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 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, Bharata, cannot become king. Rama was elder, qualified and was loved by all the citizens. He was supposed to be the king. Also, Kaikayi did not know of the promise of Dasharatha to Asvapati.

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 went for hunting. He had the capacity to shot the target without seeing but just by hearing (sabda vedi). By mistake, he had involuntarily ended up piercing the innocent Shravan Kumar by his arrow.

Dasharatha’s honesty

Shravan Kumar, in his last moments, told the king to fetch water for his parents as they were thirsty and inform them of what had happened. Dasharatha maharaja did not escape 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 because of the mere fact that the king did not run away, he was alive, if he had not come to them, his head would have been burst into hundreds 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.