Shriman Vasudevan's postings under the head Desire are thought-
provoking and contain in-depth analysis of the events as portrayed in
Ramayanam. In this connection, I thought members would be interested
in reading the following extract from an article in the web-site
boloji.com dealing with Kaikeyi:
krishnaswamy m k
An extract from the article in http://www.boloji.com/hinduism/057.htm
on Kaikeyi:
[?..] two major factors explaining the conduct of Kaikeyi. The first
is that Kaikeyi is the youngest queen, which is the secret of the
fascination she exercises over Dasharatha. The second is that her
father, King of the mountainous Kekaya kingdom, agreed to middle-aged
Dasharatha's importunate requests putting the same condition that the
fisher-king, Dasaraja, put to Shantanu in response to his request for
the hand of Satyavati: that his daughter's son would inherit the
kingdom of Ayodhya. It is to avoid this eventuality that from early
childhood Dasharatha keeps sending Kaikeyi's children to their
maternal uncle's kingdom far from Ayodhya. His intentions become
quite transparent when he rushes through the formalities of declaring
Kaushalya's son as the heir-apparent in the absence of Kaikeyi's
sons, and takes care not to inform his favorite queen Kaikeyi. It is
Manthara, the faithful family retainer accompanying Kaikeyi from her
father's house, much as Shakuni comes with Gandhari, who reminded the
oblivious Kaikeyi of her husband's broken promise. That is when
Kaikeyi sees through Dasharatha's intrigue to go back on the
undertaking forming the basis of their marriage, and utilizes his
commitment to grant her two boons in order to win back for her son
his birthright. [?].
Kaikeyi lets nothing stop her in safeguarding her son's inheritance -
the threat of widowhood, which becomes a reality; the outrage of all
Ayodhya, which turns into the implacable condemnation of all
generations to follow. The tragedy of Kaikeyi lies in the rejection
of her awesome sacrifice by the very person for whom she went through
fire: her son Bharata.
------------------------------------
Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan
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