Manthara is the hunchbacked maid of Queen Kaikeyi who turns her against Rama on the eve of his coronation. Her whispered fears set off the chain of events that sends Rama into fourteen years of exile.
Who was Manthara?
Manthara came with Kaikeyi from Kekaya and has served her since childhood. From the palace roof she sees Ayodhya decorated for Rama's coronation, learns the reason and rushes to Kaikeyi with alarm.
At first Kaikeyi is delighted at the news and gives Manthara a jewel. Manthara argues patiently that Rama's crowning will make Bharata a servant and Kaikeyi a rival's subject. She reminds Kaikeyi of the two boons Dasharatha once promised her and tells her to ask for Bharata's crowning and Rama's exile.
Later, when Bharata returns, Shatrughna seizes Manthara in anger, but Bharata stops him. In tradition her name has become a byword for the poisonous adviser.
In the Valmiki Ramayana
Manthara appears in 4 sargas across 1 Kandas.
