By Kambar (Kavichakravarthy Kamban)
Translated in English by P. R Ramachander
Kamba Ramayanam-Yudha Kandam 3 (Padalam 9)
9. Ilangai kaan Padalam
Chapter on seeing city of Lanka.
(Rama along with other friends cmibs on Suvela mountain to inspect city of Lanka. He gives a picturesque description of the city to his brother Lakshmana,)
6836-6837. Rama perhaps thinking that Sita his wife who was like Arundathi in chastity,Was in Lanka and perhaps egged due to the great love for her started to climb,To the top of Suvela mountains with a view to see that great and pretty city ,Surrounded by his great companions on both sides and followed by his younger brother,Further accompanied by all soldiers wanting to fight the battle,And his two lotus like hands were held by two kings and it looked as if,One great lion with ability to fight surrounded by tigers and elephants ,And climbed like a king lion climbing on a matchless mountain.
6838. Like the very angry sea making tumultuous and great sound ,Which surrounds the world the darkness that was pressed on the city of the Asuras ,And on its beauty , Indicated its future destruction and the black sun rose up on a mountain,In the north instead of the mountain of sun rise in the east.
6839. That Rama who was holding a huge bow from which the rain of arrows, Used to drop down creating a huge sound reached on the top of the mountain,And was like a huge black cloud with hands , legs , face and eyes ,Which were pure and which resembled a forest of lotus.
6840. Among the mountain like monkey soldiers who arranged stone mountains,To a sky touching height and crossed the ocean in which water flows,The standing Rama who was born in Manu clan whose members had ,Mountain peak like soldiers was looking like an emerald mountain in the middle of golden mountains.
6841. After parting with the sweet Sita who had eyes like a doe , Rama whose mind,Was suffering like the male Andril bird which had parted from its sweetheart ,Became slightly composed on seeing the long bud built across the sea,And with his two long lotus like eyes , looked at the great city of Lanka.
6842. ,Rama looked at Lakshmana and told , All the great poets who can compose poems,After having found all the good of all the cities of the world and when they started praisingWould compare them with Indra’s city but never compared them with this Lanka ,For possibly those poets were not able to understand the differences between those cities.
6843. ,”In the faultlessly shining floor made of red gold , making even the Sun ashamed,The palaces made of greatly lustrous gems and which cannot be drawn by even by an expert,In that city showed great craftsmanship and because ,They were dazzling the eye , it was not clear to the eyes.”
6844. With the very greatly shining gems , spreading their rays of light widely,The light appears even to touch the sky and due to the victorious Hanuman,Who had the ability to destroy enemies burnt it with the fire in his tail,That city surrounded by flags had the appearance of burning even now .Please see it.”
6845. The multistory buildings having golden roof which has been built ,With best and well spread out emeralds , surrounded by the shining rays of the sun,And the faultlessly built well spread out homes using silver were shining like swans,Appeared like the pond with spreading green leaves ,Having very large number of fully open lotus flowers .Please see it.”
6846”. Due to those lustrous buildings with pillars inlaid with red gems , making it resemble,The flame of fire, built in a dense manner sending out sheaths of light ,The black clouds spread over the top of the city were not appearing black ,And are resembling red hot iron bars of the city, when Hanuman set fire to them.”
6847. ”Oh Lakshmana , who always has the scars made by hanging bows ,On your broad shoulders , though the elephants which have eyes,Sparkling with great anger are normally black in colour like the darkness,Due to their digging the golden floor of the city with their nails of their strong legs,And threw it to the top by their trunks and they appeared ,Like golden mountains moving on the streets of the city, please see.”
6848. ”Oh lad who carries the bow to fight the war , all the waving pretty flags ,Due to wind, which are hung on the gem studded pillars with faultless beauty,Appear cleaning the dirt of clouds which have spread all over the sky,And thus making the sky extremely clean. Please see them.”
6849. “This ancient city of Lanka , has been built straight in a row by using rope,Has drawing carefully painted on them again in a perfect row ,And all the perfectly pretty houses have been connected like gems ,With the palace of Ravana the king of asuras in the middle ,Shining like a serpent stone and looks like the garland of gems ,Worn by Lord Varuna who is the king of huge oceans.”
6850. ”Oh wise one who knows the conduct of Dharma , in the middle ,Of the very well known long streets , all the horses which proceed ,With the light of multistory buildings decorated with various types of gems,Falling on them are making them not showing their natural colours ,And not showing any particular colour , but of a strange colour , Please see them.”
6851. ”Oh valorous one , Those mansions built by soft crystal stones ,Which would make even the God of love faint , are visible if some other light,Falls on them and not visible to the eye in the absence of such light ,Making us feel that they have been built with water ,And please see the way that they reflect the images.”
6852. ”Oh lad with red palms with arrows and lustrous bent bows,Since the rays of light spread by the cool and white moon ,Have the habit of lighting with breaks in between , the collection of emeralds,Kept under the roof of white Pandal is resembling ,Lord Vishnu sleeping on the white ocean of milk.”
6853. ”Oh Prince who is like a male lion which wants to win over,Those who oppose it , on the top of the terraces which shine as if,It wants to resemble the stars , please see a lady of the serpent world,Taking out a round mirror from a black long bag , which resembles ,The full moon which is swallowed and spit by two serpents.”
6854. ”Oh valorous one who has a great bow which only carries victory,Those long necked Camels reaching the terraces of homes ,Which appear like the hills surrounded by flags , seeing the luster of light,Given out by the embedded gems there , mistake it for young leaves,And are straightening up to and take them away by their mouth.”
6855. ”Oh valorous one who holds in his hand the cruel bow which only carries victory,Due to the scented Akil smoke lit by ladies to dry their flower decorated hair ,Surrounding everywhere makes the pretty mansion built by corals ,Look like Lord Shiva covering his entire body by the huge elephant hide .”
6856. ”Oh son of Dasaratha who is like a elephant holding bow , You would see,Several artificial hills made by the very knowledgeable Viswakarma using blue gems,Which is like the hills of sins by the Asuras who d not know what is charity.”
6857. ” With the pretty look of great joy getting spoiled due to being imprisoned ,By the Rakshasas, with a mind that was struggling like the waist after parting ,With their darling husbands and with a hip which can be suspected as serpent’s hood,The Deva ladies are looking at us similar to peacocks looking for ,The onset of the rainy season, Please also see that.”
6858. Oh Lakshmana who wears garlands of freshly opened flowers ,To see our prowess The deva ladies who speak like Yaazh and Devas ,Are climbing on the terraces and see their nature which is like ,People running away from the city saying “good time has come for us,And let this city of Lanka go to Dogs.””
6859. Like this when Lord Rama was showing the city of Lanka to Lakshmana,And explaining him without repetition , newer and newer sights of Lanka,Ravana who was the king of that great city , to observe the greatness ,Of the monkey army reached the top of a golden spire which touched the sky.
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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.