Daśaratha Kausalyā Vivāha

The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells how Rāvaṇa interfered with the marriage of Daśaratha and Kausalyā. He sent a timimgila (a huge sea-creature) against their ship. The two were left alone on an island in the sea, and there they married by gāndharva vivāha. The marriage was made complete in the proper way when they returned.

The marriage procession

Daśaratha set out with his followers to bring Kausalyā from her father’s kingdom to Ayodhyā as his queen. Part of the journey was by sea. The marriage party boarded ships and sailed across a stretch of ocean.

Rāvaṇa’s interference

Rāvaṇa was at this time busy with his conquests of many realms. He was hostile to the Ikshvāku dynasty. He sent a timimgila, a very large sea-creature, to swallow the ship that carried Daśaratha and Kausalyā.

The timimgila attacked the ship. The ship capsized or was driven far off course. Daśaratha and Kausalyā were left on a remote island in the middle of the ocean, apart from their attendants.

Gāndharva vivāha on the island

Daśaratha and Kausalyā were alone on the island. They had no priests, no Vedic witnesses and no ritual things with them. So they performed a gāndharva vivāha. This is the form of marriage made by the free consent and wish of the two people. The dharmaśāstra tradition counts it as one of the eight valid forms of marriage.

The two of them were witnesses to each other. When they returned to their own people, the marriage was carried out again in the proper way.

The marriages of Sumitrā and Kaikeyī

After Kausalyā, Daśaratha made two more marriages.

• Sumitrā was the daughter of the king of Kāśī. Her marriage to Daśaratha was arranged in the usual way.
• Kaikeyī was the princess of Kekaya. She was known for her great beauty and her wisdom. Her father agreed to give her to Daśaratha only on one condition: any son born of Kaikeyī would be the heir to Daśaratha’s throne. Daśaratha loved her deeply, and he accepted.

Kaikeyī’s iron arm

The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells of an incident in the married life of Daśaratha and Kaikeyī. Kaikeyī’s arm became like iron. A muni, moved by compassion, gave her a vara (a boon). Her arm would be made normal again, and she would have the power to ask her husband for two vara at a time of great need.

Kaikeyī later uses this vara of the muni. She asks for Rāma’s vanavāsa (his life in the forest) and for the crowning of Bharata.

Sources

• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Sāra Khaṇḍa, Sarga 1