Shloka 2.74.10
भरतस्य कैकेय्याः प्रति धिक्कारः — Bharata’s Rebuke of Kaikeyi and Affirmation of Ikshvaku Royal Dharma
तथा ज्येष्ठा हि मे माता कौसल्या दीर्घदर्शिनी।त्वयि धर्मं समास्थाय भगिन्यामिव वर्तते।।।।
yat tvayā dhārmiko rāmo nityaṃ satyaparāyaṇaḥ |
vanaṃ prasthāpito duḥkhāt pitā ca tridivaṃ gataḥ ||
Since by you Rama—the ever-virtuous, ever devoted to truth—was sent away to the forest, and our father, stricken with grief, has gone to heaven.
In the same way my eldest mother the far-sighted Kausalya, too adhered to righteousness and conducted herself towards you like a sister.
The verse links satya and dharma to suffering caused by unethical manipulation: the truthful Rama is punished, and the king dies of grief—showing how adharma disrupts the moral fabric of rulership and family.
Bharata attributes two outcomes to Kaikeyi’s actions: Rama’s forest-exile and Dasharatha’s death, reinforcing the causal chain of the crisis.
Rama’s satya-parāyaṇatā (devotion to truth) and dhārmikatā (righteousness), highlighted as the tragedy’s moral center.