Kaikeyi

Kaikeyi (Sanskrit: कैकेयी, kaikeyī), in the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa, was the youngest of King Dasaratha's three wives and a queen of Ayodhyā. She was the mother of Bharata. The term Kaikeyī in Sanskrit means "belonging to the Kaikeyas", referring the ruling family of the Kekaya clan, to whom Kaikeyī belonged.

Once, during a war, Daśaratha's chariot's wheel broke. At this time of distress, Kaikeyī, who happened to be with him at that time, came to his rescue and fixed the chariot. Touched by this timely service, Daśaratha offered her two boons. However, Kaikeyī chose to ask those boons later.

Following Rāma's consecration as yuvaraja, Kaikeyi's maid Mantharā, who wished to advance her own status at court by making Kaikeyī Queen Mother, convinced Kaikeyī to use the boons to have Rāma exiled and her own son, Bharata, placed on the throne, instead.

Kaikeyī subsequently asked Daśaratha the two boons. One, to have Rāma exiled to the forest for 14 years, and two, to have her own son Bharata made the crown-prince.

Kaikeyī came to regret her actions when Daśaratha died of the grief of having banished his son. She came to blame herself for this death. Bharata, too, blamed her; he is said never to have called her "mother" again.

See also

• Kausalya
• Sumitra