Kotha Ramayana

Kotha Ramayana is a poem written by the powerful Assamese poet Madhava Kandali during the 14th century and is one of many versions of Ramayana in a regional Indian language other than Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit. This work is also considered one of the earliest written examples of the Assamese language.

A particular feature of this work is the non-heroic portrayal of Rama, Sita and other characters, as explicitly stated by Madhav Kandali himself, which rendered the work unsuitable for religious purposes. This feature sufficiently disturbed a later poet, Ananta Kandali, who was moved enough to comment on it.

The Ramayana

The Ramayana was written upon the request of the Kachari king Mahamanikya (Mahamanikpha, 1330-1370). At that time, his kingdom centered around present-day Nagaon. Kandali writes:

"kavirāj kandali ye āmākese buliwāyā"
"kariloho sarvajana bodhe."
"ramayana supa yara, shri mahamanike ye,"
"baraha rajar anurudhe."
"sat kanda ramayana padabandhe nibandhilo"
"lambha parihari sarodhrite."
"mahamanikyoro bolo kavyarasa kicho dilon"
"dugdhak mathilo yena ghrite"
"pandit lokar yebe asantosa upajaya"
"hat yore bolon shudha bak"
"pustak bichari yebe taite katha napawaha"
"tebe sabe nindiba amak."

The poetical work uses various metres for different moods and situations. Some of the metres used are "pada" (fourteen syllables, four lines of verses), "jhumura" (four lines with eight syllables each), "dulari" (three "charana", first and second has six syllables each and the third has eight syllables) and "chhavi" (like "dulari" but with different syllabilic structure). The "pada" metre became very popular in later Assamese compositions.

As he has mentioned above, Kandali has churned the milk of the Ramayana to get the butter, by incorporating his own poetic essence to the original Valmika Ramayana. He adapted his work according to the taste of the common folk to make it more popular. He portrays Rama and Sita as human characters, with astonishing qualities but with some human weaknesses in certain situations.

Later additions and influences

The "adi kanda" (Book 1) and the "uttara kanda" (Book 7), which were lost by the 15th century were later added by Madhavdev and Srimanta Sankardeva respectively. Sankardeva writes of Kandali:

"purvakavi apramadi madhav kandali adi"
" pade virachila rama katha"
"hastira dekhiya lada sasa yena phure marga"
" mora bhaila tenhaya avastha."

Some other additions were made by Ananta Kandali (16th century) and others.

This work has cast a strong influence on Sankardeva, and also later Assamese works. A later Karbi Ramayana was also influenced by this work.

References

* Goswami, Mamoni Raisom, "Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra", Delhi 1996.

External links

* [https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no17118.htm Madhava Kandali Ramayana]