Kamba Ramayanam - Kishkindha Kandam (An Old and Rare Book)

The Kishkindha Kandam, the fourth canto of the Ramayana and occupying the central place in the epic, has for its locale the kingdom of Sugriva, the monkey-chief whom Rama was advised to seek to enable him to recover his abducted wife. Those who gave him this advice must have been aware of how much more powerful than Sugriva was his elder brother Vali, both in himself and in the position he now occupied as the King of Kishkindha from where Sugriva had been driven out and which he had no chance of recovering without external help. They could not have thought that Vali's help would have made Rama's efforts so much easier to make, and therefore would have diminished his own greatness and glory. We have no basis on which to infer that in their opinion Vali was a wicked creature and therefore was unworthy of being wooed by Rama. All that we do know is that Rama was willing to be guided in this matter by Kabandha and Sabari; and that when Hanuman approached him as a messenger from Sugriva, and he heard Sugriva's tale of woe, he immediately swore an eternal friendship with him and promised to free him from his brother's tyranny, and not only restore his stolen wife to him but also make him King of Kishkindha.

**Contents and Sample Pages**