The King Pleads for the Cause of Kaikeyi's Anger
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 25
Doha 25 · Movement 3 of 3
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Again and again Dasharatha entreats Kaikeyi. Fair faced, lovely eyed, sweet voiced, graceful one: each name recalls the tenderness through which he knows her.
He asks for the cause of her anger, believing that once pain is spoken his power and affection can remove it.
The repeated plea deepens the tragic imbalance of the chamber. Kaikeyi already knows the demand; Dasharatha does not even know the injury. His loving names gather around a silence engineered to increase his desperation, while every unanswered question draws him nearer to the oath Manthara instructed her to secure.
Each tender name draws Dasharatha farther into the silence that waits to bind him.
Read the passage from the Manas
बार बार कह राउ सुमुखि सुलोचिनि पिकबचनि। कारन मोहि सुनाउ गजगामिनि निज कोप कर।।25।।
Again and again the king entreats: "O fair-faced one, O lovely-eyed one, O sweet-voiced one, tell me, O graceful lady, the cause of your anger."