Epics in Imprints-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

HEROES IN EPICS
Rama and Ravana
Sisirkumar Das
The most popular and venerable hero
from the Hindu mythology is Rama,
the protagonist of the Ramayana.
Despite the authors’ shift from a theocentric
world to a man centric universe and
growing resistance to the divine halo of the
characters of epic, Rama continued to
shine with glory in twentieth century as
well. It is not only that new Ramayanas
were being written by poets –both
Puttappa and Vishvanatha Satyanarayana
wrote Ramayanas, Ramayana Darsanam
in Kannada and Srimad Ramayana
Kalpavrksam in Telugu respectively –but
because the way the whole life of Rama
had penetrated into the poetic language.
It has become a part of the Indian poetic
stoff. Ravana, the villain of the Ramayana,
too whom Michael Madhusudan Data
valorized as a protesting hero in the
nineteenth century, continued to fascinate
some poets but none could surpass the
model created by Michael Madhusudan.
P. Lakshmana Kavi wrote a poem in Telugu
entitled Ravanadammiyamu (1915).
Hardayal Sinha wrote Ravana Mahakavya
(1952) in Hindi, A. K. Velan wrote a play
Ravanan (1948), with Ravana as the hero,
in Tamil. It may be mentioned that with
the consolidation of the Justice Party and
the strengthening of Tamil Nationalsim
several writers in Tamilnadu denounced
Rama and glorified Ravana as a Dravidian
hero.
(A History of Indian Literature, Sahitya
Akademi –New Delhi 1995)
FEBRUARY - AUGUST 2003
MAHABHARATA IN STHALA PURANAS
K. Lakshmi Narayanan
Caste Hindus do not take Draupadi
and Pandava brothers as their
major deities. They regarded them
only as semi-divine beings. But while
composing Sthala Puranam of their
temples, villages and cities, they brought
the Pandavas as beneficiaries of the grace
of major deities like Siva and Vishnu. This
brought them nearer to rural Tamils and
their memory is perpetuated among them.
We can cite an example. The people of
Vedambur, a village in Valankaiman taluk
of Thanjavur district, have a Mahabharata
story for the name of their village. As per
their belief, their village is the place where
the event of Kiratarjuna fight took place.
Since Siva came here in the guise of Vedar
(hunter) to fight with Arjuna, the place is
called Vedambur. The Sthala Purana of
Thirumaraikkadu Siva Temple in
Vedaranyam tells us that the Pandavas
during the time of their Vanavasa visited
that place and worshipped Siva by
establishing five Lingas. The same story
has been told for the deities of
Jayanthisvaram Shrine within the
Suchindram temple complex. We may cite
innumerable examples for the village and
temple towns of Tamilnadu.
(From the Mahabharata in T/F
Traditions of India I.I.A.S Shimla, 1993)