Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.501

c8.501

MANTHARĀ I. A maid of Kaikeyī the wife of Daśaratha. This hunchbacked woman was born of the species of a Gandharvī named Dundubhī. (Śloka 10, Chapter 276, Vana Parva). When everything was made ready to crown Śrī Rāma as the heir-apparent of Ayodhyā, it was Mantharā who persuaded Kaikeyī to go to Daśaratha and ask him to send Śrī Rāma to the forests. Had not the cruel tongue of Mantharā played like that, the history of the solar dynasty itself would have been different. (See under Kaikeyī).