R¢makath¢ of V¢sudeva

(Abstract)
Dr.K.S.Balasubramanian
Dy.Director
The K.S.R.Institute
Chennai-600 004.

R¢m¢ya´a of V¢lm¤ki, is undoubtedly the most popular literature

of this world. No other story has influenced people of all works of life,
not only in India but other parts of this world. V¢lm¤ki R¢m¢ya´a has
attracted the attention of poets, philosophers, scholars, sculptors,
historians, researches and others. Thousands of literary works in
Sanskrit and other Indian and foreign languages have been written and
are still being written lased on R¢m¢ya´a story.
In Sanskrit literature itself, innumerable texts on R¢m¢ya´a
theme have been written by great saints, poets and dramatists in the
form of Mah¢ K¢vyas, Laghu K¢vyas, Sandeºa K¢vyas, Gadya, Campu,
various varieties of R¦pakas, Ala¬k¢ra works, and translation from
other languages. On many occasions there have been deviations from
the original R¢m¢ya´a of V¢lm¤ki, but the spirit has not been lost.
M¢h¢k¢vyas like Raghuvamºa of K¢lid¢sa, J¢nakihara´a of
Kum¢rad¢sa, dramas of Bh¢sa, Bhavabh¦ti, Mur¢ri, Jayadeva,
¹aktibhadra and others, Campu K¢vyas by Bhoja, Div¢kara kavi and
others, Gadya K¢vyas like R¢macarita of Devavijayagani (16th
cent.A.D.), R¢makath¢ of V¢sudeva (17th cent.A.D.) and other such
texts show us that the story of R¢m¢ya´a has been a great influence to
the poets for hundreds of years continuously. There have been many
modern poets too who have taken R¢m¢ya´a as the for their
compositions . Such is the greatness of V¢lm¤ki R¢m¢ya´a
R¢makath¢ of V¢sudeva is a short gadya K¢vya narrating the
story of R¢ma in a lucid style. Though the author has tried to follow the
foot-steps of his worthy predecessors like Da´²in and B¢´a, he has
avoided long compounds and unnecessary usages of alliterations. His
sentences are brief, direct and appealing to the heart.
V¢sudeva lived in Kerala in the 17 th cent.A.D. After saluting Ga
´eºa, he pays obeisance to his patron King ¡ditya Varma and in the end,
he says that he composed the text at the behest of his patron. He was
the son of Um¢ and N¢r¢ya´a. He has also written Samk¾epa bh¢rata
and Samk¾epa R¢maya´a.
This paper discusses the date of the author and his R¢makath¢ .