01From the palace roof
Manthara had come with Kaikeyi from Kekaya as her maid, and no one knew where she was born. On the morning before the coronation she climbed to the palace terrace, saw Ayodhya hung with flags and sprinkled with sandal water, and asked a nurse why. Rama is to be crowned tomorrow, the nurse said. Manthara went straight down to Kaikeyi’s bed in a fury. When Kaikeyi gave her a jewel for the good news she flung it away.
02The forgotten boons
Her argument was simple and frightening. A king’s mother rules the palace; Kausalya would rise and Kaikeyi would serve her. Bharata, the rival, would be sent away or killed. Kaikeyi resisted, and then gave way. It was Manthara who remembered the two boons from the war with Shambara, and Manthara who planned the rest: the chamber of anger, the bare floor, the king’s oath to be taken before the request was spoken, and the fourteen years, long enough for Bharata’s rule to take root.
03How her story ends
When the brothers returned, Shatrughna found her at the door dressed in fine clothes and dragged her across the floor until Bharata made him let her go. Valmiki says no more of her. The Ramopakhyana in the Mahabharata adds that Brahma had a gandharvi named Dundubhi born on earth as Manthara to bring about Rama’s going to the forest, and the Adhyatma Ramayana and the Manas say Saraswati turned her mind at the devas’ request. In Hindi her name is still used for anyone who poisons a household with whispers.