एवमुक्तो धिगित्येव राजा दशरथोऽब्रवीत्।
ब्रीडितश्च जनः सर्वः सा च तं नावबुध्यत॥
evam ukto dhig ity eva rājā daśaratho ’bravīt
vrīḍitaś ca janaḥ sarvaḥ sā ca taṁ nāvabudhyata
evam = this; uktaḥ = when she told him; dhik = nonsense; iti eva = simply; rājā = King; daśarathaḥ = Daśaratha; abravīt = said; vrīḍitaḥ ca = became embarrassed; janaḥ sarvaḥ = everyone there; sā ca = but she; tam = for them; na avabudhyata = didn’t care.
When she told him this, King Daśaratha simply said, “Nonsense!” Everyone there became embarrassed, but she didn’t care for them.
1 Kaikeyī’s illogic was as follows: Sending a son to the forest necessarily meant that he should be sent without any wealth whatsoever because an authority in the past had send his son to the forest without any wealth whatsoever. As an intelligent minister of King Daśaratha would now point out, sending a son who had committed extremely sinful activities to the forest without any wealth whatsoever as a punishment is very different from sending a son when he had never ever committed any sinful activity to the forest; the latter could very well be compensated for by providing him with all comforts due to him.
The king criticized her for bringing up something unrelated to his promise to her.1
GLOSS. All the common people became embarrassed because they were unable to change Kaikeyī’s mind. Out of her greed for the kingdom, Kaikeyī didn’t bother about the king’s criticism.