|
 Karkalap Padalam (the Canto of the Rainy Season) in Kamba Ramayana portrays Rama in a depressed, anguished and distressed mood. The verbal painting is so vivid and detailed that you feel one with Rama. He is not able to bear the separation from Sita. Each and every little bird, animal, flower, creeper – in fact, almost all excepting the valiant Lakshmana standing by his side (!) – reminds him of his Sita. He speaks to the peacock burdened by its feathers; he addresses the creepers laden with flowers; he addresses the deer; he speaks to the clouds and the rains!
The dark, rain-bearing clouds remind him for a moment of the demons and ogres whose king had taken his Mythili away. The next moment a lightning bursting forth from the cloud would remind him of his endeared. The poet weaves a magical web. He takes you to Rama and places you closest to his heart so that you hear him whine and pine for his beloved.
A period of four months seems to be unending. He is not able to wait. Time, it appeared, suddenly changed its pace and moved at a snail’s pace. Lakshmana pacifies him and lends him the much-needed psychological support. I give below a slice from his words:
"Cease giving way to agony, O heroic prince! You ought not to grieve. It is undoubtedly known to you how all the purposes of a grieving man get actually frustrated… Root you out grief once for all and make your determination firm… You are capable, O scion of Kakutstha, of turning upside down even the earth with its oceans, forests and mountains, much more surely you can overthrow the notorious Ravana" - Srimad Valmiki Ramayana (Kishkindha Kanda, Canto
XXVII).
The crisis is born
The elaboration at this juncture has its own reason. We see Rama in such agony. He has always been such a controlled person. His face was like a lotus blossomed on the canvas; a painting of a lotus (chithirathu alarndha senthamarai), recollects Kamban’s Vaidehi, in the asoka vana. His face was the same smiling and fully bloomed lotus, when he was asked to assume kingdom and also when he was asked to leave for forest. So controlled a person was he.
We see him in tears in Karkalap Padalam. He is so terribly upset after Sita was found missing in the hermitage. The sole reason for his not being able to control himself was his immense love for Sita. He should be seen in this background first. For how else are we to understand his anger at the end of the rainy season? He was so terribly upset with Sugriva, for not taking any action after the passage of the rainy season. In a fit of rage, uncontrollable anger, he told
Lakshmana.
‘Tell him,’ said Rama, ‘that the bow which We
Have bent to establish Righteousness and end
All evil ones, unbroken yet doth rest
In Our hands; and let him know that Yama has not
Yet ceased to work, nor we to handle darts…
(Kamba Ramayana; Kishkindhai Padalam) Translated by Sri VVS
Aiyar.
We should mention an aspect of Lakshmana’s quality, before proceeding any further.
(To be continued)
Hari Krishnan
More
Articles
|
