Dasharatha (दशरथ:)

Dasharatha (Sanskrit: दशरथ:, Daśarathah) was a descendant of the Raghuvansha-Ikshvaku-Suryavansha dynasty and the Maharaja of Ayodhya.

He was the son of Aja and Indumati. His three prominent queens were Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. He had four sons - Rama , Bharatha, Lakshmana, Shatrughna.

Marriage

Dasharatha had 351 wives of which three were prominently known. (Valmiki Ramayana : Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter (Sarga) 39, Verse 36). It is mentioned in Vishnu Purana that to be exempted to be killed by Parasurama, Dasharatha married many times. Parasurama has vowed to empty the earth of all Kshatriyas. But he would not kill a Kshatriya, who had marriage kangan on his wrist. This kangan, yellow band of thread was used to be worn for one year from the date of marriage. Whenever Dasharatha Maharaja heard the news that Parasurama is on his way, Vasistha muni would tell him to get married. It was essential for the king to survive for the society to survive.

Dasharatha's anxieties

Dasharatha Maharaja’s nature was to not reveal painful secrets to anyone. He could never his painful secrets to anyone. His tendency was to suffer pain for oneself. This was due to his good character.

Promise to Ashvapathi

His anxiety was how to tell Ashvapati that his daughter's son cannot be king. Rama is elder, he is qualified, he is loved by everyone. He is supposed to be the king. Even Kaikayi did not know of the promise of Dasharatha to Asvapati. Only 4 people must have known Dasharatha, Vasistha, Sumantra and Asvapati and later Ram.

Killing of Shravan Kumar

Another anxiety of Dasharatha maharaja which he had never told anyone was the curse by the old parents of Shravan Kumar. As a young king, he would go for hunting. He could shot target without seeing by just hearing (sabda vedi). He involuntarily ended up piercing Shravan Kumar by his arrow.

Dasharatha’s honesty

Shravan Kumar, in his last moments, just told the king to fetch water for his parents as they are thirsty and inform them of what happened. Dasharatha maharaja could have escaped from there, but he faced the helpless and pained parents with responsibility. This was his greatest quality. Many scriptures proclaim that God consciousness resides in honesty. Of course, if the other party does not have competence to appreciate and handle honesty, then the accused is exploited and disgraced.

The curse

Dasharatha first tried to feed them water however parents were wondering why their son was so late. Dasharatha told them about their son's death. They said that the mere fact you came and told us you are alive, if you had not come to us your head would have burst into 100's of pieces. Although the parents were from some mixed caste, they were tapasvis. Dasharatha took them to their dead son. Due to intense pain they could not contain their life. Before dying they cursed Dasharatha to go through the same experience, of dying due to separation from his son.

Intense pain and intense happiness, both create problem if not balanced. If there exists certain vega (urge) then controlling them artificially will create issue. The vega has to be addressed. The father could not hold back his pain, it took the form of a curse. The curse and benediction comes from principle of karma. Here the curse speeded up the karma of the king which otherwise had to be experienced anyway later.