Bhagavad Geeta and Kamba Ramayanam
Bhagavad Geeta
The universal message of BHAGAVAD GEETA can be practiced in the din and roar of the battle field, during the busiest bargaining in the stock market and the solitary living in the Himalayan caves.”
“If the entire Vedas are compared to a cow, Bhagavad Geeta is the milk of that cow.”
The perfection in Sage Vyasa found its ultimate expression in a comprehensive work on Indian philosophical thought ie, the Bhagavat Geeta. A gory battlefield, powerful opposition and impeding death of the near and dear ones brought the most powerful hero of that time, Arjuna, to his knees. The fear inside, Arjuna’s mind took the shape of intellectual confusions regarding his duty.
A heart torn apart between duty and love can find true strength only in higher knowledge. Sri Krishna, the most successful and dynamic statesman of that comes to Arjuna’s rescue. The dialogue between Arjuna and Sri Krishna forms the body of the Bhagavad Geeta. The dialogue was faithfully recorded by Sage Vyasa in 701 Verses divided into 18 chapters in all. The Bhagavad Geeta appears in the 10th canto of the Mahabharata, called the Bhishma parva.
Bhagavad Geeta is the ultimate solution to the major quests of mankind ie, the removal of sorrow and the search for the ultimate truth. It abounds in the knowledge of a wide variety of topics including management, ethics, ecology, psychology, spirituality and balanced living.
The Bhagavad Geeta is one of the three texts considered as the foundation for vedantic study. Translated into various languages, the Bhagavad Geeta serves mankind with the message of strength, duty and dynamic living.
Kamba Ramayanam
Kamban who wrote Kambaramayana was born in the 9th century in Therazhundur, a villge in Thanjavur district. In Kambaramayana there are totally 10418 verses in six kandas(chapters) ie Balakanda, Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda, Kishkindhakanda, Sundarakanda and Yuddhakanda. As in Valmiki Ramayana there is no Uttarkanda in Kamba Ramayana. Each chapter contains many subchapters.
This poem is the greatest epic in Tamil literature, and though the author states that he follows in the wake of Valmiki, still his work is no translation or even adaptation of the Sanskrit original. Kamban imports into his narration the colour of his own time and place. Thus his description of Kosala is an idealized account of the features of the Chola country. Rama himself was as much master of the Tamil idiom as of Sanskrit. Kamban’s poem carried the story of Rama up to his return to Ayodhya and his coronation as king. The ramavataram soon attained great popularity, which has retained to this day. In kamba Ramayana, Rama is the supreme lord, He is Narayana, He is the one that sleeps the sleep of wakefulness in the ocean of milk, He is the great One whom even the Vedas has not seen.
Kamban has not merely taken his theme from the greats of Sanskrit epics but has followed it in almost every detail step by step. He has himself challenged comparison, though in all humility, with the first of Sanskrit poets, and not yet one of the critics who have compared his work with that of Valmiki has ever denied him place among the greatest poets of the world. It is now for the larger critical audience of India and of the rest of the world to appraise Kamban’s work and adjudge to him his proper place among the sons of Saraswathi( the goddess of learning).
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