Valmiki's Women by Anand Neelakantan

Author:Anand Neelakantan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2021-07-14T20:00:00+00:00

Years passed, and Kaikeyi remained childless. Rumors were rife that the king was looking for another princess to marry. He had stopped going to Kaikeyi’s wing in the antapura and was often busy travelling. He was fighting battles in distant lands and the messages that he would send to his wives were mostly uniform and formal. Kaikeyi sank deep in melancholy, and threw tantrums. Manthara bore the brunt of her irritation. Used to being pampered and loved by the king, his gradual coldness was unbearable for Kaikeyi. Unlike the elder queen, Kaikeyi had never been religious and rituals bored her. She found no pleasure in hunting alone.

Kaikeyi turned her attention to Princess Shanta, the often-ignored daughter of the king and Kaushalya. She started training Shanta, who was five at the time, in martial arts. Though initially she discouraged this budding friendship, Manthara soon started enjoying Kaikeyi’s attempts to teach the shy girl the use of a bow, arrows and swords. Manthara was reliving her youth once again. She saw a young Kaikeyi in Shanta. Under the training of the warrior princess of Kaikeya, Shanta blossomed into a confident woman.

The princess of Ayodhya took to galloping through the streets with her stepmother. Like Kaikeyi, Shanta too refused to cover her face in public. Manthara, who had an ear to the ground, knew about the growing jealousy towards Kaikeyi and Shanta. She tried to warn Kaikeyi, who shrugged it off as idle gossip. Not long after, the king received many complaints about how his foreign wife was spoiling the princess. Women weren’t supposed to ride horses, least of all in public. It was condemnable enough when a barbarian princess did it, but to have their own princess grow up so wild and carefree was an insult to the traditions of the great Aryavarta.

When Shanta was only eight, Kaikeyi arranged for an event for the princess. She wanted Shanta to show the king her newly acquired skills. On the day of the event, Shanta panicked at the sight of her father and was unable to hit the target even once, causing Dasharatha to walk off in a huff. Not one to give up easily, Kaikeyi pushed the girl harder to practice more. Two weeks later, she invited the king to watch his daughter shoot again. Her efforts paid off and Shanta was able to hit the target every time. But Dasharatha, who was pleased despite himself, only had a few half-hearted words of praise for his daughter that left Shanta underwhelmed and Kaikeyi furious.

Later that evening, Manthara saw Kaikeyi fretting and fuming about what she perceived to be an insult to all her efforts. It wasn’t about Shanta anymore but about Kaikeyi’s pride. The king, afraid of confronting her, had left for another of his campaigns. Shanta, meanwhile, had retreated into a shell. It was as if she had realised that nothing she did could win her her father’s love.

Days passed and Shanta spent less time with Kaikeyi and more in the prayer room with her mother.

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