Rama - The story of a history
Ahalyä, Ravana and Sangam classics
It may be recalled that we ventured into having a peep into the Tamil Sangam literature to examine the validity of the claim that Bala Kanda and Uttara Kanda were composed later than the 3rd or 4th century AD.
paripAdal is the fifth of the eight anthologies –
ettuth thogai – the period of which, though difficult to ascertain, are accepted to have been authored a long time before the 2nd century AD. This is the prevalent view of all Tamil scholars.
A
chronological list of Tamil Literature, based on Prof. Kamil Zvelebil’s book, “The Smile of Murugan” endorses this view.
 Verse 19 of
paripAdal, by nappaNNanAr is on Lord Murugan and describes the pilgrimage of devotees from Madurai to that ancient shrine,
Thirupparam-kundram. The poet goes on to describe the various activities of the devotees on the way to the temple. A few devotees get into an art gallery on the way and gather around different paintings displayed there and discuss spiritedly among themselves about what is portrayed in the paintings. A particular painting has the image of a cat, a woman, a sage in rage and a rock. The devotees comment,
‘indhiran pUsai’ This cat is Indra.
‘ivaL agaligai,’ This is Ahalyä.
‘ivan sendra kavudhaman,’ This sage is Gautama, who was away (at that time).
‘sinan uRa, kal uru ondriya padi idhu,’ And this rock is (nothing but) Ahalyä transformed by the curse of the sage. This painting shows how she was transformed into a rock.
Now, the Ahalyä incident is a Bala Kanda event. The first incident in the epic that brings out the divine nature of Rama explicitly – apart from the killing of Tätakä, Subahu and hurling Märïca far, far away. ‘She remained imperceptible to all until the arrival of Rama,’ says Valmiki. “Under the curse of Gautama, really speaking, she had grown imperceptible to (all) the three worlds pending the sight of Sri Rama, so it is said. Having reached the end of the curse she had (now) come within the range of their sight,” he says. (Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Canto 49, Sloka 16)
This variant, of Ahalyä turning into a stone, seems to be a Tamil tradition as is evidenced in paripAdal 19 above, which Kamban has followed in his version. We shall discuss this in detail presently, in our study of
Rama.
If paripAdal speaks of a Bala Kanda event, the
kalith thogai speaks of an Uttara Kanda incident. Poet Kabilar paints the picture of an elephant poking its tusks at the root of a
vEngai tree, pushing it with all its strength, and trying to uproot it. ‘Like Ravana,’ he begins his second verse of
kurinjik kali (Verse 38 of kalith thogai).
‘imayavil vAngiya Irnjadai andhaNan, umai amarndhu uyar malai irundhanan aaga,’ Lord Shiva, who took the Mount Meru for his bow (for the destruction of Tripura, at first) was seated on Mount Kailash, with His Consort, Uma.
‘aiyiru thalayin arakkar kOmaan thodip poli thadak kaiyyir kIzhp pugutthu am malai edutthal sellaadhu uzappavan pOla…’ Ravana, the ten-headed demon king with his hands adorned by bracelets of gleaming gold, tried to lift it up, but could not. This elephant is trying to uproot the tree even as Ravana trying to uproot Mount Kailash, with Shiva and Uma seated on it.
 Though this is mentioned almost throughout the epic in various places from Aranya Kanda to Yuddha Kanda, one has to go to the Uttara Kanda to know the details. This story is narrated to Rama by sage Agastya, in canto 16 of Uttara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana.
If the Bala and Uttara Kandas were in the ‘process of being composed in the fourth century AD, that too in the northern part of the country, how come they were referred to in classics belonging to an age prior to 2 AD! That too on the other side of the country, crossing thousands of kilometres! That is a question for the experts to answer. It is not for us to bang our heads on. But the evidence given thus far makes the claim that the ‘Bala and Uttara Kandas’ were added to the ‘core book of Valmiki’ in the later part of 3rd century AD and in the earlier part of the 4th, not so strong. Especially when we see
cilappadhikaram, which was written in the second century AD. Or
maNimEkalai, which is later by about another two centuries.
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