Week 3 Reading Diary: Ascension to the Throne

Before Rama can perform the ceremony to officially become king of Ayodhya, he is exiled through the fulfillment of a promise made to Kaikeyi by the king Dasaratha. While this sinister plot depicts a challenging chronicle in the life of Rama and his loved ones, the exchange between Kooni and Kaikeyi introduces some interesting elements to the story.

Kooni is the hunchback who convinces the queen that Rama's rise to power puts her position in great peril. However, this exchange is depicted in a comedic fashion as we see Kooni frustrated at the innocence of the queen in supporting the king's decision to place Rama at the throne. As the hunchback's predictions are eagerly rebuffed by the queen, the author describes Kooni's  bodily expressions in quite an exaggerated manner. Kooni's impatience with Kaikeyi is comedic as her body language combined with the queen's response to her actions presents the hunchback as the wiser of the two characters.

(Kaikeyi, in the kopa gruha.)

Supposedly, only the servant can see a plot unfolding to which the queen is oblivious and laments at the treachery being performed against a queen as innocent as "a little dove flitting at the jaws of a wildcat". Kooni's condescension only adds to the humor in this scene.

The reader may observe that Kaikeyi in particular is presented as having a significant number of hunchbacks and deformed humans in her service. And so the author depicts an interested dynamic between the servant and Kaikeyi that may represent a symbolic meaning for the queen's position in Ayodhya.