When Bharata came to beg Rama to return to Ayodhya, Manthara accompanied him.
"Forgive me, Rama!" she said.
"There is nothing to forgive," Rama replied. "Listen: in a previous lifetime you were a celestial gandharvi. You accepted birth as a mortal so that Dasharatha's eldest son would be sent into the forest."
Manthara was even more surprised by what Rama said next. "We will meet again, Manthara! You will be a woman, hunched over as now, and your name will be Kubja. My name will be Krishna. When I embrace you in that next lifetime, your back will become straight."
Inspired by: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana by Devdutt Pattanaik
Notes: This story is on p. 99 of the book. The story of Manthara as a gandharvi comes from the Ramopakhyan found in the Mahabharata.
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