As Kadru persecuted Vinata, so will Kausalya torment you. Bharata will rot in prison, and Lakshmana will be Rama’s vicegerent.’

When she heard these bitter words, Kaikaya’s daughter (Kaikeyi) grew faint with fear and could say nothing. Bathed in sweat, she shook like a plantain stalk. The humpback then bit her tongue (lest the gloomy picture drawn by her should break Kaikeyi’s heart).

With a myriad crafty stories she comforted the queen the asked her to be of good cheer. Then she taught her many a lesson in evil, making her as inflexible as a piece of dry, shrivelled wood that never bends.

By a turn of fate Kaikeyi conceived a fondness for mischief and began to praise a crane, mistaking it for a swan. ‘Listen, O Manthara,’ she said, ‘what you say is true. My right eye is always throbbing,

-and every night I have some evil dreams; but in my folly I did not tell you. What am I to do, friend? I am so guileless by nature, I cannot distinguish a friend from a foe.

Never to this day, as far as in me lay, have I done an unkindness to anyone. I wonder for what offence has fate all at once subjected me to such intolerable distress?

Rather would I go to my father’s house and spend the rest of my life there than live in the service of my rival. For him whom heaven allows to live as the dependent of an enemy, death is preferable to life.’