01Valmiki in a Tamil voice
Kamban follows Valmiki’s order of events and says so, but the voice is his own. His Ayodhya has Tamil rivers and Tamil fields; his Rama is clearly Bhagwan from the first canto, closer to the Alvars’ devotion than to an epic hero. The poem runs to about ten thousand verses in six kandams, ending with the coronation. Scholars of Tamil count its viruttam metres among the finest ever written in the language. Tradition says Kamban, grateful to Sadaiyappa Vallal, named his patron once in every thousand verses.
02Srirangam and after
Srirangam keeps the account that Kamban first recited the poem in the Ranganatha temple before the assembled Vaishnava scholars, and a mandapam there is still pointed out as the Kamba Mandapam. He is also credited with the Sadagopar Antadi in praise of Nammalvar, and with the Erezhupadu on the dignity of farming. His date is argued: most scholars place him under the later Cholas in the 12th century, a few in the 9th. Karaikudi holds a Kamban festival every year, and his verses are still recited in Ramayana discourses across the Tamil country.
