Manthara

Is there more to the other villain?

Manthara, is made to be the other ‘other’ villain of Ramayana, again in Ayodhya kaanda.

The blasphemy associated with Manthara is so severe, that even the description of Ravana as a character sounds virtuous than that of Manthara. She is what comes closest to visual depiction of ‘old witch’ in western stories.
Manthara is also the name of a famous tortoise. And it definitely connects the dots, that she is named the same as well, due to common characteristics of ugliness, hunch back, old age, slow and lethargy. But one aspect which somehow misses out in this whole connect is the ‘wisdom’, which tortoise is a symbol right from ‘kurmavatara’ to ‘master oogway’. I will try and explore this aspect furthermore.

The motherless child that Kaikeyi was, Manthara has ever since been her nursing mother. The bond was so strong that, Manthara followed Kaikeyi to her husbands place in Ayodhya, after the latter’s marriage to king of the land, Dasharatha. While, the story of Manthara feeding the ears of Kaikeyi and instigating her to ask the infamous two demands off her husband is rather popular, there is small incident before that which gets less notice. When Dasharatha announced that Prince Rama will be coronated the next king of Ayodhya, the first of his 3 wives to celebrate the fact was Kaikeyi. She called for all her palace attendants and distributed sweets and joyous presents as a symbol of celebration. Among all those who received presents, was also Manthara, who indeed was gifted most precious of them, one of Kaikeyi’s personal jewelry.

Tongue is considered to be the tool of speech via knowledge. Saraswathi the godess of knowledge and speech. There s a certain version of belief that connect Saraswathi with the subject here, Manthara.

This belief draws Manthara as almost a parallel to Judas. On the announcement of Prince Rama’s Coronation, the godly kin were sent into a bit of panic assuming that kingship will keep the lord’s avatar in Rama away from the incarnation’s key objective, destruction of the evil, Ravana. They rushed to Godess Saraswathi seeking help in alleviating the situation. Godess Saraswathi is also know to reside on a human’s tongue, as a symbolic interpretation for the knwoledge and wisdom spoken, which she is a godess for. On the behest of the godly kin, saraswathi is known to pervert Manthara’s brain and mainly her spoekn words, which was instrumental in enraging and embroiling Kaikeyi, ultimately to seek Rama’s banishment from the kingdom into exile.

There are shlokas recited even to the day in praise of Godess Saraswati, with a mention of Manthara, for the role she played in the killing of Ravan by Rama.

For the villain, Manthara is made out to be, may be she was not evil at all. Godess Disposes, Manthara Proposes