Kampan

(ca. 12th century)

   Kampan was perhaps the most important Tamil poet of the Middle Ages. He probably lived in the 12th century, though some traditions put him as early as the ninth.While there are a number of legends about his life, very little is actually known. It is thought that Kampan was born in the Tanjore district of India, and that a chieftain named Cataiyapan was his patron. His chief work is Iramavataram (The Descent of Rama), an epic poem of some 40,000 lines based on Valmiki’s famous first-century Sanskrit epic Ramayana. Kampan’s work is one of the great literary masterpieces in the Tamil language, and displays the poet’s considerable rhetorical and technical skill as well as his scholarly erudition: He displays familiarity not only with Valmiki, but also with literary traditions in both Sanskrit and Tamil.

   Kampan’s story is not a translation of Valmiki’s, but does follow the traditional story fairly closely. Rama is a prince of Ayodhya, the eldest and favored son of King Dasharatha. As a young man, Rama is able to win the hand of Sita, princess of Mithila, in an archery contest. The elderly king wants to name Rama as his successor, but through the machinations of his stepmother Kaikeyi, Rama is deprived of the throne in favor of Kaikeyi’s son Bharata, and exiled to the wilderness for 14 years. Believing that his father’s promises must be kept at all costs, Rama accepts his exile rather than wage a war for the throne, and travels to the wilderness with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. In the forest, however, Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, the demon king of Sri Lanka. Rama engages the help of an army of monkeys and bears to help search for her. Hanuman, the monkey god, pledges his service to Rama. He leaps across the ocean to the island of Sri Lanka where it is believed Sita has been taken. Rama and his army attack the island, kill Ravana, and rescue Sita. However, before the reunion is complete, Sita must prove her chastity in a trial by fire.When the fire will not burn her, Sita is seen as vindicated by the gods. She and Rama make a triumphant return to Ayodhya, and initiate a golden age known as Rama’s rule.

   Kampan’s story is essentially the same as Valmiki’s, but it has some distinctive features in terms of style and emphasis. Kampan seems more concerned with the emotional responses of characters, especially women. Kampan also clearly presents Rama as an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. In doing so he is following a tradition that had originated among the Tamil saints a few centuries earlier.

   Bibliography

   ■ Kampan. The Forest Book of the Rāmayāna of Kampan. Translated with anotation and introduction by George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.

   ■ Richman, Paula, ed. Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.