Kambar
Encyclopedia
Kambar was a medieval Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

 poet and the author of the Tamil Ramayanam known as Kambaramayanam
Kambaramayanam
Ramavataram , popularly referred to as Kamba Ramayanam , is a Tamil epic that was written by Kamban during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit, the story describes the life of King Rama of Ayodhya...

, the Tamil version of Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

. Kambar also authored other literary works in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 such as Erezhupathu,Silaiezhupathu, Kangai Puranam and Sarasvati Anthati.

Life

Kambar belonged to the Ochchan or Occhan caste, traditionally nadaswaram players in southern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. But he was brought up in the household of a wealthy farmer in Vennai Nellur in south India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The Chola king having heard of this talented bard, summoned him to his court and honoured him with the title Kavi Chakravarthi or The Emperor of Poets.

Kamban flourished in Therazhundur
Therazhundur
Therazhundur is a village in the Kuthalam taluk of Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu, India. Some of the important tourist spots in the village are Sri Devaadi Raja Perumal Temple and Kambar Medu, where the Tamil poet Kambar is believed to have been born....

, a village in the culturally rich Thanjavur District
Thanjavur District
Thanjavur District is one of the 32 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Its headquarters is Thanjavur.-Geography:...

 in the modern state of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

 in South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. Kamban was a great scholar of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's two ancient and rich languages, Sanskrit and Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

. Mahavidwan R. Raghava Iyengar
Mahavidwan R. Raghava Iyengar
The Bhasha Kavisekhara Mahavidwan R. Raghava Iyengar was known for critical scholarship and creative interpretation of literature.-Life:...

 in a scholarly biography,Kavichakravarty Kamban writes in detail about this 12th century poet.

According to tradition, Kambar's son, Ambikapathi was put to death cruelly for having fallen in love with the King's daughter and Kambar himself had to flee but only after he paid back in kind by killing his only son. In his old age, he was obliged to support himself doing manual labour. He was then supported and patronized by his friend Vallal Sadaiyappa Mudaliar.

Kamba Ramayanam

The original version of Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

 was written by Sage Valmiki
Valmiki
Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself. He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e...

. This epic of 24,000 verses tells of a Raghuvamsa prince, Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

 of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...

 is abducted by Ravana
Ravana
' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...

, a mighty emperor. In Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 Rama is the Seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....

, one of the Hindu holy trinity (Brahma and Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 completing the trinity).

The Ramavataram or Kamba Ramayanam of Kamban is an epic of about 11,000 stanzas as opposed to Valmiki's 24000 couplets. The Rama-avataram or Rama-kathai as it was originally called was accepted into the holy precincts in the presence of Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni
Nathamuni
Nathamuni was a Tamil Vaishnava scholar who founded the Sri Vaishnava tradition.According to Sri Vaishnava history, Acharya Shriman Nathamunigal was born at Veera Narayana Puram near Kattumannarkoil...

.

Kamba Ramayana is not a translation of the Sanskrit epic by Valmiki, but an original retelling of the story of the God Rama. The poetic work is well known for its simile
Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like", "as". Even though both similes and metaphors are forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas...

s.

Legend has it that the entire episode was written in one night by Lord Ganesha. Ganesha is said to have written the poems that Kambar dictated to him during the night, as Kambar procrastinated the work till the day before the deadline set by the King.

There is also a legend that Ottakuthar
Ottakoothar
Ottakoothar was a court poet of three Chola kings namely Vikrama Chola, Kulotunga II and Rajaraja II. He wrote poems in praise of these three kings namely Vikrama Cholan Ula, Kulothunga Cholan Ula and Rajarajan Ula...

, an eminent Tamil poet and a contemporary of Kambar also composed Ramayanam. Tradition has it that Ottakoothar was ahead of Kambar as the former had already finished 5 Cantos but when the king asked for an update, Kambar, a master of words, lied that he was already working on the Setu bandhalam, upon which Ottakoothar feeling dejected threw away all his work. Feeling guilty, Kambar recovered the last two chapters of Ottakoothar's composition and added into his own. Bala kaandam, sundara kaandam, yudha kaandam, ayodhya kaandam are four main parts of six parts called kaandam in kambaramayanam.

Kambar's speciality

Many Tamil poets, statesmen, kings, common people have praised kambar for his kamba ramayanam which has more than 10,000 songs forming a greatest epic of Tamil. Kambaramayanam has more than 45,000 lines of sweetest phrases and poems. Often poets would say that, the mill in his house would also sing poem. Such is his ability to catch minds. Also he is so special in singing poems under "viruthapa", One of the "kurunila paa ", central themes of poem
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