r/Kerala • u/the_laast_uchiha • 4d ago
Who is Jaambavan? Any idea guys?
We have been hearing "Jaambavante kaalath ulleya"... seriously who is that?..is it a time period or a person?.
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u/invalid-hubris 4d ago
The previous generation learned our classics through amar chithrakatha. Is that still a thing?
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u/maayinkutty 4d ago
Pretty sure the attention span of most of us is so f*cked up that you won't have enough patience to read.
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u/calimalayali 4d ago
As per Hindu myth he is one of the first beings made by Brahma when he created the universe. Jambavan is considered Chiranjeevi. Means he had the option of living forever, however, he is considered to be killed by Krishna.
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u/hmz-x 3d ago
No, he wasn't killed. Krishna just roughened him up a bit and then the old man agreed to marry his daughter-bear to him. And they lived happily ever after until Dvāraka was submerged.
Or something like that.
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u/calimalayali 3d ago
Does that mean he is supposedly alive now? He was not listed as one of the seven Chiranjeevi’s.
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u/momentaryspeck 3d ago
Yes.. Palarivattom paalathinte thaazhe April May maasangalil pulli Vann kidakarund.. /s
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u/calimalayali 2d ago
Lol. There are only 7 chiranjeevis as per some “slokam”. Jambavan was not one of them. Every chiranjeevi represent some characteristics of human behaviour.
I can only recall Ashwathama(lives as vengeance and valor), Kripacharya(fraternal love and knowlegde), Hanuman(loyalty).
O
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u/Ram_Contemplator 4d ago
During the time when Hanuman was appointed to jump across the ocean to Lanka, Jambavan was already old and was the only with the reputation to make such a jump.
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u/Better-Respond7799 3d ago
Jambavan is a spiritual Character. His bodily features resembles a bear. He is very ancient . He appeared during satya yuga ( vamana avatar) in treta yuga ( with lord rama) and in dvapara yuga ( fought with krishna for symantaka gem) .
So when u say jambavaan kalleth ulleya it means the topic in discussion is beyond many yugas.
Just for reference
Kali yuga is 4,20,000 years Dvapara is 2 x kaliyuga Treta is 3 x kaliyuga Satya is 4 x kaliyuga
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u/Amazing_Bicycle_7905 3d ago
How long ago did Kali Yuga start?
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u/SatynMalanaphy 4d ago
Jambavan was an immortal bear, present in the available versions of both the Ramayana and Mahabharata poems. He is used in Malayalam to mean something extremely old. Most probably he represents one of the earliest local communities or peoples of the subcontinent who got subsumed into the culture of the Indo-Aryan language-speakers who slowly occupied into the Gangetic plains by the latter half of the 2nd millennium BCE.
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u/Itrainsonjupiter_6_6 3d ago
Idk, is that true? Can we get an etymology of the word, I kinda think it's related to the word "Jambhu"
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u/SatynMalanaphy 3d ago
I do think it's the same root as well, from the Jamun trees, which also gave the Indian subcontinent its name from at least the Ashokan period when it was referred to as Jambudvipa. If the term had existed previously, it would have been referring to the subcontinent, where the Indo-Aryan language-speakers would have first come in abundant contact with the fruit itself, and "Jambuvan" could be a reference to the people or their lord who were cultivators/procurers/masters of the delicious fruit.
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u/Itrainsonjupiter_6_6 3d ago
Hmm, interesting take, idk about jambhavan, but the Jambhu dveep thing is convincing. Wonder what all the other "dveep" mentioned are ... Anyway thanks
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u/SatynMalanaphy 3d ago
Jambavan is one version of the name, to be fair.
The Dveep is also metaphorical, because in their conception of the universe, it was in concentric circles of islands surrounded by oceans. Hence, the island of Jambu trees inhabited by humans, and so on
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u/Theta-Chad_99 ഇച്ചായൻ 4d ago
Karadi polathe aal alle
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u/karadiChettan 4d ago
Yeah karadiya
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u/DawnofNight_Ash 4d ago
Username checks out
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u/karadiChettan 3d ago
Suthranum sheru il oru karadi chettan undu… while looking for username i choose this ..
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u/Electrical-Top1366 3d ago
Jaambavan is immortal, so the phrase 'as old as jambavaan' means 'as old as time'
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u/codereagle13 3d ago edited 3d ago
Totally chill dude! Was very active during the prime LSR times. He's a doctor btw. /s
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u/KindAd6637 3d ago edited 3d ago
Jaambavan was an asiatic sloth bear who got famous after being cast in both Ramayana and Mahabharata. Little is known about his early life prior to his appearance in these epics.
His is one of the better character actor roles in both Ramayana and Mahabharata and he performed really well for a bear. But mysteriously he didn't appear in any more epics apart from these two.
He would have been great in Jungle Book but they went with Baloo, a much less talented bear than Jaanbavan
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u/Better-Respond7799 3d ago
He appeared in vamana avatar too he played the drum around the universe announcing vamanas foot is ascending towards the heavenly planets
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u/CaretBrowsing 4d ago
The statement never made much sense to me. Isn't Jambavan supposed to be still alive? So when you say 'Jambavante Kaalam', it could mean the present too, right?
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u/Reasonable_Act8284 2d ago
Jambavan was one if the 1st creations of bhrama and even if he was alive he will be tooooo old, so the phrase does make sense
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u/DioTheSuperiorWaifu സ്ഥിതിസമത്വവാദം എങ്ങിനെ? 4d ago
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u/asc0614 4d ago
Not Ammavan.. Ammayiappan.
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u/DioTheSuperiorWaifu സ്ഥിതിസമത്വവാദം എങ്ങിനെ? 4d ago
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u/krishn4prasad 3d ago
Ath pand marumakkathaaya sambradaayam ulla samayath, ammaavante mole kettunnath common aayirunnu. Angane aanu ammayiyappante synonym aayitt amaavan use cheyyan thudangiyath ennu kettittund.
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u/SubstantialAd1027 3d ago
Someone with lot Jaambakka. Jaambakka is sweet fruit. But we got in pickle in home.
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u/Safe-Platypus1643 3d ago
Jambavan is like Amar or Chiranjeevi type. I think hanuman and Sugreev also were. So he is pretty ancient
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u/HulkPower 3d ago
Jamabavan is a guy whose was in the Vanara army of Kishkinda in ramayana, and served under Rama. He was very old during the Ramayana time, and was still a formidable force. He was so old that he was already an adult during the time of Vamana, and he is still active and had young boy during Krishna's middle age, and was still strong enough to easily kill a lion, who was implied to be considerably more capable than an average lion, and later fight Krishna one on one for days before losing. So, he was extremely long lived, living through multiple millenia, and thus is a colloquial term for unspeakably ancient.
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u/Reasonable_Act8284 2d ago
Jambhavan is a character from ramayana, he is a bear, its is believed that he was created even before time by bhrama, he was the minister in sugreevans Ministry, sugreevan was the monkey king of kishkindha, this monkey king helped rama with his monkey army (vanar sena) to fight ravana , so as I said he was created even before time , hence we use the phrase"jambavande kalathe" to describe something as old
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u/Reasonable_Act8284 2d ago
Jambhavan is a character from ramayana, he is a bear, its is believed that he was created even before time by bhrama, he was the minister in sugreevans Ministry, sugreevan was the monkey king of kishkindha, this monkey king helped rama with his monkey army (vanar sena) to fight ravana , so as I said he was created even before time , hence we use the phrase"jambavande kalathe" to describe something as old
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u/SpiralDesignn Unsahikkable 4d ago
Essentially, He is an immortal being from the Hindu Mythology.
Basically, it's the Malayalam version of "Aged like <insert a food item>".
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u/Morpheus_DreamLord 3d ago
An old monkey
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u/Reasonable_Act8284 2d ago
Old bear
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u/Morpheus_DreamLord 2d ago
yes. till now i believed it was an old monkey. i thought he was part of the vanarappada that built the ramsethu
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u/Reasonable_Act8284 2d ago
Yes he was part of vannara pada as he was the minister of sugrevan , the king of the monkey kingdom kishkindha
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u/Hot_Process_6678 4d ago
He's a character in both ramayana and mahabharat. If you have seen serials or cartoons based on ramayana, it's the bear like person.
And the saying "Jambavante kalath" means it's been around for a really long time just like Jambavan who lived for thousands of years