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Continued from yesterday’s instalment
 We need not go over the arguments that took place between the mother and her son. We have seen them when we discussed Bharata. Bharata, the strictest follower of the path of rectitude was not at all ready to listen to his mother. As Guha said, ‘If you can discard the kingdom that fell into your laps, given by your father who was forced by your mother, without your having to do anything, I am taken aback. Even a thousand Ramas would not equal your glory.
‘aayiram raamar nin kEzh aavarO theriyin amma.’
The lady who has so far been shown as audacious, arrogant, greedy and what not, falls into total silence from this point onwards - after being reprimanded by Bharata. She who could bind Dasaratha and she who could readily ease out Rama and left him to manage the repercussions himself, could not get the acceptance of her own son. ‘I would have killed her that very instance,’ says Bharata to Satrughna later, when trying to pacify and restrain Satrughna from kicking Manthara away from the crowd that went with Bharata to bring Rama back.
Satrughna saw Manthara in the crowd and that very moment - very similar to Lakshmana - showed his fiery temper and caught her with the intention of kicking her off.
‘munnayar murai keda mudiththa paaviyaich chinna binnam seydhu en sinaththaith theervenel.’
I would have cut her (Kaikeyi) down to pieces for what she did and killed her to quench my anger.
‘ennai en ayyan thurakkum endru alaal annai endru uNarndhilen ayya naan.’ I desisted from doing so not because I value her as my mother but because of the fear that if I do so Rama would disown me.
Is there a punishment severer than this for Kaikeyi to suffer? She stood witness to her son uttering these words. And she stood silent and unmoving when Bharata lashed out at her when introducing her to Guha (in Kamban and to Bharadwaja in Valmiki) with the choicest of unkind remarks ‘padar ellam padaiththaaLai,’ She is the one who is capable of creating newer and newer kinds of misery in this world.
‘pazhi vaLarkkum seviliyai,’ She is the nurse who nurtures, tends and grows (the baby known as) disrepute, infamy and calumny. (See:
The mother of woes and nurse of
infamy)
 What else can than a person suffer more than humility, that too humiliation in the presence of a stranger, in the presences of all Gurus, public and the other queens, to be slighted like this by her own son, for whom she sought the entire kingdom! Nevertheless, the fact remains that Kaikeyi joined the party that set out to bring Rama back to Ayodhya. She was not invited to join and she could have very well remained at the palace, in protest of things going out of her hand and against her desire.
‘azhindhadhu kEkayan madandhai aasai pOi,’ says Kamban. ‘The desire of the daughter of the king of Kekaya died its natural death, with the people headed by Bharata moving to the jungle to bring him back.
Let’s listen to Sastriyar. “Now the question is, was Kaikeyi after this staggering blow and protest from her son, the same or did she change? There is evidence in the Poem, ladies and gentlemen, that Kaikeyi, hard-natured, hard-fibred, hard-hearted woman as she was, did repent and did reform herself and that is a fact which I would like to bring to your notice as a proof, if I may put it in that way, as a proof of the tremendous power of Rama’s moral character.”
More follows...
Hari Krishnan
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