Kausalya

Kausalya

Bharata and Shatrughna come to console Kausalya
Information
Spouse(s) Dasharatha
Children Rama(son), Shanta(daughter)
Birth Of Four Sons Of Dasharatha

Kausalya (Sanskrit: कौसल्या Kausalyā, Tamil: கோசலை, Thai: Kausuriya, Burmese: Kothalla) in the Indian Ramayana epic was eldest of King Dasharatha's three wives and a queen of Ayodhya; she was daughter of the King of Magadha Kingdom (Kosala) Maharaj Sukaushal and his wife queen Amritaprabha. When Dasharatha sends a proposal of friendship to her father, he refuses. A war starts between the two which Dasharatha wins, so Sukaushal has no option left but to agree to the friendship and marry his daughter Kausalya to Dasharatha.

Relations

She was mother of Rama, the king of Ayodhya, upon whom the story of the Ramayana is based. Kausalya was the eldest queen of Dasharath. She praises Sita for accompanying Ram to the forest.

In Valmiki Ramayana, we get to know of Kausalya. In Ayodhya Kand King Dasharatha describes Kausalya's goodness to his third wife Kaikeyi that Kausalya always kept Dasharatha’s best interest in mind. He says “Kausalya was always kind to me, waited on me like a maid-servant, her care for me showed all the care of a friend, sister and a mother. She deserves to be kindly treated”. He then laments that Kaikeyi's possessiveness made Dasharatha treat Kausalya less kindly.

Queen Kausalya is magnanimous in putting her own grief aside and bid adieu to Rama to forest. She blesses Rama as 'Dharma stvaam abhirakshatu’!(Let righteousness protect you), showing her belief that Dharma is not abstract concept; it has the power to protect those who follow it.

Kausalya evokes everything that can sustain human life to protect her son Rama against dangers of life in a forest.

See also

References


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