Manthara Promises That Bharata Will Become King
Ayodhya Kanda, Chaupai 21
Doha 21 · Movement 1 of 2
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Kaikeyi says she would rather return to her father's house than live beneath a rival. Death itself seems preferable to imagined servitude, and her speech dissolves into repeated lament.
Manthara answers by claiming that Kaikeyi's fortune grows daily and that those who harmed her will receive the ripened fruit of their deeds. She invents sleepless nights, lost appetite, consulted astrologers, and charts foretelling Bharata's kingship.
Then she offers a means, if only the queen will act. Dasharatha, she says, remains wholly under the power of Kaikeyi's devoted service. Despair is thus turned toward strategy, and fabricated prophecy gives the coming plot the appearance of sanctioned fate.
Manthara lifts Kaikeyi from invented defeat by placing an equally invented crown before Bharata.
Read the passage from the Manas
नैहर जनमु भरब बरु जाइ। जिअत न करबि सवति सेवकाई।। अरि बस दैउ जिआवत जाही। मरनु नीक तेहि जीवन चाही।। दीन बचन कह बहुबिधि रानी। सुनि कुबरीं तियमाया ठानी।। अस कस कहहु मानि मन ऊना। सुखु सोहागु तुम्ह कहुँ दिन दूना।। जेहिं राउर अति अनभल ताका। सोइ पाइहि यहु फलु परिपाका।। जब तें कुमत सुना मैं स्वामिनि। भूख न बासर नींद न जामिनि।। पूँछेउ गुनिन्ह रेख तिन्ह खाँची। भरत भुआल होहिं यह साँची।। भामिनि करहु त कहौं उपाऊ। है तुम्हरीं सेवा बस राऊ।।
"I would rather return to my father's house and spend my life there. While I live, I will never serve my co-wife. One whom fate keeps alive under the control of an enemy; for such a person, death is better than life." The queen spoke these pitiful words in many ways. Hearing them, the hunchbacked maid devised her womanly scheme. "Why do you speak so, thinking yourself defeated? Your happiness and good fortune grow twofold every day. Whoever has done you great harm will surely receive the ripened fruit of their actions. Ever since I heard this wicked plan, O mistress, I have had no hunger by day, no sleep by night. I consulted astrologers and they drew their charts. It is certain that Bharata will become king. O beautiful queen, if you will act, then I shall tell you the means. The king is entirely under the spell of your devoted service."