Chapter3
Kaikeyi
Kaikeyi was the name she had acquired because she came from a remote region called Kaikeya. Dasharatha was smitten by her exotic, ravishing beauty when he first saw her in her royal attire at the palace of her father. Though he was there for political reasons and was already married to two graceful and dignified princesses, he fell for her charms and expressed his wish to marry her. Her father was all too happy at the proposed alliance.
It was a splendid and lavish marriage and though Dasharatha was a little too old for her, they looked enviable as husband and wife.
Kaikeyi possessed a strong athletic frame of body and had learned the art of hunting and riding. She was a good charioteer too. She was a model princess, groomed to be a queen by her ambitious but ruthless mother. Her father doted on her but soon learned to withdraw from the mother-daughter duo. They made up for each other’s shortcomings; the mother was vociferous and tactless, the daughter, precise and calculating, though a bit dreamy at times. When their ambitions were found flagging, there was an old nursemaid called Manthara who diligently provided fuel to keep the interiors of the palace alive with intrigue.
When Dasharatha arrived in Ayodhya with his new queen, there was a grand royal welcome. But even as the protocol was observed correctly, there was no warmth.
Kaikeyi was accompanied by Manthara all the way from her native place to Ayodhya. The hawk-eyed Manthara took in the whole new environment and with a wolf-like excitement, set about maneuvering things in Kaikeyi’s favor. Soon the obsession turned into a mission and Manthara stayed on with Kaikeyi as her lifetime companion and attendant.
Kaikeyi remained an outlandish figure for the people in the palace. Her personal name was dropped and she came to be known by the place of her birth: Kaikeya. It was a very subtle way of expressing remoteness and distance. Dasharatha’s eldest queen was also known by the place Kosala. But it was a title of honor to indicate that she was the queen empress of the state Kosala: the state ruled by king Dasharatha. Kosala was their own land and Kausalya, their own queen.
Kaikeyi was unlike the other two queens. She never deigned to talk to them. But she had an absolute dominion over Dasharatha. She was his charioteer in a battle in which he had fallen unconscious, grievously wounded by arrows. It was Kaikeyi who fought fiercely and brought his chariot out of the battleground to a safe place.
Dasharatha owed his life to her. Kausalya and Sumitra knew it and always stood in awe of her prowess. An impressive roll of honor was established by now of queens who belonged to the Ishwaku dynasty. But all of them fell into the category of traditional demure, docile paragons of feminine virtue. There was none like Kaikeyi, who brought a ferocious vitality and the power of a pragmatic intellect to the royal dynasty.
When Dasharatha married Kaikeyi and brought her to Ayodhya, there was an implicit interpretation of this act. His two queens and everyone else knew that Kaikeyi was expected to fulfill an important mission in which the two queens had failed—give birth to an heir to the throne. But years went by and Kaikeyi remained childless like the other two queens. Dasharatha’s anxiety grew day by day.
Dasharatha finally decided to seek the verdict of divine powers when everything else failed to answer his prayers for a son. An Ashwamedha yajnya was organized under the supervision of the royal priest of the Ishwaku dynasty: Sage Vasishtha. Sage Rishyashringa, who was specially invited to add his occult power to the ritual of worship, suggested that another yajnya be performed, especially aiming at the fulfillment of the desire for a son.
There was a belief among the enlightened sages that the birth of Rama and his three brothers was pre-ordained. But Dasharatha must be propelled towards that goal with all his heart. That which happens without a passionate need is like an aimless boat driven hither and thither by the tide.
The ritual of sacrifice was accomplished in peace. On completion of it, a strange thing happened. A man appeared, as if from nowhere. He was luminous like fire. He went straight to Dasharatha and presented him with a bowl of a divine offering. Clad in a loincloth, he stood silently before Dasharatha, holding the bowl reverentially, as if it was a gift from the gods. Dasharatha looked in amazement at the man and at the priest of the ceremony, Rishyashringa. The priest simply nodded in consent. Awe-struck, Dasharatha took the bowl in his trembling hands.
Rishyashringa said, “Do not ask any questions; have faith. Go home with the queens now and distribute this heavenly offering among them. Your wish will be fulfilled.”
On going home, Dasharatha divided the offering into two equal portions and gave one-half to Kausalya; divided the remaining portion again into two and gave one each to Sumitra and Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi who was fretting and fuming all the time, ate only half of the portion given to her and returned the remaining half in a tantrum. Dasharatha was annoyed but said nothing. He quietly took it to Sumitra. Sumitra, who always bore the brunt of the quarrels between the eldest and the youngest queen, ate it in a spirit of reverence.
The act of faith brought fulfillment to all. In due course, the three queens were pregnant. Rama was born to Kausalya, Laxman and Shatrughna were born to Sumitra and Bharat to Kaikeyi.
Kaikeyi regretted her imprudence and envied Sumitra. She did not want Sumitra to grow in power with two sons in her custody. Early on, she tried to wean Shatrughna away from his mother and treated him as if he was her adopted son. As soon as they were fit for the education she started showing displeasure at the way they were receiving education, and with great fanfare, she sent the two boys to her father, the king of the state of Kaikeya.
Thus, she believed she had sown seeds of discord successfully by dividing the brothers early on. However, the four brothers never entertained thoughts of rivalry. Rama’s strength united all of them. Their love and devotion to Rama were extraordinary. They adored and worshiped him and Rama proved to be an ideal elder brother to all three of them: indulgent, trustworthy and sacrificing. In turn, as they grew up, they were ready to serve him with their life.
Rama and Laxman grew up together, inseparable like the body and its breath. Bharat and Shatrughna grew up in Bharat’s grandfather’s palace. Bharat was an extrovert. He was doted upon in the households of both his grandfathers. A lucky child in every respect, he never knew deprivation or miserliness. However, he could never forget how, in their childhood, Rama was once forced to part with a toy for his sake. The memory of that incident filled Bharat with regret. He had pushed the memory deep down, but it surfaced invariably, whenever he came back to his father’s palace, especially as he sensed the animosity that his mother harbored in her heart for Rama. Because he was generous at heart, Bharat dismissed his mother’s unashamed selfishness with ironic good humor. Every time she attempted to enlighten him with the gems of wisdom which she had acquired from Manthara, she would meet with a robust derision and laughter.
The four boys were inseparable. However, all said and done, Laxman turned out to be the greatest follower of Rama. He often resented the closeness between his younger brother Shatrughna and Bharat; especially as he came to see it as the fruit of Kaikeyi’s farsighted political acumen. Were it not for Rama’s selfless endeavor to keep all of them united, Laxman would have succumbed to the constant provocations held forth by Kaikeyi and estranged himself from Bharat and Shatrughna.
Now, as Rama crossed sixteen, Kaikeyi was all set to write the script of the Ishwaku dynasty in her own way.
Valmiki
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