Why is Sundarakandam so important?

Why is Sundarakandam so important?

The scholars of Sanskrit, both oriental and western, place the Sundarakandam of the Aadikavaya (Ramyanam), of Maharshi Valmeeki as an aesthetically sublime piece of literature..

Just as the fourth Act of Shakuntalam is the best in Kalidasa's literature in drama, Sundarakandam has similar place in the realm of Kavyams..

The story content of the piece of literature is simply beautiful..

It describes the discovery of something which was supposes to be lost..

नष्टार्थस्य पुनर्लाभः सुन्दरःपरिकीर्तितः..

Sundaram is acclaimed as the recapture or regaining of what has been lost..

Here Mother Sita is gained back

A messenger in olden days is often denoted as Sundara..

Here Anjaneya is the glorious messenger of Rama.. Similar is the case where, when there was a love quarrel between Lord Nataraja and Sivakama Sundari, Sundaramoothi Nayanar shuttled between them .. holding aloft olive branches..

Sun Dhara.. सुं दरति इति one who removes pain and unhappiness.. is called Sundara.. and the hero of Sundarakandam.

Anjaneya swamy has definitely done that..

In all realms of literary merit, like chandas, vrittam, phonetics, alankaram.. etc this part of Valmikiramayanam is outstandingly beautiful..

In many standard texts on the techniques of literary creation, the couplets from Ramayanam are cited as standard models or reference points..

In description of beauty of terrain, flora, fauna, and natural beauty, the contents of Sundarakandam are of great beauty in the field of literary creations..

In fact, the theory and the standards of treatment of subjects in a Kavyam either in Sanskrit, or even in the classical literatures of Asia and the West, have been set with our Adikavyam as the yardstick..

and genius of creativity is at its peak in Sundarakandam..

So sublime..

The description of the Hilly terrain of South India, the beauty of the Golden city of Lanka, the attractiveness of Pushpaka Vimanam, are all great pieces of literary creation where evocative imagination and acute and sensitive observation can be seen and felt at their peak..

Even the natural hilarity and love for fun which are natural for monkeys is described with elan where the monkeys ransack the forest of honey maintained on behalf of Sugriva, after hearing the glad tidings about Seetha, and the successful mission of Hanuman to Lanka..

Sundarakandam is a self sustaining treatise.. The entire story of Ramayanam upto the adventurous trip of Hanuman to Lanka is covered in this Kandam, though in an abridged manner.

.If Rama is the hero for the other parts of Ramayanam. in Sundarakandam, there is only one hero, Lord Anjaneya..

All the facets of an ideal living being, valour, resourcefulness, strength, oratory, to cite a few such qualities are revealed in its excellent manifestation in Anjaneyaswamy, the hero of Sundarakandam. It is the story of Hanuman the Sundara..

And for the devotees, reading of Sundarakandam bestow on them all that is beautiful and beneficial.

So, Sundarakandam is really Sundaram, beautiful with hardly any parallel in the annals of literature created by man...