Hinduism

The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 2: Chapter 12

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This is a passage from the Valmiki Ramayana, the ancient Sanskrit epic, specifically from the Ayodhya Kanda (Book 2). It presents a pivotal dramatic scene in which Queen Kaikeyi confronts King Dasharatha as he lies collapsed on the ground, overwhelmed with grief over the impending fate of his beloved son Rama. Kaikeyi invokes the paramount dharmic value of truth-keeping, citing exemplary kings — Shaibya, who gave his own body to a hawk to honor a vow, and Alarka, who plucked out his own eyes for a Brahmin — to pressure Dasharatha into fulfilling his sworn promise: to exile Rama to the forest and install her own son on the throne. The king, described as bound by his oath as inescapably as Bali was by Indra's snare, is torn between paternal love and the absolute obligation of a spoken word. He renounces Kaikeyi and her son in anguish but cannot escape the trap of his own dharma. Ultimately Sumantra, the royal charioteer, is dispatched to summon Rama, departing in the joyful but mistaken belief that Rama is being called for his coronation. The passage is distinctive for its psychological intensity — Dasharatha's physical collapse, his near-blindness with grief, and his helplessness — and for Kaikeyi's characterization as simultaneously wicked (pāpā) and rhetorically masterful, wielding dharmic argument as a weapon.

The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 2: Chapter 12

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