The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 2: Chapter 17

This is a passage from Valmiki's *Ramayana*, the Sanskrit epic (likely Ayodhya Kanda, sargas 20–21), presented in both Roman transliteration and Devanagari script. The scene depicts Rama arriving at his mother Kausalya's inner chambers, passing through multiple guarded courtyards where Brahmins and women greet him, to find her performing dawn worship of Vishnu in white silk — still joyfully expecting to hear of his coronation as crown prince. The central dramatic turn comes when Rama, in a tone of dutiful deference, tells Kausalya the devastating truth: King Dasharatha is granting the crown to Bharata and exiling Rama to the Dandaka forest as an ascetic for fourteen years. Kausalya collapses like a felled plantain tree, and Rama revives her by hand. The bulk of the passage is Kausalya's extended lament, delivered in Lakshmana's presence, and it is notably raw and self-focused: she describes seventeen years of humiliation as the neglected senior wife, how she endured Kaikeyi's dominance, how servants ignored her whenever they noticed who Bharata's mother was, and how her fasts, vows, and austerities to secure a son now feel as useless as seed sown in barren ground. She insists her heart must be made of iron not to break, and wishes she could die before facing life without Rama — comparing herself to a cow separated from her calf. The passage is distinctive for giving Kausalya a voice of genuine maternal anguish and social grievance rather than passive sorrow, making her suffering concrete and politically situated within the co-wife dynamics of the Ikshvaku court.

The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 2: Chapter 17

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