Kaikeyi

Patel creates a world around Kaikeyi rife with misogyny and sexism. The foundations that the societies of Kosala and Kekaya rest on a single foundation—the perceived will of the gods, a will that decrees women are not allowed to be unaccompanied in public or to speak for themselves (34). These rules inform the way that women are allowed to exist in the world, but they also impact the way that men perceive and treat women. Because the sages, the religious officials, decree that women must be treated as inferior to men, men view them as subservient. Kaikeyi sees this treatment from her father and the other men at the Kekaya court, and even in Yudhajit’s joke about why anyone would want to be a woman. In response, she thinks, “the words [are] callous, careless, a joke. He [is] my brother, my twin, and I [think] at the very least he believe[s] me his equal. I [have] fooled myself into thinking I [can] be an exception, an intelligent woman in control of her own destiny” (77). Yudhajit’s joke represents a cruel awakening for Kaikeyi, who has believed that Yudhajit at least saw her as an equal, as someone equally capable and clever.