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Continued from yesterday’s instalment
 Kamban has delved very deep in the creation of Valmiki and when recreating it in Tamil, he has used his own ingenuity to beautify and strengthen the structure. Chakravarthi C. Rajagopalachariar (Rajaji), who was himself an authority on Valmiki and whose knowledge of Kamban was enriched by his association with doyens like Rasikamani TKC, writes on this aspect - more particularly on the scene that we are about to discuss - thus. Here is a rough translation of what he says.
‘Valmiki shows Bharadwaja in suspicion of Bharata’s intentions - in the same manner that Guha suspects, setting his eyes on the large army that follows Bharata. But this scene is not portrayed in this manner in Tulasi Ramayana. Tulasi Ramayana moves more around devotion. (Since he keeps devotion as the main theme, he might have thought that) there is nothing that the Rishis do not know and when this being so, how could Bharadwaja suspect the intentions of Bharata? (He would have read his mind with the aid of his inner eye.) But Kamban has followed the footsteps of Valmiki. It is not confined to this particular scene. This can be seen in many other sequences. Kamban has very carefully followed Valmiki, using his own wealth of imagination, making the drama exceedingly beautiful. In many places, he has ingeniously worked up the drama and steered clear of complexities, without making any change in the original. He has changed the original in a very few places.’ (‘Ramayana’ by Rajaji in Tamil, Chapter 37 under the caption Bharadwaja Ashram.)
What we are going to discuss is one such scene. The scene is about the introduction of the three queens, Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi. In Valmiki Ramayana, Bharata introduces the three at the request of sage Bharadwaja. While he pours out praises and is indeed lavish when he introduces Kausalya and Sumitra, he is very unkind when he talks about his own mother, Kaikeyi. The scene has been looked at from different angles and discussed variedly by scholars. Scholars like Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastriyar consider this as a bloat in the character of Bharata. He calls Bharata ‘unfilial.’ Let’s hear what Sastriyar has to say on this.
 “Then Bharadwaja says to Bharata, ‘Will you kindly tell me who is who amongst these ladies?’ And then Bharata describes Kausalya; then he describes Sumitra, both of them in highly flattering language. But when he comes to his mother, should he use language like this? ‘She on whose account, by whose misconduct Rama and Lakshmana have come very near to death, father has been deprived of his son and unable to bear the grief, he perished - she on whose account these tragedies have happened, this is my mother. My misery is not going to end, all on her account.”
We will go into this question of why Bharata used such unpleasant language when speaking about Kaikeyi, separately. It brings out the agony in his heart. Though it may be unpleasant, the drama is gripping and presents a strong case in favour of Bharata, in the circumstances.
Kamban has retained this drama. But he makes a small change in the dramatis personae. The question is shifted to Guha, instead of Bharadwaja. We will see the scene from Kamban, with necessary parallels from Valmiki and see how it comes out.
More follows...
Hari Krishnan
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