Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 7: Mantharā Instructs Kaikeyī to Stop the Coronation
Text 2.7.24
धर्मवादी शठो भर्ता श्लक्ष्णवादी च दारुणः।
शुद्धभावेन जानीषे तेनैवमतिसन्धिता॥
dharma-vādī śaṭho bhartā ślakṣṇa-vādī ca dāruṇaḥ
śuddha-bhāvena jānīṣe tenaivam atisandhitā
dharma-vādī = speaks dharma; śaṭhaḥ = but he is deceitful; bhartā = your husband; ślakṣṇa-vādī ca = he speaks sweetly; dāruṇaḥ = but he is terrible in action; śuddha-bhāvena = him pure; jānīṣe = you consider; tena = but he; evam = in this manner; atisandhitā = has cheated you.
Your husband speaks dharma, but he is deceitful. He speaks sweetly, but he is terrible in action. You consider him pure, but he has cheated you in this manner.
Mantharā claimed that Daśaratha presented himself as a speaker of dharma, but in reality he was deceitful, that is, he secretly transgressed dharma. Kaikeyī considered Daśaratha to be a sweet speaker of dharma and have other characteristics of purity, but she should not think of him like this, for he has cheated her in this way, [that is, by coronating Kausalyā’s son Rāma instead of her son Bharata].