Daṇḍa Rāja Kathā

King Daṇḍa was a king of the Ikshvāku line. He did a very great wrong to Arājā, the daughter of his own guru Śukra Ācārya, who had come to the āśrama. Śukra was filled with terrible anger and spoke a śāpa (a curse). Within seven days, Daṇḍa’s whole kingdom and all its people would be destroyed by a rain of dust and wind. It happened just as he said. The ruined, empty land came to be called Daṇḍakāraṇya, the Daṇḍaka forest. This is the region where Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa spent thirteen years of their forest exile.

King Daṇḍa

King Daṇḍa was a son of the great king Ikshvāku, and so a direct descendant in the line of the sun. His father gave him the southern region to rule. His kingdom lay in the forests of the Vindhya and the Deccan. Daṇḍa built a beautiful capital city and was his own master in this southern land.

His teacher and rāja-guru (guru of the king) was Śukra Ācārya, also called Śukrācārya. He is the highest authority on dharmaśāstra and nītiśāstra, the guru of the asuras, and a brahmarshi of great power. Śukra’s āśrama was in or near Daṇḍa’s land. This is in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 57.

The wrong

One day Daṇḍa came to Śukrācārya’s āśrama when his teacher was away. He found Arājā, Śukrācārya’s daughter, a beautiful young woman, alone in the āśrama. Daṇḍa was overcome by her beauty and tried to win her. She refused, and he forced himself on her.

This was the gravest kind of wrong. He had wronged the daughter of his own guru, in the guru’s own āśrama, while the guru was away. He had broken the bond between guru and śishya (student). He had wronged a woman in a holy place, and he had wronged the household of a brāhmaṇa. This is in the Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 57.

Śukrācārya’s śāpa

Śukrācārya came back and learned what had happened. His anger was like the fire of the end of the world (pralaya-agni). He could not forgive what Daṇḍa had done in his own house, to his own daughter. He spoke a terrible śāpa:

“Within seven days, terrible winds carrying dust and ash will sweep over Daṇḍa’s whole kingdom. Everything in it, king, people, animals, trees and all living things, will be destroyed.”

This is in the Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 57.

The destruction

The śāpa came true exactly. Within seven days, huge storms swept through Daṇḍa’s kingdom. It was not rain but a terrible downpour of dust and ash, with smothering winds. The king, his people, his army and his capital were all destroyed. The land was left empty.

This ruined kingdom of Daṇḍa became known as Daṇḍakāraṇya, the Daṇḍaka forest, named for the king whose wrong brought it about. In this same forest Rāma spent thirteen of his fourteen years of exile. There he killed rākshasas, met Śūrpaṇakhā, and was led at last to the crisis of Sītā’s abduction. This land had been emptied by the righteous anger of Śukrācārya’s śāpa. This is in the Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 57.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 57