Valmiki Ramayana 2.66.5: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 66, Shloka 5
अयोध्यायां शोकविलापः · Lamentation in Ayodhya after Daśaratha’s death
Spoken by KausalyaSetting: Ayodhya
भर्तारं तं परित्यज्य का स्त्री दैवतमात्मनः ।
इच्छेज्जीवितुमन्यत्र कैकेय्यास्त्यक्तधर्मणः ॥५॥
bhartāraṁ taṁ parityajya kā strī daivatam ātmanaḥ |
icchej jīvitum anyatra kaikeyyās tyaktadharmaṇaḥ ||5||
अपने पति को छोड़ के कौन सी औरत जीना चाहेगी? पति तो भगवान जैसा होता है। कैकेयी ने ही धरम को ठुकराया है, इसलिए वो ऐसा कर सकती है।
Sandhi Notes
- sārthahīneva → sārthahīnā + iva
- nāhaṃ → na + aham
- jīvitumutsahe → jīvitum + utsahe
Which woman wishes to live, leaving her god-like husband, except Kaikeyi who has given up her sense of duty?
The teaching
Dharma abandoned for desire brings social and inner ruin; the verse asserts the sanctity of marital duty as a moral anchor.
Duties in tension
- Personal desire/political ambition vs patnī-dharma and rāja-dharma
- Truth of boons vs righteousness of outcome
- Ethical theme
- Gṛhastha-dharma / niṣkāma-niyama
For your practice
Reflection on dharma as worship in household life; restraint of desire (kāma) as daily practice.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Raudra (fury), with Karuna (compassion)
- Mood
- Indignant, accusatory, morally outraged
Themes
- Dharma
- Strīdharma (wifely duty, traditional frame)
- Ethics
- Condemnation of adharma
- Itihasa
Misplaced agency: when desire overrides dharma, the mind treats the transient as ultimate; ‘daivata’ language points to sacralizing rightful duty.
Echo of the ethic of self-restraint (dama) and choosing śreyas over preyas (Katha motif), applied to household dharma.
- Kausalya and Kaikeyi
- Co-wife rivalry framed as dharma vs adharma (Raudra)
- Kaikeyi and Dasharatha
- Wife abandoning husband’s welfare (implied) (Bībhatsa)
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.66 (Kauśalyā’s denunciation of Kaikeyī)
Dharmaśāstra ideals of pativratā and pati as guru/daivata (general cultural allusion)
Ayodhyākāṇḍa: Kaikeyī’s boons and exile demand (2.10–2.12)
Anuṣṭup (śloka)
Commanding
Madhyama-sthāna with sharp udātta on nindā-phrases
FAQs
The verse asserts that dharma sustains relationships and social order; abandoning duty toward one’s rightful spouse (and by extension the household’s moral center) is portrayed as a grave ethical collapse.
Kauśalyā, overwhelmed by Daśaratha’s death and Rāma’s exile, denounces Kaikeyī as uniquely capable of living after causing such rupture.
The ideal of fidelity and reverence within marriage (as Kauśalyā understands it), contrasted with Kaikeyī’s perceived moral abandonment.
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