Ramayana of Valmiki and Kamban-Ayodhya kanda-20.Bhartha of Valmiki and Kamban

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20. Bharatha of Kamban

 

Kamban describes the reaction of Bharatha on hearing Kaikeyi's words that Rama was sent to the forest.

choodina malarkkaram Sollin mun Sevi

Koodina; puruvangaL kunitthu kootthu ninru

Aadina; uyirppinodu, azhal kozhundhugaL,

Odina; umizhndhana udhiram kaNgaLe

 

The lyrical beauty can be fully understood only with knowledge of Tamil but the meaning is as follows:

His hands closed his ears when he heard the words of Kaikeyi. His brows were curled and joined together and moved restlessly. His eyes became blood shot and emitted fire.

 

Further Kamban describes the state of Bhartha saying that his cheeks throbbed and fire and smoke were seen coming from his pores. His state brought fear to even the devas, says Kamban. Bharatha wished to kill his mother but resisted the impulse merely because Rama will get angry with him and not because she was his mother.

 

E enum maatthiratthu ettrugittrelen;

aayavan muniyum enru anjinEn alaal.

Thaai enum peyar thadukkaRpaaladho

 

Bharatha said that kaikeyi was a demon who swallowed the life of her husband and gave him not only milk but also eternal infamy and asked her what else she had in store for him. He said that he had to do penance to atone for the sin of being instrumental for the death of his father and the banishment of Rama by being born to a sinner like Kaikeyi.So saying Bharatha left Kaikeyi to seek the pure minded Kousalya. The words of Bharatha were,

Yaanum ippanna arum kodumanappaavi paadu irEn;

thunna arunthuyar keda thooya kosalai ponnadi thozhuven

 

" I will no more be with this sinner and will seek the feet of the pure Kousalya to atone for my sin."

 

Kousalya of Kamban was more charitable than in Valmiki because she understood that Bharatha was innocent on seeing him crying and falling at her feet, ` mai aRu mantthu oru maaSu uLaan avan seyyanE enbadhu thERum chindhaiyaaL,' though she might have had suspicion earlier because she told him that it seemed that he did not know the doings of his mother, ` "kaikayar komagaL izhaittha kaithavam aiya nee aRindhilai pOlumaal?" enRaaL'

 

Even the probability of her entertaining a doubt about his character was unbearable to Bharatha that he enlisted the sins that deserve worst punishment and said that he would suffer all of them if he had known the intrigue of Kaikeyi earlier. This made Kousalya exclaim that no one in the whole clan of Ikshvaku could stand equal to him in virtue and called him the king of kings.

 

Munnai num kula mudhaluLorgaLthaam

Ninnai yaarE nigarkkum neerlmaiyaaR

Mannarmannavaa enRu vaazhtthinaaL

 

Kamban differs from Valmiki in the performance of the funeral rites of Dasaratha as well as a consequence of which Bharatha was even more pitiable than when he met Kousalya. According to Valmiki Vasishta asked Bharatha to control his grief and perform tha funeral rites of Dasaratha, which he did with Sathrughna. But in Kamban vasishta prevents Bharatha from doing the obsequies saying that the king has renounced his mother and himself before his death and hence only Sathrughna should do it. In Valmiki Dasaratha says that if Bharatha was compliant with the wish of Kaikeyi and accepts the throne he should not do his funeral rites. As Bharatha proved himself to be pure, Vasishta must have allowed him to do the last rites according to Valmiki. But in Kamban Dasaratha says that he had renounced both Kaikeyi and Bharatha.

 

It was a further blow to Bharatha in Kambaramayana who lamented piteously. Another deviation from Valmiki in Kamban is that he says that all the wives of dasaratha except the three principal ones, Kousalya, Kaikeyi and Sumithra entered the fire. Valmiki does not mention this. Probably Kamban was influence by the Tamil culture as in the episode of Ahalya whom he makes innocent and cheated by Indra while in Valmiki she was fully aware of the identity of her visitor.

 

These deviations may be due to the fact that Valmiki recorded the story as it happened seeing it with his divine vision whereas Kamban wrote his Ramayana as a devotee.

 

There are variations in the incidents connected with Bharatha on his journey to the forest and meeting Rama also which we shall examine later.