Daśaratha Maraṇa

King Daśaratha could not live through the separation from Rāma. This is one of the most moving episodes of the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa crossed the Gaṅgā and went into the forest. From then on Daśaratha was lost in a grief that never left him. In his last days he told Kauśalyā how, in his youth, he had killed Śravaṇa Kumāra, and how the blind parents had cursed him. That curse was now coming true exactly. He died in the night, calling the names of Rāma and his queens.

After Rāma’s departure

The chariot carrying Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa went out of sight. Daśaratha fell down. His prāṇa (life-breath) had followed his son out of the city. Kauśalyā and the queens held him up and took him inside. From then on Daśaratha lay on his bed. He could not sleep and could not eat. He called Rāma’s name in the dark.

Sumantra had taken the exiles to the bank of the Gaṅgā. He then came back to Ayodhyā over three days. He passed through the seven kakshyās (courtyards) of the palace to find Daśaratha. The king heard the chariot coming from far off, and for a moment he hoped it was Rāma returning. When he saw that Sumantra was alone, he fell back into grief.

Daśaratha’s questions and Sumantra’s account

Daśaratha asked Sumantra about every detail of the journey, with deep longing. Where had Rāma slept? What had Sītā eaten? Had Lakshmaṇa been strong? What had Rāma said about Ayodhyā?

Sumantra told him everything. He spoke of the night at Tamasā, the passage through Kosala, the meeting with Guha at Śṛṅgaverapura, Rāma’s making of jaṭā (matted hair), and the crossing of the Gaṅgā. He said that everything along Rāma’s path looked empty and sad. The rivers seemed to run warm, the birds were silent, and the forest itself seemed to mourn.

Then Daśaratha gave voice to his grief in a long lament, a poem of sorrow in which he likened his anguish to a shoreless ocean of śoka (grief). He blamed himself for sending Rāma into the forest. He wondered how Sītā, who had lived in comfort all her life, could bear the cold and the hard ground of the forest. He could not make peace with what he had done.

Śravaṇa Kumāra

In those dark nights Daśaratha remembered a deed of his youth that had given rise to this karma, and he told it to Kauśalyā. In his young days as king, before his sons were born, he went hunting at night. He took his place near a river to catch the animals that came to drink. In the dark he heard the sound of water being poured into a pot. In that silence it sounded like an elephant drinking. Daśaratha had the skill of śabdabhedhi, striking a target by sound alone. He shot an arrow towards the sound.

The arrow struck no elephant. It struck a young brahmin named Śravaṇa Kumāra. He had been filling a pot with water at night to take to his blind, old parents, who could not go to the river themselves. Śravaṇa cried out in pain. Daśaratha was horrified and ran to him. Śravaṇa felt no anger. He told Daśaratha only that his blind parents would be in great distress without water. He asked Daśaratha to go to them, give them water and tell them what had happened. Then Śravaṇa died.

Daśaratha filled the pot with water and went to Śravaṇa’s parents. He told them the truth: he had killed their son by a terrible mistake. The blind couple had no one else in the world. In their grief they laid a curse on Daśaratha. They were dying in the pain of putraviyoga (separation from a son). In the same way, they said, Daśaratha would die in grief, parted from his own son, with his son’s name on his lips.

Daśaratha told Kauśalyā that this curse, spoken with the power of tapas and a parent’s grief, was now being fulfilled exactly. He was dying as the parents had died, in putraviyoga and in grief.

Death

In the night Daśaratha lay on his bed in Ayodhyā, with Kauśalyā and the queens beside him. He called out the names of those he loved: “Rāma… Kauśalyā… Sumitrā…” Then his breath stopped. He died in the quiet of the night, in putraviyoga, and the curse was fulfilled. He did not live to see Rāma return. He had not even seen Bharata before he died. Ayodhyā became a city without a king and sank into deep mourning.

His body was kept until Bharata could return from Kekaya. Messengers were sent to Bharata without telling him the reason. They only urged him to come back quickly. Bharata arrived. He saw his father’s body and the empty city. Then he learned that his mother Kaikeyī’s demands had caused Rāma’s exile and Daśaratha’s death. His grief was complete, and he condemned Kaikeyī utterly.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 57–65
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 57–58 (after Rāma’s departure; Sumantra’s return)
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 57–60 (Daśaratha’s questions, Sumantra’s account and the lament)
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 63–64 (Śravaṇa Kumāra and the curse)
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 64–75 (the death and Bharata’s return)