Rama Natakam

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Rama Natakam
Rāma and Sita together.
Information
Religion	Hinduism
Author	Arunachala Kavi
Language	Tamil
Period	18th Century AD
Chapters	6 Kandas, 192 Songs

The Rama Natakam is a Tamil Opera that was written by the Tamil poet Arunachala Kavi also known as Arunachala Kavirayar during the 18th century. Based on Kambar's and Valmiki's Ramayana (which is in Tamil and Sanskrit) , the opera describes the legend of King Rama of Ayodhya. The Rama Natakam is even more similar to the Tamil version than the Sanskrit version in many aspects – both in spiritual concepts and in the specifics of the storyline.^[1][2] Several songs of this opera are well known and sung all over Tamil Nadu. Arunachala Kavirayar studied Sanskrit and Tamil in the Dharmapuram Adheenam and excelled in his studies . After his marriage he set up a pawn-broker shop, This not only provided him with a good living, but also with a fair amount of Leisure to pursue his literary studies. Just as he was good at “estimating the fineness of the precious metal, he was equally proficient at estimating the worth of the literary works.” Two books were most liked by Kavirayar — The Tirukkural of Tiruvalluvar and the Ramavataram of Kambar, While the former was only a book of ethics, the latter gave the same in the form of a story which would be more appealing to the common man.^[3]