Their lips were parched, their eyes streamed, their heart could not contain their sorrow; it seemed as though the Pathetic, in battle array and with beat of drum, had marched into Avadh and taken up quarters there.
Chaupâi
“It was a well-contrived plan, but God has spoilt it.” In this fashion they kept abusing Kaikeyi. “What could this wicked woman mean by thus setting fire to a new-thatched house; who tears out her eyes with her own hands, and yet wishes to see; who throws away ambrosia and prefers the taste of poison; cruel, stubborn, demented wretch, a very fire among the reeds of Raghu’s line; who sitting on a branch of the tree has hacked down the stem; and in the midst of joy has introduced this tragedy? Râma used ever to be dear to her as life; for what reason has she now taken to such perversity? The poets say truly that a woman’s mind is altogether inscrutable, unfathomable and beyond comprehension. Sooner may a man catch his own shadow in the glass than grasp the ways of a woman.
Chaupâi
“It was a well-contrived plan, but God has spoilt it.” In this fashion they kept abusing Kaikeyi. “What could this wicked woman mean by thus setting fire to a new-thatched house; who tears out her eyes with her own hands, and yet wishes to see; who throws away ambrosia and prefers the taste of poison; cruel, stubborn, demented wretch, a very fire among the reeds of Raghu’s line; who sitting on a branch of the tree has hacked down the stem; and in the midst of joy has introduced this tragedy? Râma used ever to be dear to her as life; for what reason has she now taken to such perversity? The poets say truly that a woman’s mind is altogether inscrutable, unfathomable and beyond comprehension. Sooner may a man catch his own shadow in the glass than grasp the ways of a woman.