01Princess of Kekaya
Kaikeyi was the daughter of King Ashvapati of Kekaya in the northwest and sister of Yudhajit. Of the three chief queens she was the one Dasharatha loved most. In the war against Shambara, Valmiki says, the king was struck down in battle and she bore him away from the field and saved his life. He gave her two boons. She asked for nothing then. Her son Bharata was born under the nakshatra Pushya. When she first heard of Rama’s coronation, she was glad.
02One evening with Manthara
When Manthara brought the news, Kaikeyi gave her a jewel for it and said Rama was as dear to her as Bharata. Manthara threw the jewel down and kept talking: Kausalya would be queen mother, Kaikeyi her servant, Bharata exiled or dead. Slowly she turned her. She reminded her of the two boons and told her to go to the kopabhavana, the chamber of anger, lie on the bare floor without her ornaments and wait for the king. Kaikeyi did, and asked for Bharata’s coronation and fourteen years of forest for Rama.
03What the boons cost her
She won and lost everything in a week. Her husband died cursing her. When she handed Sita bark garments, Vasishtha rebuked her before the court. Her own son called her a murderer and would not take the throne. She went with Bharata to Chitrakoot, and there Rama told Bharata not to blame his mother. After the war Rama asked Dasharatha to take back his curse on her, and he did.
The Adhyatma Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas add that the devas sent Saraswati to turn Manthara’s mind, so that Rama would reach the forest and Ravana. That explanation belongs to these later tellings.