Previous Story of Manthara

Why did Manthara spoil Kaikeyi's mind?

A tale from the Ramopakhyana of Mahabharata

We all know that it was Manthara who spoiled Kaikeyi's mind and made her ask Dasharatha to send Rama for exile and coronate her son Bharata instead.As per Valmiki Ramayana there was no reason for her to do so and she was basically a wicked lady who would not tolerate such happy events.However the Mahabharata gives an interesting story for this.In the Mahabharata,there is Ramopakhyana,or the substory of Lord Rama, narrated by Sage Markandeya to Yudhishthira to console him in the forest saying that previously too many people had suffered like him.In this story,it is told that when all the gods went to Lord Vishnu to ask his help to vanquish the evil Ravana,he said he would incarnarte as a human being.At that time,Lord Brahma told the gods to take birth in different beings like monkeys and bears from their parts to help Lord Vishnu.He then told a Gandharva lady called Dundubhi to take birth as a hunchback woman and told her what she had to do.Thus,as per his advice,she was born as Manthara, the maidservant of Kaikeyi, and brought about the stoppage of Rama's coronation by poisoning Kaikeyi's mind.As a result of this,Rama had to go to the forest and then with the series of events involving abduction of Sita by Ravana, he killed Ravana which was the main purpose of his incarnation.