 Rama – Dasaratha and Rama
A race destined to fight demons – III
“She was well-versed in statecraft,” says Valmiki, referring to Kaikeyi. We are unable to find a description that comes closer to this, when he speaks of either Kausalya or Sumitra.
‘tada sumantram mantrajna kaikeyi pratyuvaca ha’ he says, when a perplexed Sumantra waits for the orders of Dasaratha, who was unconscious at that time. (See:
The game
plan) The phrase ‘mantrajna kaikeyi’ is generally translated to mean, ‘well-versed in statecraft.’ I must also add that Griffith’s translation of this phrase reads as “Kaikeyi, skilled in plot and plan.’
Either way. She was talented in statecraft; and in plotting as well. “She had abilities, talents of a kind, but she abused them for self-aggrandisement,” observes Srinivasa Sastriyar and adds, “She was by temperament disposed to domineer over people; she loved power and whoever came under her shadow regretted it.”
The fact remains that the emperor was deep in love with her, until of course, the day on which she demanded her boons and persisted ruthlessly, at the cost of the life of her husband, what she was doctored to ask for. She was the most loved of the queens, to which fact Mantharä draws her attention –
dayita tvam sada bhartur atra me nasti samsayah
tvatkrte ca maharajo vised api hutasanam
na tvam krodhayitum sakto na kruddham pratyudiksitum
tava priyartham raja hi pranan api parityajet
“You are ever beloved of your spouse. I have no doubt about it. Nay, for your sake, the emperor can even enter fire. The king dare not provoke you nor can he bear to see you angry. For your pleasure, the king can literally lay down his very life.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Canto 9, Sloka 24 and 25)
“He would walk into fire at your behest. He would lay down his life, to make you pleased.” That was the kind of power that Kaikeyi enjoyed over the king; but did not do much more than to fritter it on those other than the emperor and Rama, for she loved them dearly, and sincerely. Until her mind was turned otherwise. And she paid for it dearly too. Disowned by the emperor forever. He did not forgive her, until the nobility of Rama had the strength to seek his pardon for ‘his mother’ when Dasaratha appears in his ethereal form in the last scene. She was disowned not only by Dasaratha; but by Bharata too. We have seen how she stood slighted by Bharata in the presence of the hunter-boatman Guha. (See:
The mother of woes and nurse of
infamy)
But, until that day, she was the most endeared person in the world to the emperor. With the exception of Rama. We hear the emperor himself saying this, in his desperation to know the mind of Kaikeyi, moments before the plot thickened. “O proud lady, don’t you know that no man other than Rama, a (veritable) tiger among men, is dearer to me than yourself? I swear to you by the said Rama (a scion of Raghu), who is invincible and high-souled, the foremost among men and more valuable than my own life; speak out what is sought by your mind.” (Ibid, Canto 11, Sloka 5 and 6)
‘vaLLal iraaman un maindhan aaNai,’ echoes Kamban’s Dasaratha. ‘I swear in the name of
your son, Rama.’ ‘iraamaavO, unaip payandha kaikEsi than sol kEttu,’ goes the lament of Dasaratha, in the words of Kulasekara Azwar. ‘Rama, I sent you away, listening to the words of
Kaikeyi, who bore you (your mother)’.
There were only two in the world who had earned all the love of the emperor. Rama and Kaikeyi. Rama did not show a difference in his love for Kausalya and for Kaikeyi. In fact, he was more attached to her than his own mother,
Kausalya.
This love perhaps stemmed from the bravery that Kaikeyi displayed when Dasaratha was enlisted by Indra in his fight against the demon Timidhwaja – who is more known by his other name Sambara – and whom Dasaratha fought, with Kaikeyi as the charioteer. That’s an instance in the life of Dasaratha which underlines his prowess and the manner in which he was respected by the celestials, and the way in which he responded to the call, true to the line of Ikswäkus that he came from. As it happens most of the times, the popular notion and the text do not agree.
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