By Kambar (Kavichakravarthy Kamban)
Translated in English by P. R Ramachander
Kamba Ramayanam-Yudha Kandam 2 (Padalam 5)
5. Ilangai kelvi Padalam
Chapter on questioning about city of Lanka.
(Rama when alone starts sorrowing over the fate of Sita. His monkey fiends console him.Rama calls Vibheeshana and enquires from him the military strength of Lanka. Vibheeshana gives detailed information IN Valmiki Ramayana Ravana tries to influence Vibheeshana by sending spies. This is not there in Kamba Ramayanam. Vibheeshana does not give this detailed info on Lanka in Valmiki Ramayana. Vibheeshana also informs in detail about exploit of Hanuman in Lanka in Kamba Ramayanam. This is not there in Valmiki Ramayanam.)
6516. , After Vibheeshana went round the army camp and came back,And saluted the divine feet of Rama , he was provided with a limit less,Place to stay in that camp and sent back and after that,The Sun God thinking that its rays are hot , reduced its rays and set.
6517. After doing his salutations to the dawn, Rama became greatly depressed and,Breathed heavily and the God of love with his arrows of flower ,Started staying there and the dusk with the colour of fire ,Came and the sky became very dark .
6518. The strong darkness which had hidden itself during the day time ,Scared of the sun occupied the entire world just like the black oceanAnd just like freshly opened flowers crowding all over the lake ,The stars started crowding the sky.
6519. Rama the expert archer who was becoming sad thinking about ,Sita who made her hair up in various ways , as soon as he saw night ,Thought that the sky with its stars was like a jasmine garden.
6520. That moon then came up holding the light which was its sword,Saying that today I will win over the husband of Sita ,Who by her matchless face , made me go down and became victorious .
6521. That moon threw the net called the white coloured moon light Throughout the world , telling that,Even if she hides herself without being visible to his eyesAnd if her colour is somewhere I would catch her now itself.
6522. The black ocean coming with tumultuousness . waving its big tides,Which were looking like its hands said, “This Rama has stolen my black colourAnd with the help of the monkeys wants to build a bund over me ,But now he has coming within my reach” and came up.
6523. The very old ocean , which produces very huge sound ,whose body has aged Over several eons was looking as if Its outer skin has been removed and The moon light spread in between the sand dunes as if milk is being poured.
6524. With teeth like the scented jasmine buds , with its body,Having black lines made by the bees , with red eye which was like honey,The breeze called tiger which likes to wander ,Came out of the mountain cave breathing heavily .
6525. On the chest of Rama who using his arrows pierced the chest of Vali,Who had earlier churned the ocean of milk by his bare hand as well as pierce,The seven tall and curved trees was hit by the arrows of God of love ,And it was also hit by the swords called moon light.
6526. Rama saw his own body , thought of her who was like his sweet soul,Thought about sufferings she has undergone and could not think about any other thing,He saw the ocean which was in front of him , saw the island on which Ravana ,Who abducted her lived and then saw the bow that was in his hand.
6527. Rama then thought about the great culture of Sita who over hips,Wore pretty ornaments with great workmanship and due to increase ,Of his love sickness he had a mind which was affected by lunacy,And could he forget the divine mouth of Sita filled with beauty ,Which was made of the red beads as well as pearls?
6528. At that time , Sugreeva the son of Sun God looked at Rama and told,“What is the need of this thought as well as depression , for you are one,Who can think about the jobs that need to be done and who can complete it.Why are you not thinking along with Vibheeshana who has come seeking us ,And plan about our future acts which would do good to us ?”
6529. Then Rama regained his balance and after consoling himself,Said to the monkey soldiers , “Please bring the good and wise Vibheeshana here,”And they reached Vibheeshana and requested him to come and meet Rama ,And he who has left evil acts and does only good acts , came to the place of Rama.,
6530. ”Oh person with good character , please tell me about the security of Lanka,Which is surrounded by the ocean , about the hero Rakshasas who wear heroic anklets there,And about the size of the Lanka army wearing garland of victory.” asked Rama to Vibheeshana.
6531. Vibheeshana stood up to answer those questions and Rama asked ,That very wise one to take his seat and he started answering ,The many faultless questions that were asked by Rama ,With great culture and with hands held in salutation above his head,So that these matters could be understood by Rama clearly.
6532. ”The father of Hanuman, the wind God thinking of completely disturbing,The very stable northern Meru mountain which was golden , broke ,Three of its peaks and put them in the ocean that was full of water.
6533. ”Of Rama who has good life ahead of him , the compound wall ,Built around city of Lanka is seven hundred Yojanas broad ,And hundred Yojanas deep and looks like something ,Which surrounds the entire world and is so tall ,That it is not reachable to the Sun and the moon.”
6534. ”If we start thinking about the treacherous works on that wall ,The greatness of its machines , the great wall with its great security ,Our life span may not be sufficient to do it. What is the point ,In telling many things? The black sea round it , is its moat,Which can be verified by you yourself.”
6535. “In the lustrous northern gate of the city , those who guard it ,Are all of great strength and would not retreat for any thing and they,Are fourteen crore people, they say.How can we say that they are ,Similar to the god of death at deluge? They are all as great as Lord Shiva travelling on a bull.
6536. ” Those cruel people who guard its western gate have some greatnesses,They are two crore more than the number of people in the northern gate ,And if they see with their eyes slightly folded They would even,Eat away the God of death along with his blood and soul.”
6537. “The bad people who guard the southern gate are od sixteen crores,They all have huge bodies like the mountain, how can I describe their cruel acts?For they are capable of defeating the God of death and changing his rule.”
6538. “Those debased people who guard the eastern gate are also sixteen crores,In number and have the strength to lift the mountain like Elephants of directions,Which have huge tusks , catching their legs and dashing them against the wild land , and killing them.”
6539. ”Those cruel people do not sleep and guard the city thinking that ,The Devas may attack them and their size is said to be thirty two crores,And they also hide their real forms and wander about in a different form.”
6540. Behind and the front of that long compound wall which is clearly visible,There are other soldiers who never sleep and since they eat only wind,They rotate like a kite in search of that wind and they say they are hundred crores in number.”
6541. There are three such compound walls which are guarded like this,Is it necessary to tell about the matchless greatness of those walls.And that true and great city of Lanka is guarded by,Ninety crores of ruthless and evil people.
6542. ”The people who were honoured by Ravana and who have got great wealth by him,And those who are against Dharma , those who have limitless strength ,And those who would not disobey Ravana ’s orders ,If enemies come to fight with him would number to sixteen crores.”
6543. “There are security staff there with very angry eyes , seeing which,We would say, “This is not poison but eyes”, who believe that blinking their eyes,Is not their job , who stand at the door of the Palace of Ravana ,Which are like the Meru mountain of the north who walk ,Around it clock wise and anti clock wise and they are sixty four crores in number.”
6544. “Apart from this in that very broad palace of Ravana , in the courtyard,Where the bell for complaint has been tied there are large number of security staff.If their nature has to be described they are capable of lifting all the worlds .By using their arms and are having more power than a mountain.,And such people would number a crore of crores.
6545.”The number of chariots in the army of Ravana is ten thousand padmams ,The number black mountain like elephants with red dot in their face are double that,The horses with very strong legs which carry people are double of even that,The camel army is double that of the horse army wearing garlands.”
6546. “Oh Lord who has the wheel of ruling , what is the point in repeatedly,Telling about all these by a ghost like me ? If we start destroying huge army that Ravana,Has assembled in the world , it would continue till the end of the world ,And still his army will be remaining ,.Its number is one thousand Vellam.”
6547. ”This is the security of Lanka and this is number of their army .The sword that Ravana takes on his right hand belongs to RavanaWho had pretty shoulders wearing garland of victory and has been given,To him by lord Shiva and his brothers have indestructible strength ,And have obtained several type of boons due to the penance that they did.”
6548. ”He has an Asura chief called Akambha who has done great penance for several eons,Who does not have any other pleasure except going for war , who had received great boons,Who owns a huge army , who is like Lord Narasimha without nails and teeth ,And he is capable of drinking the entire water of the ocean with tides.
6549. ”He has another Asura chief called Nikumbha who has a nine crore army ,Consisting of horses, elephants, and chariots which can go over the mountains ,And an angry army who are experts in bow and he drives on the sky ,And has achieved great victory over the fire God who came travelling on a fierce goat .”
6550. ”There is also Kumba who has an army numbering ten crore consisting,Of chariots, horses , elephants , who won in war Sidhas who live in the golden heaven ,And imprisoned them and who is more cruel that Sun at deluge.
6551. “There is also a valorous soldier called Mahendra , who is capable of cheating illusion,Who is capable of making his own mother worried , who has chariot army of ten crores ,Drawn by ghosts , Yalis , Elephants as well as donkeys.”
6552. “There is a cruel Asura called Yajna Shatru who is the chief of twenty crores ,Of Asuras living on the mountain , who is an expert in eating away people by his teeth,Making the saying, those who live today may not be there today”, true ,And who has won over Devas in battle several times.”
6553. ,”There is another Asura wearing an anklet called Surya Shatru who can eat away,All the people in the earth as we’ll as in the heaven within a day ,Who had an army greatly lustrous weapons which numbers to eight crores,And who had fearsome eyes which were burning like fire .”
6554. There is another Asura called Maha Paksha who is chief of a powerful army ,Of fourteen crores of Asuras , who is stronger than the mountain, and whom devas ,Able sages , Brahma and the other trinity are scared to talk face to face and only talk from the sides .
6555. “There is also an Asura called Vajradantha who is an enemy who can even face ,The God of death , Who chas the strength to win over Lord Shiva who has a trident ,Who has a burning face with anger resembling the sun above us ,And who is the chief of an army consisting of eight crore Asuras.”
6556. “There is an Asura called Pisascha who has an army of ten crores soldiers ,Who never tremble before their enemies, Who has never been defeated in war,Who has the strength which except him no one possesses and who in a cruel battle,Fought according to his wish crushed and uprooted an an army of Yakshas,Ground them by his hand and smelled them and who is mad to fight in battle.
6557. ”There is an Asura caller Dunmukha who has a big army of fourteen crores,Consisting of chariots with wheels , elephants , horsers , archers and foot soldiers,Who can dig the earth and churn it , who talks with fire sparks emit from his mouth,And who has completely left off doing acts of Dharma.”
6558. “There is an Asura called Virupaksha who is the king of the ten crore Army of garlanded spear army which live in islands in the middle of the ocean, Who waged a war with Vinjayars who were experts in war with swords ,And made their fame get reduced and who blinks giving out fire sparks.”
6559. ”There is another Asura called Dhoomraksha , who has won over the devas ,And drove them out , who is chief of one Padma army with garlanded flags ,Who if some one tells it is a corpse of a soldier and another tells that,It is time to take it to burial ground , prevents them from doing it but eats it.”
6560. “Oh lord with greatness , the matha who was an expert in warfare,And another Matha who can churn an army were both famous as ,The Mandara mountain put by the devas in ocean of milk and have ,A very huge navy and there are none who are as powerful as they are ,And due to them all the worlds that exist in this world would get confused.”
6561. “These very efficient ones stand greatly in support of Ravana and ,Are great experts in war fare and now I would tell you how many thousands they are.There is Prahastha who is mad after war who has double the army of all those,Whom I have described earlier and he only thinks after he starts action.”
6562.”This Prahastha is the guard of Ravana ‘s army and he is the one who ,Sent several times hot arrows like rain, making Indra’s elephant in rut on which Sindhoora,Is applied totter and cross the seven seas in fear and made all the devas ,Leave their homes , run away and wander all over the place.”
6563. ”There is then Kumbhakarna , who is the brother of Ravana who had ,Earlier destroyed the Devas completely , who by his two hands , took away,The four tusks of Iravatha which were looking like four crescents of moon And wandered all over Similar to the red golden Meru mountain getting rut.”
6564. ”Then there is Indrajit the son of Ravana who had imprisoned the great planets,Sun and mon in a cruel prison , who has anger like raging fire , and after he tied,Indra and put him in prison, those scars are there on his hands and legs even today on Indra.”
6565. “Then there is Athikaya who is the brother of Indrajit who did not get that name,Because there was no Indra to be again put in prison, who is one who destroys,The God of Dharma who kills those ,who go against Dharma , who does sinful acts,Without bothering about it in his mind and has a completely strong bow.”
6566. ”There are also other great sons of the great Ravana called Devanthaka , Naranthaka ,And Trisiras Whom the world thinks that fighting with them trinity of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma ,Who are the greatest gods would get defeated and also lose their greatness .”
6567. “This is the strength of the assistants , brother and sons of Ravana,And now I would tell you about the ability of Ravana , as much as I know ,He is the son of sage Visravas who is the son of Lord Brahma and ,Has become great due to the boons given by Brahma and the three eyed Shiva.”
6568”. Lord Shiva who wears a hide of tiger with dots , who has with him.All the five elements which no one tells as insignificant and things ,Which came to being by their interaction along with Goddess Uma,Were staying on the top of a silvery Kailas mountain ,And Ravana uprooted that mountain and lifted it so that it touches the sky.”
6569”. He is so strong that on his very wide shoulders he pressed ,The eight elephants which lift the broad earth on the eight directions ,And broke their tusks with which they wanted to pierce his chest ,And made three crores thirty three devas run away trembling.”
6570. ”Ravana destroyed the asuras called Kalakeya along with their clan,And broke their head with gem studded crown and after that ,AS soon as some one tells “king of Lanka “ the foetus inside,Pregnant Asura ladies, would get startled as if they heard a thunder.”
6571”. Lord Khubera who was hiding in his town Alakapuri , which had,Ponds in which cranes used to play , lost his great wealth along with Goddess Lakshmi,To Ravana and lost his respect , his plane and his great city ,And ran away like a herd of deer seeing a lion and was shattered.”
6572. ”Yama the lord of south thinking that the ten faced death causing Ravana ,Would come to take away his soul also ran away showing his back thinking ,That he would be wounded on his back escaped, lost his post,And is spending his days thinking about his last days.”
6573. “ Let alone the Lord Surya who rises in the east so that the darkness goes away,But even Aruna who sits as charioteer in front of him has not seen the city of Lanka,And though Varuna was able in the use of his rope , in the war with Ravana ,His rope was not snatched away from him and with fear he saved himself,By hiding in the ocean with large number of sharks.”
6874. ”Though the mountain called Ravana is destroyed , I would definitely say ,The valour of that great one cannot be destroyed by dashing against him,And whether Ravana dies today or dies after a few more days ,He would never attain his death except through your hands.”
6875. ”Many large number of people lost their strength by the iron rod of Hanuman ,Out side the arched gate of Asoka Vana and they were more in number,Than the uncountable sand particles near the sea and the old city of Lanka,Was completely destroyed by the fire started by Hanuman and ,Due to his strength the people of Lanka suffered like herd of goats chased by a tiger,”
6576. Eighty thousand people belonging to my clan, and their chiefs the Kinkaras ,Who were looking like huge mountains rose up to fight with Hanuman ,And he using his strong hands , legs as well as tail tied and killed them,Like the Asuras of the Tripuras, who were killed by Lord Shiva.”
6577. ”Oh Lord , A captain called Jambumali came along with his ocean like army,To fight with him in great anger and he sent thousand thousands arrows at Hanuman,And Hanuman pressed him with his hand and tied him with his own bow ,And like God of death sent him to the heavens occupied by Devas.”
6578. ”There were five commander in chiefs of Ravana who had breached,The security of land of Devas and had insulted them and they came ,With their army which was like a black sea and along with their relatives ,And they were speedily destroyed like the white ant coming under leg of an elephant.”
6579. ”As soon as they made Hanuman angry the blood which flowed from their bodies,The skin of their body accumulated like the sand dunes at the bank of the black sea,And Akshaya came like a raging fire and after snatching his mountain like boe ,Hanuman made him in to a paste by his leg and that has not still dried.”
6580. “Who can understand and tell you that the number of Asuras whose body,Was torn in to pieces and lying in side the huge walls mentioned earlier is beyond count,Are there any more valorous soldiers in Lanka? And the huge fire set ,By this Hanuman to the city of Lanks was put out by the flow of blood from their bodies.”
6581. ” If we say that Ravana who has a shining sword and who was the king of Lanka,Along with the garlands he wore , with sandal paste that he had applied ,Had to stay on the sky for seven days , is there a need to tell more,About the burning of Trikuta mountain , separately?”
6582. ”I told you about the story of Lanka belonging to Ravana who had great valour ,AS well as about the walls surrounding it and also the greatness of Ravana ,I also told you about what happened there due to the coming of Hanuman,And Lord Brahma who lives on the lotus flower again constructed the city.”
6583. ”Oh Rama with great fame , My coming and surrendering to you here ,Is not because I heard about the killing of Kara and his soldiers ,As well as Vali by your flaming arrows but due to my seeing the ,Destruction of Lanka by Hanuman singly because he got your grace ,And also seeing how he killed all the Asuras of Lanka and went back.”
6584. After hearing all that was told by Vibheeshana who had become his friend,Rama whose shoulders have become thin due to the parting for several days with Sita,Who had an eye like a sword and like a peacock whose luck has maturedLooked at his emissary Hanuman and told the following words.
6585. ”Oh valorous one , You alone have finished off more than half the army,That had been collected by Ravana in Lanka , you set fire to the city of Lanka ,Is there anything left there for me to do? From the news told by Vibheeshana ,I understand that you did not get her freed and bring her with you ,Possibly with an intention that I should show my prowess with bow there.”
6586. ”Oh Hanuman who has shoulders which appear to have been made by gold,All the place are filed with the prowess shown by your shoulders .WE would reach Lanka , fight some wars showing the prowess of our shoulders,But will that war done along with a huge and capable army ,Be considered as great as the war that you did alone ,What a great job,Would we do , and what great fame would we earn?”
6587. ”Oh Hanuman who is personification of blessed deeds, Along with my own strength,Added with the strength of Ravana has made by you as yours and I have given you ,The great status of Lord Brahma who created all the three worlds ,Receive it and become great.”
6588. As soon as Rama told this , Hanuman Got up and saluted Rama by falling down on earth,Did not talk anything to shyness due to the great praise of Rama and that Hanuman,Saluted him again . And all those monkeys who were standing there along with Sugreeva,Felt the great joy equal to getting salvation , when they heard about Hanuman ‘s victory.
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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.