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A Sorrowful Soliloquy

The two boons promised by king Dhasaratha to Kaikeyi as a reward for the help 
rendered by her at the crucial hour of killing Chambarasura recoiled on him 
like a boomerang when she demanded immediate implementation of them. Having 
been brain washed by the hunchback Mantara, Kaikeyi was lying in her chamber 
with grief and looked like an inert peacock with its plumage folded. The simile 
has been appropriately introduced by the great Tamil poet Kambar for three 
reasons.

   Kaikeyi appeared colourful like a peacock, which led to her wedding with 
Dasaratha.
   She hailed from a place which was famous for peacocks (Kekayanadu)
   Sri Rama possessed a body, the colour of which was dark blue resembling rain 
bearing cloud and no wonder that Kaikeyi as a peacock was attracted towards Him 
and made her receive him with a cheerful exhilaration, thus demanding her 
natural love and affection for him. Her reaction was entirely different in this 
sequence.

The great king in his usual nocturnal visit to the parlour of Kaikeyi carried 
with him a happy message of Sri Rama?s coronation to be conveyed to her. 
Dasaratha was bewildered with astonishment on seeing his beloved sweetheart 
lying in a disorderly fashion, lifted her with his long and broad hands as an 
elephant would, with its trunk lift a female deer. He then embraced her with 
affection to which Kaikeyi reacted violently and fell on the mother earth 
escaping his fold. She revealed her mind stating that she desired the two boons 
that were promised to be granted here and now, in that her son Bharatha to wear 
the crown and Sri Rama to leave for the forest forthwith on fourteen years 
exile. The King of Kings received these two requests with a rude shock and fell 
down unconscious as he felt that he had to keep up the promise which was then 
put to test and bemoaned, ?How cruel it was to tread the path of righteousness? 
 

            After regaining consciousness King Dasaratha beseeched Kaikeyi to 
give up her malicious request and come back to senses. As she did not yield to 
any entreaties the king put forth his amended request whereby Bharatha might 
wear the crown and occupy the throne and Kaikeyi should forget the other 
demand. Poet Kambar subtly reveals that Dasaratha considered an anathema even 
to mention about the intended banishment of his son, by the expression ?the 
other demand?.

            Here it would be relevant to recall how Kulasekhara Azhwar who was 
a Chera king born at Thiruvanjikalam a place in Kerala in the Tamil month of 
Masi under the star Punarvasu was very much devoted to Sri Rama whose birth 
star also was that of his. He spent the time usefully in the company of 
devotees of high order relegating his powers to his ministers to administer the 
territory. The culmination of his extreme Bhakthi crystallized in the form of 
his going on pilgrimage to many holy places to mention a few, Srirangam, 
Thirukannapuram, Thirumalai, Thiruchitrakutam and so on. Kulasekhara has sung 
songs in praise of Lord Rama assuming the role of Kowsalya as mother singing 
lullaby and in another himself yearning to do service to Lord in whatever way 
possible. Among his 105 Tamil verses the thought provoking tear-jerking ones 
are Dasaratha?s lamentation on the exile of his son, Sri Rama to the forest 
remain as an outstanding piece of lachrymal lament where he dons the mantle
 of king Dasaratha. Obviously Kulasekhrara?s intention was to bring greater 
poignancy than what had been narrated by sage Valmiki in Sanskrit although it 
appears he had followed poet Kambar in Tamil.

Verse No. 1 ? The populace are getting ready with folded arms in a prayerful 
posture to witness your coronation? ?Alas my Rama oh! Loved by Kaikeyi who is 
more than a mother to you has stipulated that you should leave for the 
sprawling and unending forest and I had no alternative except to execute her 
diabolical plan? ? See how I succeeded in my ambition and how you have proved 
to be a worthy son?

 

Verse No. 2 ?How cruel am I and how grievous are the resultant words of mine 
that made you to leave peremptorily not aspiring for the throne bereft of 
elephants, infantry, car (Ratham) etc. that go with the royal paraphernalia but 
followed by the broad eyed Sita and the service oriented Lakshmana? How did you 
trek / Rama Ho ? I am helpless without knowing what to do?

 

Verse No.3 My kousalya has eyes which are wide and looked spear shaped; as her 
son you have inherited the elegant physical features of your mother and your 
mountain like shoulders carried the bow; you were then used to lie on luxurious 
soft bet which gave soporific effect and now you have learnt to sleep on rugged 
rocks under a forest tree: your action has left my heart bleeding.

 

Verse No. 4 ? Come here! Go and come once again! Were my daily request to you 
my son; by this conduct I enjoyed your handsome physiognomy eyeful and the gait 
both while coming and returning and not satisfied with it I asked you repeat it 
which you did? ? Was it not that you broke Lord Siva?s bow which nobody else 
could do, with the only intention of holding Janaki?s soft hand in marriage: 
now by your deed of going into the forest infested with wild animals my heart 
instead of blowing into pieces still pulsates. 

 

Verse No. 5 While trekking the rugged terrain with spiky stones left your soft 
feet bleeding, the uncharitable forest spreading the rays of the torrid sun on 
you, and the pangs of hunger biting you, I stand guilty and remain a great 
sinner by conceding to the evil design of Kaikeyi, the wicked. I am helpless 
and suffer due to the past deeds.

 

Verse No.6 Without hearing the words of affection of calling me amma, without 
embracing them with love and affection, without caressing and smelling his 
forehead, thus deprived of such a pleasure, without seeing His gait of an 
elephant and his lotus like face, I still live having lost my son? (here due to 
extreme emotion consequent upon separation from his affectionate son, Dasaratha 
according to Kulasekhara Azhwar changes the appellation to ?Amma? instead of 
?Appa?.

 

Verse No. 7  ?Please tell me, you learned scholars! Sumanthara! Vashishta! Is 
there equity and justice in my dear son appearing with matted locks instead of 
adorning it with fragrant flowers? Should he wear a garment woven out of ?Kusa 
Grass? instead of silken attire? Should he so young leave for the forest to 
which I should have retired as an old man?

 

Verse No. 8 ? Kaikeyi! You are atleast concerned and nonchalant about the 
sorrowful predicament and the confused state of affairs in the country, the 
result of your obduracy: you sent my learned handsome son, his brother 
Lakshmana and my parrot like daughter-in-law to the forest and by this act your 
son Baratha unwittingly became my object of blame and derision and 
simultaneously you were preparing to send me to the Heavens?. You wish to be 
alive to enjoy the pleasure, in this world even after these!

 

Verse No. 9 ?Oh Rama! While returning from Mythila after your Wedding you were 
challenged and threatened by Parasurama and it made me mortally afraid of him 
and to fall down unconscious; you showed your prowess not only by hauling his 
strong bow but also withdrawing the efficacy of his penance; by this exercise 
you have established your superiority, but you have not given thought to my 
anguish that resulted in your leaving for the forest so as to protect me from 
embarrassment and also my promises?. ? I am lucky to have you as my son in this 
birth and I wish that I should be providential enough to be placed in a similar 
position in my future seven plus births also?

 

Verse No.10 ?Oh Prince! Coming from Manu?s lineage! Hereafter I should not be 
alive; enticed by the hunchback and under her malefic influence Kaikeyi spelt 
out her wicked intention to which I had to succumb. The consequence was that 
both Kousalya and Sumithra has to undergo mental agony: I am leaving this 
country which you disowned and I desire to go to forest to live?.

 

Verse No. 11 In the last stanza Kulasekhara Azhwar sums up by himself saying 
that these verses are ?Tamil rosary-par excellence? and those who read these 
verses will never tread anything other than virtuous path?

 

            It would be difficult to reflect in letter and spirit the dolorous 
expressions and sublime experiences both in the content and construction of 
Kulasekara Azhwar?s verses in Tamil. After all, sorrow, dolor, agony and 
anguish that human beings are subjected to cannot be different in the universe 
although expressed in languages of their own.

 This article was written by Late.L.P.Sampath Iyengar

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