Kaikeyi (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
: कैकेयी,
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: Kaikeyī) is the second consort of King
Dasharatha
Dasharatha (Sanskrit: दशरथ, IAST: Daśaratha; born Nemi) was the king of the Kosala kingdom and a scion of the Suryavamsha dynasty in Hinduism. He ruled from this capital at Ayodhya. Dasharatha was the son of Aja and Indumati. He ha ...
, and a queen of
Ayodhya
Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Ayodhya, also known as Sāketa, Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and ...
in the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
epic
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
.
Out of Dasharatha's three wives, Kaikeyi exerts the most influence. Formerly the princess of
Kekeya
Kekeya Kingdom (also known as Kekaya, Kaikaya, Kaikeya etc.) was a kingdom mentioned in the ancient Indian epic ''Mahabharata'' among the western kingdoms of then India. The epic ''Ramayana'' mentions one of the wives of Dasharatha, the king of Ko ...
, she is described to have served as an able counsellor to her husband during times of war. She is the mother of
Bharata. Initially loving and motherly towards her stepson, Prince
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...
, Kaikeyi's mind is poisoned by
Manthara, her maid. Under her influence, Rama is exiled to the forest for a period of fourteen years.
Legend
Birth and early life
Kaikeyi is born to King
Ashvapati of Kekeya shortly before her mother was exiled. She was raised with her only mother figure being her hunchbacked nursemaid,
Manthara. She is raised with seven brothers, including her twin, Yudhājit.
Boons
In a battle between the
devas
Devas may refer to:
* Devas Club, a club in south London
* Anthony Devas (1911–1958), British portrait painter
* Charles Stanton Devas (1848–1906), political economist
* Jocelyn Devas (died 1886), founder of the Devas Club
* Devas (band), ...
and the
asuras
Asuras (Sanskrit: असुर) are a class of beings in Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking clans related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is sometimes translated ...
, Dasharatha rode to
Devaloka, accompanied by Kaikeyi, to help
Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
fight against the asuras. The devas were at a disadvantage due to the sorcery employed by
Shambara
Shambara is an asura featured in Hindu history. He abducted the infant Pradyumna, the son of Krishna and Rukmini, in an attempt to kill him. Pradyumna was raised by Bhanamati, who was Shambara's cook, and the consort of his deific form as Kamad ...
and his army of asuras. Dasharatha, riding a chariot, faced the asuras in ten directions at the same time. In this battle, his chariot had to be turned to every direction in a swift manner. During the battle, the bolt of one of the wheels slipped out, and the wheel was about to disengage when Kaikeyi inserted her thumb in the hole of the bolt, and kept the chariot steady. When the king learnt of this presence of mind on Kaikeyi's part, he was pleased, and offered her two boons. The queen said that she would ask for those two boons in the future, as she wished for nothing right then and there.
Manthara's influence and Rama's exile
Under the custom of primogeniture, Dasharatha, with the approval of the royal assembly, selected Rama to be his heir. Kaikeyi was delighted and as happy as she would have been had it been her own son during the coronation. However, Manthara, Kaikeyi's nurse, feared that Kaikeyi would lose her status as chief queen at court if Rama ascended the throne, as Kausalya would thus become queen mother. She decided to instigate trouble. She tried to fuel Kaikeyi's jealousy and envy of Kausalya by reminding her that her son's coronation would give Kausalya her former status as the most important of Dasharatha's queens and would cut Bharata out of the line of succession forever, but this had no effect on Kaikeyi at the time.
Manthara later convinced Kaikeyi to demand two boons granted to her years earlier by Dasharatha. King Dasharatha was obliged to fulfill them. Kaikeyi demanded that Bharata be crowned king, and Rama be sent to the forest for a period of fourteen years. Hearing this, Dasharatha fell into a swoon and passed the night in a pitiable condition in Kaikeyi's palace.
Widowhood and later life
Grief-stricken, Dasharatha died of a broken heart six days after he exiled Rama from Ayodhya. Kaikeyi came to blame herself for this death. Furthermore, Bharata swore never to ascend the throne as it was his older brother's birthright. He further blamed her for his father's death and swore never to address her as "mother" again. Realising her mistake, Kaikeyi repented sending her beloved step son away for fourteen years.
After Rama's return, she apologised to him for her sins. Rama touched her feet and said there was no need to ask for forgiveness, as he did not feel bad about what happened. He insisted that Bharata forgive his mother. Further defending Kaikeyi, Rama also argued to Bharata that this is just what mothers did. Whether good or bad, he remarked, what mothers did was for the betterment of their children, not for themselves, so it is not proper to be angry with them.
Assessment
![Kaikeyi told that according to the two boons granted by Dasaratha Rama should go to the forest for 14 years and Bharata must become the king](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Kaikeyi_told_that_according_to_the_two_boons_granted_by_Dasaratha_Rama_should_go_to_the_forest_for_14_years_and_Bharata_must_become_the_king.jpg)
Kaikeyi's personality and her relationships are quite revealing in Ayodhya Kanda of the
Valmiki
Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the wikt:harbinger, harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on ...
Ramayana.
Kaikeyi maintained strong relations with her maternal family even after her wedding to King Dasharatha. Her brother Yudhajit visits her many times and takes a keen interest in the life of her son Bharata, often taking the latter and
Shatrughna
''Shatrughna'' ( sa, text=शत्रुघ्न, translit=śatrughna, lit=killer of enemies) is a prince of Ayodhya, King of Madhupura and Vidisha, and a brother of Prince Rama in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is also known as ''Ripudaman' ...
away to the Kaikeya kingdom during the summer.
Kaikeyi helped her husband Dasharatha in the Dandaka forest while he was at war. While Kaikeyi saved the king in the war, as per mythology, her left hand was strong as a diamond (a boon from a Saint) so the king accompanied her during wars.
Kaikeyi was the king's favorite queen. Kaikeyi's nature is described as being temperamental and unpredictable. While she was mostly gentle, it is evident that she disliked the king spending time with his other queens. King Dasharatha mentions that he did not treat his queen Kausalya with the love she deserved due to fear of Kaikeyi's tantrums and possessiveness.
Kaikeyi seemed almost naive when it came to understanding the rights of the four princes to Ayodhya's throne. She naively mentions to her maid Manthara that Bharata can rule Ayodhya after Ram, not understanding the law of
primogeniture
Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
. It is Manthara who educates Kaikeyi of the manner of succession.
Kaikeyi's naive nature and gentleness were transformed into obstinacy and a hunger for power; all in the name of her son Bharata's welfare. Bharata contests her views vociferously and despises her for her act of banishing the rightful heir Rama to the forest for punishing him for no fault of his own. King Dasharatha tries to reason with her, arguing in terms of the stability of the kingdom, the people's will, and the court's decision to crown Rama; none of which seems reasonable to her. Finally, King Dasharatha renounces her, and yet he is unable to separate himself from her. He lingers on in his grief in her chambers in fear of the humiliation from everyone outside those chambers.
In popular culture
* Kaikeyi is the eponymous narrator of ''Kaikeyi'' by Vaishnavi Patel, published by Redhook Books, a subsidiary of the Hachette Book Group, and a
Book of the Month
Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members c ...
selection for April 2022.
References
Bibliography
*
External Links
{{Ramayana
Mythological queens
Solar dynasty
Characters_in_the_Ramayana