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Re: Mahakavi Kamban

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jayasartn • October 25, 2002 


--SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.
Deear Sri Naresh,
I am sorry, you are misled into believe something for which if 
published in the Tamil print media, you would be greatly admonished.
Kindly harbour no such notions about Kamban.
 Kamban had many detractors even in his times who wanted to criticise 
him at the drop of the hat. One such person wanted to find fault with 
his Tamil.
Kamban used a word 'thumi' for 'thooL' (a very fine particle). That 
word was not known to many then. But Kamban took his critic to the 
village side where they heard the folks use this word in conversation.
Kamban's knowledge and  involvement in poetic endeavours was such 
that that he is rightly called as 'kavi chakravarthy' and as 
one "kamban veettu kattu thariyum kavi paadum'.

Even the criticism about the arangEtram and the so-called lack of 
humility in him are unwarranted. For he wrote the epic at the behest 
of the king, Kuloththungan and it naturally flows that he has to 
declare his write-up in his presence in the august gathering of co- 
poets.He also had to get it approved by them as was the practice 
then. 

The main apprehension about kamban must have stemmed from his not 
being declared an azhwan.
I think this is an off-handed / delebreartly cooked up idea to 
somehow find fault with Kamban.
Any one well acquainted with the form and import of aruli cheyal and 
the kind of aura around the ahwars, will be the last ones to think 
about giving azhwar-hood to kamban. Each of them have done immense 
service to Bhakti movement and literature in their own style. That's 
all I can say.

jayasree sarnathan.




- In bhakti-list@y..., Naresh Ramarajan  wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I've heard my grandparents and some elders quote Kamban's story as
> reference to the saying that "who says what is as/more important 
than what they are
> saying," and would explain that even though Kamban said the most 
beautiful
> words about the Lord, since his character was in question even in 
the day,
> his words were never given scriptural reverence. Of course, i have 
no idea
> whether this allegation against Kamban's character is true or not, 
and
> have no bias one way or the other. I just wanted to throw this out 
since i
> have heard my grandfather and some other elders use this example.
> 
> Adiyen,
> Naresh Ramarajan.



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