Shatrughna's Fury Falls upon Manthara
Ayodhya Kanda, Chaupai 163
Doha 163 · Movement 1 of 2
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Hearing the account of his mother's treachery, Shatrughna burns with rage. At that instant Manthara enters dressed in fine garments and ornaments, adorned as though the household had not become a place of mourning.
The sight feeds his anger like clarified butter poured upon sacrificial flame. He kicks her hump, throwing her face first to the ground. Her forehead splits, teeth break, and blood flows as she cries that good service has earned an evil reward.
Shatrughna seizes her hair and drags her, seeing corruption from head to foot. Bharata, ocean of compassion even within his own devastation, intervenes and frees her. The brothers then leave violence behind and go toward Kausalya, where grief rather than vengeance waits to receive them.
Shatrughna's rage strikes the architect of exile, but Bharata stops the violence and turns both brothers toward Kausalya's sorrow.
Read the passage from the Manas
सुनि सत्रुघुन मातु कुटिलाई। जरहिं गात रिस कछु न बसाई।। तेहि अवसर कुबरी तहँ आई। बसन बिभूषन बिबिध बनाई।। लखि रिस भरेउ लखन लघु भाई। बरत अनल घृत आहुति पाई।। हुमगि लात तकि कूबर मारा। परि मुह भर महि करत पुकारा।। कूबर टूटेउ फूट कपारू। दलित दसन मुख रुधिर प्रचारू।। आह दइअ मैं काह नसावा। करत नीक फलु अनइस पावा।। सुनि रिपुहन लखि नख सिख खोटी। लगे घसीटन धरि धरि झोंटी।। भरत दयानिधि दीन्हि छड़ाई। कौसल्या पहिं गे दोउ भाई।।
Hearing of his mother's treachery, Shatrughna's body blazed with a fury he could not contain. At that very moment the hunchbacked maid Manthara arrived there, decked out in fine garments and ornaments of every kind. Seeing her, Lakshmana's younger brother was filled with rage, like a sacrificial fire fed fresh offerings of ghee. Roaring with fury he took aim and kicked the hunchback. She fell face-first to the ground, crying out in pain. Her hump was shattered, her forehead split open, her teeth broken, and blood streamed from her mouth. She wailed, 'Have mercy! What have I destroyed? I was only doing good, yet I receive this evil reward!' Hearing her words and seeing her wickedness from head to toe, the foe-destroyer Shatrughna seized her by the hair and began dragging her. But compassionate Bharat, that ocean of mercy, rescued her at once, and both brothers then went to Kausalya.