The Elder Women Ask Kaikeyi What Offence Ram Committed
Ayodhya Kanda, Chaupai 49
Doha 49 · Movement 1 of 2
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Ayodhya burns with grief and some blame fate for showing nectar only to replace it with poison. Elder women and Brahmin wives especially dear to Kaikeyi enter to counsel her toward goodness.
They remind her that she always loved Ram even more than Bharata and trusted Kausalya without jealousy. What offence can justify forest exile? What harm has Kausalya done that a thunderbolt should fall upon the city?
Their words are intimate evidence offered against Manthara's fiction. These women know Kaikeyi's former heart and ask her to remember it. Yet wholesome counsel now strikes like arrows because fear has made recognition itself painful.
Those who knew Kaikeyi's love hold up its mirror, but she can no longer bear the face reflected there.
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एक बिधातहिं दूषनु देंहीं। सुधा देखाइ दीन्ह बिषु जेहीं।। खरभरु नगर सोचु सब काहू। दुसह दाहु उर मिटा उछाहू।। बिप्रबधू कुलमान्य जठेरी। जे प्रिय परम कैकेई केरी।। लगीं देन सिख सीलु सराही। बचन बानसम लागहिं ताही।। भरतु न मोहि प्रिय राम समाना। सदा कहहु यहु सबु जगु जाना।। करहु राम पर सहज सनेहू। केहिं अपराध आजु बनु देहू।। कबहुँ न कियहु सवति आरेसू। प्रीति प्रतीति जान सबु देसू।। कौसल्याँ अब काह बिगारा। तुम्ह जेहि लागि बज्र पुर पारा।।
Some blame the Creator alone, who showed them nectar and then gave poison. The whole city is in uproar, every heart weighed down with sorrow, with unbearable burning and all joy gone. The Brahmin wives and revered elder women of the family, those who were especially dear to Kaikeyi, began to counsel her, praising the path of goodness, but their words struck her like arrows. You have always said that Bharat is not as dear to you as Rama, and the whole world knows this. You have a natural love for Rama. For what offense do you send him to the forest today? You never bore jealousy toward your co-wife; the whole country knows your affection and trust. What harm has Kausalya done to you now, that you bring down a thunderbolt upon the city?