Kaikeyi

The Ramayana is a Sanskrit epic and smriti text attributed to the legendary poet Valmki, dating to the 7th century BCE, though the actual date of composition is unknown. The Ramayana follows Rama during his 14-year exile from Kosala, during which he travels through India with his brother Lakshmana and his wife Sita, fighting off rakshasas and asuras. He also wages war against Ravana of Lanka after he kidnaps Sita. When he wins the war, he and Sita return home to Kosala and are crowned raja and radnyi. 

In the original epic, Rama is the hero while Kaikeyi, Manthara, and Ravana are the villains. A weak-willed Kaikeyi pushes to exile Rama because of the conniving manipulations of her nurse Manthara, who seeks to gain power by crowning Kaikeyi’s son Bharata. Ravana is part rakshasa and kidnaps Sita for his own gains. However, in Patel’s version, she positions Rama as the villain, along with Sage Vamadeva Gautama. In her retelling, Rama is a god, an avatar of Vishnu, but he does not act in an ethical way. He views quest as righteous—aiming to destroy the evil of the world—but he does not shy away from warfare and violence to achieve his aims. He mistreats his wife, Sita, and seeks to maintain traditional gender roles, keeping women subservient to men, without rights of their own. Patel crafts a complex version of Ravana, making him part asura instead of part rakshasa—a more dangerous creature. Even so, he helps Kaikeyi when she asks for it and seeks to push back against the cruelty and injustice of the gods. Patel also makes Sita Ravana’s daughter, so when he “kidnaps” her, he’s instead rescuing her from her marriage to Rama. 

Patel characterizes Kaikeyi and Manthara not as conniving but as capable and wise. Kaikeyi seeks to stop Rama’s rule because of his immaturity, believing him unready for the responsibility of ruling and knowing would mistreat the women of Kosala. Manthara also plays no role in Kaikeyi’s decision to exile Rama. Patel engages with the tradition of feminist mythological retellings in her depiction of Kaikeyi. In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi is reviled for exiling Rama and attempting to put Bharata on the throne. Patel seeks to find an alternative understanding of Kaikeyi’s motivations, pushing back against the typical narrative that does not question why a mother would not wish for her son to rule. Patel also engages directly with the traditional story of Ramayana in her retelling. For example, Kaikeyi says, “There are those who would blame Manthara for what I did, claim that she forced me to take her to Ayodhya and manipulated me from there. But my choices were my own, and to pull Manthara’s name down with mine would be quite simply cruel” (95). Kaikeyi speaks directly against the Ramayana’s portrayal of her motivations and perspective, claiming her own autonomy and power in her decisions.

Patel’s portrayal of Kaikeyi is part of a literary trend of feminist mythological retellings in contemporary historical fiction. Maligned and marginalized women often feature on the page, given their own voices and perspectives free from the constraints of their traditional narratives. Other examples of other feminist mythological retellings of epic poems include Circe by Madeline Miller, a retelling of the Odyssey; Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, a retelling of the Aeneid; and A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, a retelling of the Iliad.