Kambar 1966

Kambar (c. 1180, Tiruvaluntur, Tanjore district, India – 1250) was a medieval Tamil poet and the author of the Ramavataram, popularly known as Kambaramayanam, the Tamil version of Ramayana. Kambar also authored other literary works in Tamil, such as 'Thirukkai Vazakkam',Erezhupathu, Silaiezhupathu, Kangai Puranam, sadagopar anthathi, and Sarasvati Anthati.

Kambar belonged to the Ochchan or Occhan caste, traditionally priests in southern India. However, he was brought up in the household of a wealthy farmer in Vennai Nellur in Tamil Nadu. The Chola king—having heard of this talented bard—summoned him to his court and honoured him with the title Kavi Chakravarty(The Emperor of Poets).

Kamban flourished in Therazhundur, a village in the culturally rich Thanjavur District in the modern state of Tamil Nadu in South India. Kamban was a great scholar of India's two ancient and rich languages; Sanskrit and Tamil. In a scholarly biography, Kavichakravarty Kamban, Mahavidwan R. Raghava Iyengar wrote in detail about this 12th-century poet.