 Rama – Dasaratha and Rama
A race destined to fight demons – II
The origin of the race of Ikswäkus is not complete and Vaivaswata Manu was not the first of the race. For the sake of record let me add here that the race is traditionally believed to have started from Vishnu, Brahma, Marici, Kasyaba and Surya. Vaivaswata Manu was the son of Surya. And that explains why the race is known as Surya Vamsa, or Solar Dynasty. Included in this race are many immaculate kings like Ambarisha, Harischandra, etc. Let me emphasise once again that the list is not complete.
Now, the country of Kosala is divided into two – Uttara Kosala and Dakshina Kosala. What the Ikswäku race ruled over was the Uttara Kosala. And then, Kausalya obviously was the daughter of the king of Dakshina Kosala. A strange story of the wedding of Dasaratha and Kausalya found in the
Rama Katha Rasavahini
a Telugu version of the Ramayana, attests to this view. And that’s how the country was consolidated into one whole, with the wedding of Dasaratha and Kosala. Moreover, when Rama ascends his divinely abode, the kingdom is given to Kusa and Lava, Kusa becoming the king of Kusävati in the Dakshina Kosala and Lava becoming the king of Srävasti, in the Uttara Kosala. The Uttara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, as well as the Tamil version of Ottak-kuthar (ottakkUtthar) gives us this information of the division of the kingdom once again as Uttara and Dakshina
Kosala.
If that is so, when and how Dasaratha married Sumitra, the second wife, who was so endeared to the king that he gave her a second share of the
payasa that came out of the
putra kameshti yaga, remains a mystery. Nowhere is it to be found how the two came together. Nor do we know anything about the origins of Sumitra, to which country she belonged and the name of her father, etc. It is a mystery. Neither the epic nor the other related stories are of much help. It needs a sustained effort to trace her origin. May be it is lying somewhere around and would emerge at an unexpected moment.
The King did not beget an heir through Kausalya and therefore he married Sumitra. Sumitra remained childless and therefore he chose to marry Kaikeyi, the daughter of the king of Kekaya. Since at that time both Kaikeyi and Sumitra did not bear a child, he consented to install the child born to her on the throne. This is the traditional version. The epic does not give a direct picture of Dasaratha consenting to the king of Kekaya. It is only through conjecture and juxtaposition of the bits and pieces scattered here and there in the epic that this version has been arrived at.
Though Kausalya was the first among the queens, Sumitra was the endeared queen, it was in the company of Kaikeyi that the emperor was to be found more often than otherwise. Kaikeyi, the most beautiful of all, had earned all his love and affection. That is one of the reasons why, Rama, the father’s child, sought the palace of Kaikeyi always, for it was there where his father was to be found. And that’s how the most endeared child and the most endeared wife came together.
If at all she exercised her charms over Dasaratha and enjoyed the power of his special love, one is not able to subscribe that easily to the popular view among scholars that the three queens lived in perfect amity. Kaikeyi was not at peace with the other two queens. As the stalwart, Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastriyar, observes, “How she treated her sisters-in-law is the first idea to which I am going to refer. It was well-known, it was notorious, the way she abused her power with her husband and reduced these people to a very low status indeed.” And then Sastriyar cites to what Mantharä tells her.
“It is improbable that your co-wife, Kausalya (mother of Rama)
who has been slighted by you in the past out of pride born of your being loved by your husband, will not repay her grudge to you.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Canto 8, Sloka 37)
That line speaks volumes of the reason why while Kausalya and Sumitra were to be found always in the company of each other, Kaikeyi was left alone, only to remain alone either in the company of Dasaratha whenever his kingly duties afforded him the time; and that of the father’s child, Rama. ‘Rama loves me more than he loves Kausalya,’ she asserts Mantharä. “Precisely as Bharata is worthy of esteem (to me) Rama (a scion of Raghu) is even more so. Nay, the latter does greater service to me than to Kausalya.” (Ibid, Sloka 18)
We have gone into the character of Kaikeyi and have studied Rama’s supreme love for Kaikeyi, which is intensified in the version of Kamban. It was the father’s special love for this mother that stemmed the love of this father’s child; and vice versa. What could have been the reason behind this “father’s special love” for the third queen, Kaikeyi? Only her charms?
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