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Kambar (poet)

12th-century Indian poet of Tamil language

Summary

12th-century Indian poet of Tamil language

Field	Value
name	Kambar
image	MarinaBeach Kambar statue (close-up) 2Feb2013.jpg
caption	Statue of Kambar at Marina Beach, Chennai
birth_date
birth_place	Therizhandur (in present-day Tamil Nadu, India)
death_date
death_place	Nattarasankottai (in present-day Tamil Nadu, India)
occupation	Poet
genre
subject
notableworks	Ramavataram
Silai Elupatu
language	Tamil

the poet

Silai Elupatu Kambar, or Kamban (1180–1250), was an Indian poet. He is the author of the Ramavataram, popularly known as Kambaramayanam, the Tamil version of the Hindu epic Ramayana. He had also authored several other literary works in Tamil including Silai Elupatu, Kangai Puranam, Sadagopar Antati and Saraswati Antati.

Life

Kambar was believed to have been born in Therazhundur (in present day Tamil Nadu). He was supported and patronised by Sadayappa Vallal. He grew up in the Chola Empire during the reign of Kulothunga Chola III. Having heard of Kamban's talent, Kulothunga summoned him to his court and honoured him with the title Kavi Chakravarty (Emperor of poets). Kamban was well versed in Tamil and Sanskrit languages. His life time is dated to the 12th century CE, after the lifetime of Vaishnavite philosopher Ramanuja, as the poet refers to the latter in his work.

There are no clear information of his later whereabouts, with multiple stories in folklore. As per one theory, Kamban spent his last days in Nattarasankottai near present day Sivagangai. After having differences with Kulothunga's son, Rajaraja III, he left the Chola kingdom and moved from place to place. When he reached at Nattarasankottai, he decided to stay there and spent his last days there. There is tomb dedicated to him at the location and the annual Kamban vizha is conducted at this place to felicitate Kambar.

In another story, Kamban was exiled by Kulothunga due to a misunderstanding, and Kulothunga executed Kamban's son Ambigapathy for having a love affair with his daughter. Grief-stricken and enraged at Kulothunga's brutality, Kamban wandered around the Tamil lands and finally entered the service of the Cheras. He eventually returned again when invited by the Chola ruler, but this renewed friendship was short-lived, and tensions rose once more. Kulothunga ultimately executed Kamban on the pretext that he had maintained ties with the Chera king and had murdered the youngest prince. Before his death, Kamban cursed the king, declaring that his lineage would come to an end.

Literary works

The Ranganathasamy Temple, Srirangam]], where he is believed to have recited the epic

Kamba Ramayanam (also called Ramavataram), a retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana in Tamil. It consists of 11,000 stanzas. It was accepted into the holy precincts in the presence of Nathamuni.
Saraswati Antati, literary work of antati style in praise of Hindu Goddess Saraswati
Sadagopar Antati, antati in praise of Vaishnava Saint Nammalvar
Silai Elupatu, work in praise of 11th century CE Pallava king Karunakara Tondaiman
Tirukkai Valakkam
Erelupathu
Kangai Puranam
Mangala Vazhthu

In popular culture

Kamban is portrayed by Serukalathur Sama in the Tamil-language film Ambikapathy (1937). In the film Ambikapathy (1957), M. K. Radha played Kamban.

References

Ramaswamy, Vijaya. (2017-08-25). "Historical Dictionary of the Tamils". Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
(2020-01-22). "Kambar ( Kavi Chakravarthy )- Profile and Life History of a Tamil Poet.".
India's Communities by Kumar Suresh Singh, Anthropological Survey of India – Ethnology – 1992 – page 4146
The Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia By Edward Balfour
Robert Caldwell. (1875). "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages". Trübner, 1875.
Raja, P.. (2022). "A Treasury of ancient Tamil legends". National Book Trust.
Legend of Ram By Sanujit Ghose
Gopal, Madan. (1990). "India through the ages". Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
Rays and Ways of Indian Culture By D. P. Dubey

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

chola-poets indian-male-poets hindu-poets 12th-century-indian-poets poets-from-tamil-nadu writers-from-thanjavur-district translators-of-the-ramayana 1180-births 1250-deaths people-from-mayiladuthurai-district

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