Ambikapathy Amaravathy (12th Cenury) Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

Fatality plays the major role in life.
Men are the puppets in the hand of Fate.
The tale of princess Amaravathy
And poet Ambikapathy can vouch for it.
The events date back to 12th century.
The scent set was the kingdom of Chozha.
The presiding King was Kulothunkan.
Amaravathy was the king's daughter.

Kamban was a renowned poet in Tamil.
It was he who wrote the epic Ramayana,
Which surpassed the literary merit
Of the original text in Sanskrit.
He had a son named Ambikapathy,
Who genetically turned to a poet
and became exemplary in the art
thanks to the able guidance of father.

To feed Amaravathy's aestheti sense,
The king hired Kamban to teach her poetry.
Imbued with beauty and intelligence,
Amaravathy excelled in learning.
In the absence of his father on tour,
Ambikabathy, quite young and handsome,
Was entrusted with the job of teaching.
He inspired her and she enlivened him.

Proximity is the conspiracy.
The princess cheerfully underwent
The tuition, drawn by the youth's charisma.
Ambikapathy was excited to teach her.
In the course of time love in both blossomed.
Father came back and sensed his son's passion
For the princess and understood the danger.
Love was blind and it was proven in them.

Ottakkoothar was the Royal Poet
In the kingdom of Kulothungan Chozhan,
And nurtured intellectual antipathy
Against Poet Kamban to his ignorance.
Ambikapathy's passion for the princess
And her response got Ottakoother's ears.
No need to say that it got the king's ears.
Alarmed, the king wanted to find the truth.

The king invited the father and the son
For a feast with him and the lovelorn daughter
And the first hand experience told the king
That it was too hard to break their affection.
Without hurting his daughter's sentiment,
He wanted to wean Ambikapathy
Away by putting a tougher challenge
For him to face and get the princess' hand.

Ambikavathy shall sing a hundred songs,
All shall be extempore, all shall extol
The Devine Bliss and none be on mortal
To get her hand or to get beheaded.
Ambikapathy accepted the challenge,
Which seemed quite handy for his caliber.
Amaravathy welcomed the challenge
With her faith in her lover's confidence.

The scene was set in the court of the king.
Ambikapathy was to sing on the stage
With Ottakkoother to supervise it.
Amaravathy was to sit behind
The screen to count and signal when over.
She mistakenly counted as the part
of the hundred poems the invocation song
And came out to signal on ninety-ninth.

He assumed that he had sung hundredth song.
Seeing the excitement of the princess,
To celebrate his success in the battle,
He sang a song in praise of his beloved,
With which actual hundredth song was over.
Ottakoother pointed out the folly.
The king had Ambikapathy beheaded.
Reaching the scene, Amaravathy fell dead.
18.07.2020