Kamba Ramayana: Translated from Tamizh by P S Sundaram

"How many things conspired to crown and reward Indra's penance! The beauty of that gem among women; her chastity; my husband's consuming lust; Surpanakha's severed nose; and most of all Dasaratha's promise to his queen that drove those princes to the forest."

-- Mandodari's lament at the fall of her valiant husband Ravana.

"Her breasts, always a burden to her slender waist, swelled. Drunk with joy, she thought one thing but babbled another. Joy surged in her heart and her shoulders suddenly felt her jewels too tight. Her breasts grew damp with dewy drops of sweat and garment loosened and slid low. That stainless model of what a wedded wife should be, gazed at Hanuman, long and dumb, not knowing what to say."

--The sensuous description of Sita when Hanuman, the archetypal Brahmachari, arrives with the news of Ravana's death.

Kamba Ramayana is not too very different from its original acknowledged source: Valmiki Ramayana. But such ornamentation and tongue firmly in cheek-singles put it in a league of its own.

Honestly, it is no match to the austere beauty and tone of Valmiki. While he wrote as Rama's contemporary, firmly keeping the mythical prince human, Kamban, already a bhakta, is half-way into the process of Rama's deification (I guess the process was completed by Tulsidas's time).

Although based on Valmiki, Kamban brings in his own mild twists and turns in the tale. However, what makes his version firmly distinct is the overdose of athishayokti.

Yet, the underlying point is that as a work of fiction, Ramayana is unparalleled, deeply moving and overwhelming. Problem arises when it is sought to be read as history, or worse, god's history.

I get a feeling that the real reason for the enduring charm of Rama and the overarching devotion to him is the sense of vicarious guilt or deep sympathy the tale evokes in its readers. The story of the travails that an essentially good-at-heart prince goes through at a young age due to no fault of his, so evocatively told has soaked the collective psyche (I dare not say "conscience"!) of generations in guilt -- so what if none else but his family was at fault. 

The guilt theme perhaps is also the same in the Jesus narrative. Perhaps Chitrabhanu or Sevanand can hold forth on this better. Malayalees will recognize this enduring but helpless "Oh, what can I do to reduce your suffering?" feeling vis-a-vis Ramapuram Sethumadhavan.

PS: Snap to the climax of  Malayalam movie "Bharatam". Protagonist "Gopi", accused by others of getting his brother killed, breaks into tears  after being consoled by his just-widowed sister-in-law herself. The scene is based on the Bharata-Kaushalya exchanges in Kamba Ramayana following Rama's departure during Bharata's absence