“Kaikeyi” - Vaishnavi Patel

 🏹 tl;dr this book was amazing! It was easily my favorite book of 2022. I’m not normally effusive with praise, but I believe Vaishnavi Patel has achieved something extraordinary with this novel. 

🏹 Even a casual reader of the “Ramayana” or a person whose childhood was filled with the tales, should recognize that Kaikeyi’s villainous character was the most powerful and therefore most intriguing character in the male-dominated epic. Before there was Ravana and the kidnapping of Sita, before there was the battle that decimated Lanka, before there was the storied Rama Rajya, there was Kaikeyi. Somehow, the youngest of King Dasharatha’s three wives is herself a warrior (as per the original tellings of the story), and able to bend her powerful husband (and step-son) to her will. Her machinations are the catalyst for the entire conflict well before Sita steps beyond the Lakshman rekha. For all her importance to the plot of this epic, little is said about Kaikeyi until she banishes Rama. This always rankled me. I always had questions. Though she was merely his third wife, how did she come to be more powerful than even her husband? If she was so terrible and manipulative, why on earth didn’t she banish Rama permanently? 

In the traditional tale, Kaikeyi is a pivotal character, yet she is always presented as a one-dimensional villain. At best she is malicious, conniving, and power hungry, and at worst, she is a fool led on by an old servant. Patel stays true to the original framework of the story, yet she gives us a story that finally does justice to Kaikeyi, and in doing so, she crafts a more cohesive and logical story. 

🏹 There is a deep sense of foreboding as we begin the story in Kaikeyi’s childhood. We know what is to come, or rather, what terrible action she will take. We just don’t know why. I particularly enjoyed how Patel has Kaikeyi dispel the rumors behind her motivation. She freely acknowledges what she did, but she is speaking her truth (i.e. it wasn’t jealousy of Rama or Kaushalya that drove her to it). This is such a fantastic literary device when climactic events and outcomes are already familiar to people who know the story of the “Ramayan”.

🏹 I appreciated that Patel provides the much-needed backstory to exactly how Kaikeyi received both a promise and later a boon from her husband. We know from the epic that she saved his life on a battlefield, but this is the first version that tells us precisely how a mere queen found herself on a battlefield as her husband’s charioteer.

🏹 Patel makes it a point to rehabilitate the character of Manthara, who even in the original tale, is a loyal servant of Kaikeyi’s. Their bond was formed during Kaikeyi’s childhood, and strengthened as Manthara tried to fill the void left by Kaikeyi’s mother. And later, though Patel’s Manthara is not malicious but wise, we see their bond grow when the young bride arrives to Ayodhya, a new city with two queens already in residence. Patel is the first author I’ve read to portray Manthara as a most loving and loyal friend to Kaikeyi rather than the mean and scheming old woman of the epic.

🏹 Likewise, Patel accords the character of Ravana more respect and dimension than he is typically given in most of the original stories. Those stories tend to portray him as a one-dimensional villain as well. Although the original stories do tell us that he was disciplined and intellectually gifted, as well as a favorite of the gods due to his unmatched powers of meditation and devotion, his rise to power resulting from boons given him by the devas themselves, is often merely a footnote for his wrongdoing. I won’t spoil anything here, but there is a story about his motivation in setting off events that led to the preordained epic battle with Rama. This version of the epic gives an entirely different rationale for his kidnapping of Sita, one which has a sympathetic if not noble motivation. Patel opts for that version here, and it places things in an entirely different light. Nothing is as black and white (good/evil) as Rama would hope.

🏹 It was a nice touch that the story of Ahalya (which later comes up in a significant way in connection with Rama), is here, left as a warning to Kaikeyi to cleave out power for herself as Ahalya’s sad tale underscores the lack of power allocated to women. It offers some justification for Kaikeyi’s approach to court life in Ayodhya: she must protect herself and guard her own interests, as no one else will. Patel has Kaikeyi expand this advice to guard the interests of women in the kingdom generally.

🏹 Traditionally, Rama’s purpose was simple: to rid the world of injustice. Patel asks us to think about whether it was possible that in ridding the world of injustice he could create more injustice? Is his purpose more muddled than the original story suggests?

I love that Patel directly addresses the effects of the knowledge of his own divinity on a young Rama. Truly, this is fascinating stuff! He knows he has some higher purpose, but he is unsure of what exactly that purpose is - if he is meant to rid the world of evil, what evil exactly? Rama’s commitment to his higher purpose clouds his judgement. He becomes a single-minded tactician in the Ayodhya court where he ruthlessly expands his influence and courts power to support his vision for ridding the world of evil. 

🏹 I feel that Patel’s version of Rama fits better with the end of the traditional epic than the traditional iterations where he is also one dimensional: the ideal man/king/son/husband all-around good guy. The good guy version is at total odds with his act of banishing his pregnant wife based solely on rumors about her captivity in Lanka. But this is not to say that Patel portrays him at odds with what we know about him from the original stories. She is careful to make more misguided and hawkish than bad. You do believe that despite everything, Rama means well, but knowledge of his divine purpose, coupled with an unfortunate mentor, and the moral rigidity of youth, resulted in a young man lacking the maturity to rule a kingdom; something it seems only his own mother Kaushalya and his step-mother Kaikeyi are able to observe clearly.

🏹 I would love if Patel would write a follow-up novel focusing more on Sita. I’m not as interested in what happens during the exile or even the great battle, because Patel gives us enough insight in “Kaikeyi” to piece together what that time must have been like for Sita. We know from Kaikeyi’s story that Rama will return from exile, a more just but still flawed hero. I’m interested in Sita’s impact upon returning to Ayodhya. From this book, we know that she is also “god’s touched” like Kaikeyi (this concept is still confusing to me). I suspect that the Kaikeyi of Patel’s imagination would view those events without surprise, but full of sadness. I’d love to learn how Lakshman would react as well since Patel’s version shows him to be the wisest and most emotionally aware of the brothers. And my last, niggling question, is whether there would be any resolution with Sumitra, Shatrughan, and Kaikeyi?

🏹 If you enjoy mythological retellings, especially feminist retellings in the vein of Madeline Miller or Chitra Divakaruni, run and grab this book. And if the traditional “Ramayana” left you with more questions than answers, and a deep sense of dissatisfaction, Patel’s retelling will give you a story that makes sense and fills in gaps to provide us with a sense of motivations behind some of the well known events.