Shloka 2.9.48
मन्थराप्रेरणा—वरद्वय-स्मरणं च (Manthara’s Provocation and the Recalling of Two Boons)
जात्येन च सुवर्णेन सुनिष्टप्तेन मन्थरे।।।।लब्धार्था च प्रतीता च लेपयिष्यामि ते स्थगु।
atra te pratimokṣyāmi mālāṃ kubje hiraṇmayīm |
abhiṣikte ca bharate rāghave ca vanaṃ gate ||
Here, upon your hump, O hunchback, I shall place a golden garland—when Bharata has been consecrated and Rāghava has gone to the forest.
O Manthara, when my objective is accomplished and I am fully satisfied, I will smear your hump with the best of refined liquid gold.
It shows the moral peril of rewarding wrongdoing. Dharma warns that incentives given for harmful counsel deepen injustice and bind the giver to the consequences.
Kaikeyī promises Mantharā gifts once the plan succeeds: Bharata’s coronation and Rāma’s exile to the forest.
A lapse of virtue—gratitude is present, but misdirected toward a destructive aim, illustrating how loyalty without dharma becomes complicity.