Manthara

In the Ramayana, the earlier of the two
great Indian epics, Manthara is the
hunchbacked maid of King Dasharatha’s
wife, Kaikeyi. Manthara’s whisperings
against Dasharatha’s son Rama, the
god-king who is the epic’s protagonist,
slowly poisons Kaikeyi’s mind. She
succeeds in convincing the queen that
after Rama has been crowned
Dasharatha’s heir, she and her son
Bharata will be little better than
slaves, if they are allowed to live at all.
Goaded by Manthara, Kaikeyi decides
to demand two boons Dasharatha
gave her years before. With the first
boon she dictates that Rama be sent in
exile to the forest for fourteen years,
and with the second she stipulates
that her son Bharata be crowned heir
in Rama’s place.
The epic’s oldest version, the
Ramayana of Valmiki, paints Manthara
as a genuine villain. There is little
explanation for her actions, although
given the belief in karma, her physical
disabilities would have been seen as
revealing moral and spiritual deformity
as well. In the Ramayana, written by
the poet-saint Tulsidas (1532–1623?),
Manthara’s behavior is ultimately attributed to the gods who send the goddess
Saraswati to confound Manthara’s mind,
setting in motion the chain of events
leading to the demon Ravana’s death. In
typical fashion, Tulsidas puts a more
charitable spin on the event, relating it
to Rama’s ultimate purpose for being
born on earth.