Kaikeyi

Kaikeyi waited anxiously in her chamber to receive the princesses of Videha. Her personal attendant Manthara was full of exciting accounts of their beauty, grace and accomplishments. Kaikeyi was particularly anxious to see Rama’s wife Seeta. She knew that after the first scheduled meeting with Seeta, there would hardly be any meetings unless the protocol demanded. She had heard that Seeta was in fact an adopted child of Janaka. Kaikeyi could not imagine the future queen of Ayodhya to be a woman whose antecedents were not known.

When she saw Seeta she was surprised to find a young woman who combined an innate  rustic ruggedness with the grace and dignity of a princess. Seeta lacked the subtlety that marks the demeanor of a person born in a royal dynasty. But there was certain solicitude in her towards the old, the poor and the weak, which made her the darling of the subjects of Ayodhya. Kaikeyi had experienced how they were still not ready to accept her as one of them. But she saw that Seeta got assimilated among them quickly and spontaneously. Seeta had great physical stamina and one could imagine in her a person who would not shirk from tasks that demanded rigor. Though outwardly she appeared demure and shy, her laughter betrayed a robust person with a capacity for living life fully.

But somehow, Kaikeyi was a little perturbed to notice a streak of naiveté in her. Seeta seemed to believe that men love women for their even teeth, fair complexion, well-formed breasts and straight legs and was a little proud that she possessed all these attributes. But yet she regarded herself inferior in comparison with the suave, elegant and correct women of the royal family.

Urmila won Kaikeyi’s heart. She was devoid of ostentation, and yet elevated by her innate grace. Moreover, alone among all the princesses, she appeared to have a mind of her own. At times her aloofness bordered on indifference. But on a closer view, she conveyed real warmth. Bharata’s wife Mandavi and Shatrughna’s wife Shrutakirti were still childlike. They had yet to come out of their initial sense of wonder and awe at their new life.

Kaikeyi was not worried for her own sake, nor was she worried for Bharata. She was worried for Dashratha. His inept handling of situations in crisis could create unimaginable difficulties for all. Kaikeyi had a foreboding that here in Ayodhya; things did not augur well for the royal family. A keen insight into the fluid, intangible realities of political trends and a vague premonition of the future of the princes unsettled her. Political realities were open to interpretations. But what would she do with her vague fears? Besides, she was not known to be a sensitive mystic whose intuitions could be trusted for what they meant. She found it difficult to share her fears with anyone in the household, for that matter. Maybe, she could try and talk to Dashratha about her fears; but whenever she had tried to speak to him about such things, he had invariably seen Manthara’s shrewd insinuation behind her fears. Moreover, he always suspected her judgments when it came to discussing their children. Somehow, she felt that the times were going to be hard. None of them had foresight enough to see the shape of the things to come.