I am Kaikayi. The same Kaikayi who sent her stepson Ram to an exile of 14 years in deadly forests, infested with the dangers of devils and rakshasas. My daughter-in-law Seeta had to face the harsh consequences of this forced exile. My stepson Lakshman almost lost his life in the battle fighting the strong army of Raavan, the King of Lanka. I insisted on the coronation of my son Bharat instead of the most deserving Ram. And to get all this done, I tricked my husband Maharaj Dashrath by using his two blind commitments to me. He lost his life out of grief. This is all that is mentioned about me in Ramayan.
Thus, I was a wicked and selfish woman in the story of Ramayan and in Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas.
Was I a bad woman when Maharaja Dashrath proposed to marry me? Did I ever differentiate between my own son and his three stepbrothers? Was I so cruel that I let my husband die for my own demands? Was I not concerned about the well-being of our kingdom?
Unfortunately, no one ever asked these questions! Neither Valmiki nor Tulsidas. And none of the millions of readers of their works. I remained branded as a bad woman for so many millennia. Today I want to speak up. Please listen to my grief and my version of the story.
