At a deeper level, Sita had already hinted to Hanuman that with the fire of her feminine energy, she could destroy Lanka herself, but she had remained silent only because She wanted Sri Rama to come and conquer Ravana.

Then, when Ravana set fire to Hanuman’s tail and the news reached Sita, she appealed to Agni and Agni not only did not harm Hanuman but Lanka got burnt instead.

In the Silapathikaram, likewise, Kannagi remained almost a silent but strong presence in terms of action until Kovalan was killed in an unjust manner. Then, she summons Agni to burn the city without harming the “Brahmins, cows, the old, the children and the good people”.

Draupadi, the principal mover of Mahabharata, was also born of fire. The common deeper element that unites the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Silapathikaram, is that in all these stories, the women associated with fire play a crucial role, and in all these, the “Divine Feminine” explodes against the structures that intentionally or otherwise violate Dharma.

While the Sangam literature mentions events not mentioned by Valmiki in his Ramayana, Illango has clearly recorded that the Avatarhood of Rama and His worship was very well established in South India — among all sections of the society — especially the cattle-herding community.

By the sixth century CE, we know that the South Indian emperors of various dynasties had started modelling themselves after Sri Rama. Kapila Vastyayan has explained how Ramayana played a great role in influencing the moral authority of the South Indian emperors.

We also find — in the ruins of Vishnu temples of fifth century CE of the Gupta-era depictions of Ramayana episodes in South India — the Chalukyas (fifth to eighth centuries CE) modelling themselves after Sri Rama.

Pulakesi, in his Aihole inscription, is found quoting a Valmiki Ramayana verse. The sons of Pulakesi of Western and Eastern Chalukya dynasties also made Rama their role model. The same is also true of Narasimhavarma Pallavan of Tamil Nadu.

Kulasekhara Aazhwar (9th century CE), traditionally considered a Chera king, has sung lullabies for Sri Rama — some of the sweetest poetry written in the language. Since then for centuries Tamil mothers have identified their own children with Rama as they sing these songs to this day.

The Aazhwar, according to traditional accounts, used to get so emotional hearing the recital of Ramayana that when the portion describing Rama going in search of Sita came, he ordered his own army to be ‘sent in support of Sri Rama’.

With the ascendancy of the imperial Cholas, Rama was not only the role model but also one of their ancestors. The Cholas considered themselves as coming in the line of the Raghu clan of Kshatriyas.

Their naval expeditions were compared to the march of Sri Rama. Chola king Parantaka-I was called Sangrama Raghava because of his conquest of Sri Lanka. His son Aditya-I had the title Kothanda Rama. An inscription praising the expedition of Rajaraja compares it with that of Sri Rama’s travels.

In the Adikesava Perumal temple, an inscription records that Rajendra Chola donated an areca garden to Sita, as a wedding gift, on the occasion of her marriage to Rama, whom the 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.

And his 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 temple for ‘our Master Lord of Dwaraka’ (Thiruvaragapathi Emperuman) and ‘our Master Lord of auspicious Ayodhya’ (Thiruayodhi Emperuman).

At the famous Eri-Katha Ramar (Rama who protected the lake) temple of Chengalpattu, the Chola inscription calls the lord as “Ayodhya Perumal” or Lord of Ayodhya.

Many historians consider that the tradition of Hanuman worship rose to prominence only with Hindu resistance to alien invasions. While there is truth in it, independently too, Hanuman has been honoured with a separate shrine in Kanchi during the period of Rajaraja.

So, when through Kamban Ramayana the grandeur of Tamil language reached a peak that few classics that humanity has created have ever reached, it was only natural that Tamil should reach its most sublime height only through the telling of the greatness of Sri Rama Avatara.

The Vijayanagara emperors, as well as later chieftain offshoots of the empire, were also enamoured by Sri Rama. What should be noted here is that it was not the ‘divine right of kings’ being derived by associating themselves with Sri Rama but the subordination of royal power to Dharma, which, in turn, was the power of the powerless.

Thus, in the famous Hazara Rama temple depiction of the Ramayana, we find the narration starting with the panel where Dasaratha gets cursed by the blind old parents of Shravana, who was accidentally killed by the king.