Śravaṇa Kumāra Vadha

Śravaṇa Kumāra Vadha is the account of how King Daśaratha, in his youth, killed the young brahmin Śravaṇa Kumāra by mistake. Daśaratha tells it himself in his last days, as he lies dying. The account explains the origin of a śāpa (a curse): Daśaratha would die in grief, parted from his own son, just as Śravaṇa’s blind parents died in grief, parted from theirs. This parting from a son is called putraviyoga. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells it in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, where Daśaratha sees that the old śāpa is coming true exactly.

The night hunt

Before he had any sons, Daśaratha went out hunting at night near a river. He was skilled in śabdabhedhi, the art of striking a target by sound alone, without seeing it. He waited in the darkness near the water. He heard the sound of a water vessel being filled at the river’s edge. In the stillness of the night it sounded very much like an elephant drinking.

Judging only by the sound, Daśaratha loosed an arrow in that direction. The arrow struck true to the sound, but it had not struck an elephant. It hit a young brahmin named Śravaṇa Kumāra. He had come to the river in the dark to fill a vessel with water for his blind, aged parents, who could not come to the river themselves. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 63–64.

Śravaṇa’s last words

Daśaratha ran to the place where the cry of pain had come from. He found Śravaṇa lying wounded at the water’s edge. Śravaṇa spoke calmly and without anger. He told Daśaratha that his parents were waiting a short distance away. They had no one else in the world, and they would be in great distress without water. He asked Daśaratha to go to them, bring the vessel of water, and tell them what had happened. His whole concern was for his parents and not for himself. Soon after he had spoken, Śravaṇa died. This is in Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 63.

The śāpa

Daśaratha pulled out the arrow. Taking it out gave the dying young man more pain. Then Daśaratha filled the vessel and went to Śravaṇa’s parents. The two blind elders were waiting anxiously. When they heard footsteps coming, they called out to Śravaṇa with love and asked what had kept him so long.

Daśaratha told them the truth and hid nothing. The parents were broken by the news. They had depended on Śravaṇa completely. He was their eyes, their hands and their life. Through the power of their tapas (austerity) and their grief as parents, they pronounced a śāpa on Daśaratha. As they were dying of putraviyoga, parted from their son, so Daśaratha would one day die in grief, parted from his own son, with his son’s name on his lips at the moment of death.

They then asked Daśaratha to lead them to the river so that they could touch Śravaṇa’s body and prepare to follow him. They died of grief at the water’s edge. This is in Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 64.

The śāpa comes true

Daśaratha carried this deed and this śāpa within him for the rest of his life. In his last days, Rāma had crossed the Gaṅgā and gone into the forest. Daśaratha lay dying in Ayodhyā. He told the account to Kauśalyā. He saw that the śāpa was coming true with exact precision. He was dying in putraviyoga, with his son’s name, “Rāma, Rāma”, on his lips. This is in Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 63–64.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 63–64