Kaikeyi

by Vaishnavi Patel

The scroll ended there, and I knew there was no redemption for Ahalya—the gods would help Indra but never a woman who had slept with another man. It ate at me, for how was Ahalya to have known? The fault was Indra’s from start to finish. Gautama could have chosen to understand and forgive her. But neither gods nor men had such mercy.

If a woman crafted by the gods themselves could be consigned to this fate, what hope was there for a woman born of a woman?

“All the same. The gods do not assist the unworthy. They cannot make talent where there is none.” Sumitra reached out and embraced me.

“Read them,” he insisted. “You have time. If they make sense to you, then you should keep them. Knowledge is meant to be shared.”

Sarasvati River.