cotton trees and they are ,The one who fought with Indra , the chief of Devas who do not blink ,And destroyed his golden city and they have obtained boons from Lord Shiva,Who holds the crescent of the moon on his red hair and they are short tempered,Which rises up swiftly like fire in a very dry forest.”
9259. ” These are the people from Andril (Krouncha) islands and as soon as some body told them that,The meru mountain was the place where devas live forever, they uprooted that mountain,And at olden time when they were about to put it in the sea, the Devas ,Begged them with great humility not to do it and these valorous one did not do it.”
9260. “These are the people who live on the pearl mountains and when Shukra,After losing his character, made passionate love to a maiden from family of Asura king,Who had eyes like Kuvalai flowers , these people were born to him ,And they are ten crores in number and drank and dried the ocean of milk in a few days.”
9261. ”Oh God these Rakshasas who have sword like bent long teeth are .The ones who live on Gandhamadhana mountains which is beyond ,This black sea and where breeze wafts and they are innumerable ,And are said to be born from the milky ocean along with halahala poison.”
9262. ”The Podhiya Malai was called The Malaya mountain and these people .Who were born there reside on an island in a sea because Lord Brahma asked them,To live there because he was scared that they would destroy any place they live,“Oh people who do not have destruction ., be pleased to stay here.”
9263. “Oh famous one , these are three handed ones who carry tridents and ,Along with Musundi they also carry the wheel and a bow and are greater ,Than Indra and they are lords of the seven seas where crocodiles live ,And these people live in an island called Pushkara.”
9264. ”These are the people from the big islands of Marutha trees and once,As per the words of their great mother , they imprisoned , the God of death,In the big Chakravala mountains which is beyond the seven worlds ,So that his strength would get reduced and when begged by Lord Brahma they released him.”
9265. ”Oh Lord , These people who have hands like Vetala as per the words of Brahma,That, “Since the area of this great heaven is not sufficient area, Please go and stay,In the Patala which is one of the seven worlds “ and they have come,Here from Patala due to their love towards you.”
9266. ”These people who have the colour of darkness are the sons of Niryathi,The lord of the south west and their clan is equal to yours ,And Just like Sun is great among the Devas , they are great among Asuras,And If they do not get sufficient blood to drink they would drink ,All the waters of the seven Seas and they are ,Each capable of lifting all the seven great mountains,”
9267. ”Due to Goddess earth seeing with love The Varaha incarnation ,Of Lord Vishnu who hugged her , these were born and ,They wear heroic anklets and to celebrate their victory ,They have located their elephants whose rut never dries in the eight directions”.
9268. ”These valorous and strong warriors who are standing here with horror filled eyes,And great anger are the people who live in the Patala , under which,There are no worlds and the Adhi Sesha with one thousand heads with hoods ,Is remaining sleepless only because these people keep on troubling him.”
9269. “These people who are coming as a huge crowd with shining swords ,And with their sword like shining teeth are people born ,Out of the fire of anger of that Durga when Lord Shiva danced the oordhwa Thandava ,To defeat Goddess Durga and are like good bothers to the Ghosts.”
9270. ”These people who are appearing in the north holding bow in the hand,Are ancient ones who were born when the sins were born , and they have ,Eyes like caves in which lamps are burning which creates great fear,And are cruel people who would eat even their mother when they get angry.”
9271. ”These are the people born out of the fire that came out of the eye,In the forehead of Lord Shiva with five heads and the people there ,Were born to a lady who can be called the lady God of death ,And were born as the root cause of cruelty in the ancient times.”
9272. ”These people who are standing before us holding a spear ,Are the people born out of the blood that came out of the body,Of God of death when Lord Shiva kicked him and these are ,Great warriors are those born before production of Halahala poison from sea.”
9273. ”These are the people who are born out of the northern fire,When the poison spit by Vasuki who was used as rope to churn the sea ,Was put in it and these who are fat who have red hair ,Which touches the clouds and are people born ,When the matchless chariot made by Brahma was driven,In to the tripuras and it was destroyed. They wear heroic anklets.”
9274. ”Oh lord , these are not small insignificant people who can be ,Separately pointed out as possessing some qualities and to think ,And to tell about them as well as to tell the boons they got ,Their cruelties and the penance they did to get those boons ,Even one thousand oceans would be sufficient .”
9275. ”Oh Lord who has got great wealth which even the Devas,Would find difficult to get , even one person from this army ,Can go and kill with their one hand that able monkey and those two strong ones,And come back. What else needs to be told about them “Said those emissaries and hearing that Ravana told.
9276. Ravana asked ,”Please properly estimate the number of people,In this army and then tell me.” And then those mad emissaries told ,That the number would be one thousand Vellam Army ,And said this number seems to be smaller for such a big army.
9277. Ravana said to the emissaries “I would like to be near to them,And tell them all the news that had happened here and,Converse with them using sweet words from my mind,And worship them according to their status and so,Go and bring all the big commanders of that army here.”
9278. As soon as the emissaries informed the army of the order of Ravana,All the army commanders who were spread like an ocean ,Came marching from all the directions and sprinkled flowers On the pretty feet of Ravana, and with one crown dashing with another,One before another saluted Ravana.
9279. Then all those commanders as per custom saluted the feet of Ravana ,And with great humility stood there Ravana invited them, By saying “Let your arrival be an auspicious one” and asked them,“Do your wife and children keep good health?”
9280. Those commanders to understand the intention of Ravana ,Looked at him and told ,”You are a great leader with very big shoulders ,And the boons that we have obtained are really great ,Is it difficult for us to complete all the acts that are needed?,WE have defeated the devas and made them run away,,What is there for us to do here ?”
9281. ” There is not a single one among , the ladies on your side,Who are not upset and you also seem to be greatly sorrowing .What is the reason for this ?Please tell “ asked those commanders And Ravana then told them all the events that happened ,Because of his great love towards Sita.”
9282. “Oh Lord , are those people who won using their arrows ,Kumbhakarna, Indrajit and all the great asuras born in our clan,Small men? Does their army consist of monkeys ?Our strength seems to be great , great” saying this they all laughed.
9283. ”You have called us here , not to remove the earth ,From the head of Adhisesha , not for brining here the seven ,Matchless heritage mountains with their root nor for ,Taking the water by hand drinking the sea water and emptying it ?Do you want us to go and fight with monkeys which eat flowers and leaves?”
9284. After saying this , they clapped their hands and laughed like thunder ,And Ravana signing those Rakshasas who has shining silver like teeth,Not to laugh like that , Vanni the king of Pushkara complaint ,Asked “Who are those men? What type of strength do they have ?”
9285. As soon as Malyavan heard the words of Vanni , he came forward,And told “I am capable of telling in detail all that has happened here ,The strength of that men , the greatness of victorious monkey leaders who have ,Come along with those men . So please hear.”
9286. ” By one arrow of Rama , the Viradha with huge shoulders ,As well as Mareecha died. Khara who had a body like a black mountain ,Dhooshana , Trisiras who uses the lustrous spear and their,Armies which were like a huge sea with tides within a Nazhigai period.”
9287. “You who are spread like an ocean know about Vali ,Who used to cross all oceans like a storm and that Vali,Who could lift all the seven heritage mountains ,Was killed by breaking his chest by one arrow of Rama .”
9288. ”What did you enquire after coming over to here?Did not the ocean with tides get baked with the fire arrow of that Rama? Did you know at least a little about it? When that Rama broke ,The bow of Lord Shiva who keeps the Ganges on his head ,Did not that great sound of breaking the bow enter your ears?”
9289. ”In the border of this Lanka thousand Vellam of the army,Of Rakshasas who were more cruel than the fire was destroyed,Possibly it has filled up the city of God of death , All this was done,By two people wearing sacred thread using two arrows only.”
9290. ”Kumbhakarna who held the cruel bow for getting victory ,The son of our king Ravana , great warriors like Prahastha ,And other warriors died along with Indrajit and ,Till today only me and Ravana have not died.”
9291. ”There is an army called Moola (root/basic ) army and that is ,Very wide and has a strength of three hundred vallam,And you have come to help that army which is going to fight today,And now I will tell you the proper nature of monkey army leaders ,And their acts and also about that monkey army.”
9292. ”One monkey came and set fire to Lanka which made great trouble ,Rubbed on earth Akshaya Kumara who had great anger ,Told its message as emissary and after making the Rakshasis wail ,Crossed the respectable sea of army as well as the big sea and went back.”
9293. ”For the sake of fighting the war closely they built a bridge using,Mountains and did you not see on your way the bridge built by the monkeys?The enemies have seventy Vallam monkeys with great prowess and one of them,Within a second jumped to a place away from Meru mountain and brought the medicine.”
9294. “This is the nature of the enemy army . This enmity was due to,A matchless lady called Sita , who has done great penance and is ,Wife with uncommon sense of chastity . Fate created it ,And let not those archers win but you yourselves win “Saying that he completed the talk , BY saying that he has been telling about the talk of old people.
9295. Then Vanni looked at the king and asked , “What is the reason for you,Not fighting the war in spite of death of all these people?” and Ravana replied,“I did not fight because of the possible shame in fighting with monkeys and men”,And then Vanni said , “If that is so , fighting with them would be our s duty.”
9296. “ The effort of this old man was to tell to free Sita and joining ,With those men, But that is the act that should have been done in the beginning ,And after seeing the death of Indrajit whom you love ,If you now do it , it will only destroy your fame.”
9297. ”Even if we release that lady , we would not wish for a cruel battle,And get back all the dead warriors and what you are likely to get is bad name.Except attacking the enemies and completely destroying them ,Doing activities to bring peace would only lead to sorrow ,And so our duty as of now is to enter in to the war.”
9298. After telling this those Rakshasa commanders looked at Ravana, Got up and said “You be here , we would ourselves go and return ,After drinking the blood from the bodies of those small men,If we get ashamed and retreat , we would become a clan ,Of people who do minor activities, ”saying this they went away.
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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.