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Kamban Chair for Bharathiar school

Staff Reporter

Permission granted under classical Tamil heading

PONDICHERRY ": Annalum nokkinaan avalum nokkinaal"... these are famous lines for people who are in love though many don't know the Kamba Ramayana. Also these lines written by poet Kamban do not denote love at first sight in the epic Kamba Ramayanam. It was his description of how Sita saw Lord Rama from her balcony as Rama entered Mithila for the swayamvaram.

These lines are no doubt famous but scholars are not sure of the age and era of Kamban.

"There are two schools of thought - one that he lived in 9th century AD and another school says he lived in 12th century AD. To clarify this doubt and also to know about several other things about Kamban and the Ramayana the Pondicherry University has received approval from the UGC to set up a Kamban Chair", said Mr. Arivunambi, HOD, Subramania Bharathiar School of Tamil language and literature. "The period of Kamban would be found out by studying his style of writing, the words that he has used and also the culture of Tamilnadu that he has mentioned. Kamban has not merely translated the Ramayan from Valmiki's version but has adapted it to suit our culture so we will also be studying the differences between these two", added Mr Arivunambi.

"The permission has been granted under the Classical Tamil heading and this is the first time that a chair is being started in a Central university in India after the language gained classical status. We will soon appoint a professor, who will research various aspects of the epic. In the second phase the chair will compare between the different Ramayanas including the ones in Malayalam written by Ezhuthachan, the Thulsi Ramayan written by Saint Thulasidas and Valmiki Ramayanam which is the first ever version of the Ramayana", he added.

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