| Summary: | Epics (Kappiyam) sings the life of a great man, praises individual excellence and praises society and basic religion which is the background of life. In this way, it can be seen in Kambar’s “Ramayanam” that have different settings, morals, plot, main characters, sub-stories, supporting characters, heroic drama, etc. The collocation of stories named ‘The Ramayana’ has been presented all over India as oral stories in various forms such as traditional, mythology and oral literature. However, the first written copy of ‘The Ramayana’ was published by the great poet Valmiki. Only after the publication of Valmiki’s ‘The Ramayana’, it has been adapted into different languages according to the respective cultural phenomenon. Kambar adopted ‘The Ramayana’ as “Kamba Ramayanam” in the Tamil language to present Rama’s life as an example of how to lead a moral life. Kambar’s “Kamba Ramayanam” has its uniqueness in literature because he has created each character with high moral values, ideas and interesting plots which helped to add respect and pride to the life of the central character Rama. In the same way, minor characters are also developed. Manthirai’s character was also created in the epic with certain villainous traits that develop the tragedy of Rama and the final triumph. This paper analyses the supporting minor character Manthirai to elucidate in detail.
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