"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
Chip away at the chadditva warrior's points logically and systematically, and what you arrive at are a few core points:
