** A Tamil proverb goes like this: “raamar irukkum idam ayoddhi” (Ayoddhi is where Ram is present). This ancient adage is enough to realise the depth of devotion that Tamils have for Ram.
** Doyen of Tamil devotional literatue, late Ki. Vaa. Jagannathan (Ki.Vaa.Ja) once jocularly remarked: “Ram Nam is so intrinsic to Tamil ambience that Tamils call a person who takes delight in tasting food as ‘saappaattu Raman’ ”.
** Writer Aravindan Neelakantan begins a Swarajya aticle with this anecdote: “John Pandiyan, a Devendrakula Vellalar community leader from Southern Tamil Nadu, was meeting Thol Thirumavallavan, a Hindu-hating leader, a few years back with their cadre assembled. John Pandiyan told their cadre that the two leaders were like ‘Rama and Lakshmana’.
** There are innumerable instances to show that, like Ram Nam, Ayodhya too is part of Tamil life since millenia. At the famous Eri-Katha Ramar (Rama who protected the lake) temple of Madhurantakam the Chola inscription calls the lord as “Ayodhya Perumal” or Lord of Ayodhya.
** Rajendra Chola donated an areca garden to Sita, as a wedding gift, on the occasion of her marriage to Rama, whom a temple inscription addresses as Thiru Ayodhyi Chakravarthi.
** Ayodhya, indeed, seems to have been much loved and cherished by Tamils. In Uttiramerur under Parantaka Chola’s reign, there was a temple for ‘Ayodhya Perumal’ – the lord of Ayodhya.
** Parantaka’s queen, Seyyabhuvana Sundara Maniyar, gifted a lamp to the Raghava temple, which was called Thiru Ayodhi (auspicious Ayodhya).
** The Chola period also reinforced the sacred oneness of India by constructing two temples at Manimangalam in Tamil Nadu — one for ‘our Master Lord of Dwaraka’ (Thiruvaragapathi Emperuman) and the other for ‘our Master Lord of auspicious Ayodhya’ (Thiruayodhi Emperuman).
** Returning to the contemporary scene, one finds political commentators exhorting general public to give up indifference and be proactive against corruption, adding, no one should be under the impression ‘What if Ram is King or Ravana’.
So much and more for the Ram Effect on the Tamil language and tradition.
