Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c5.241

c5.241

3) Daśaratha's hunt. Once during the early part of his life Daśaratha was walking through a forest engaged in hunting. He reached the bank of the river Sarayū. It was evening and the forest was thick. He walked in search of wild animals. The night was advancing and darkness getting thicker. Then he heard a sound from the river as if an elephant was drinking water. Thinking it to be an elephant Daśaratha sent an arrow in the direction from which the sound came. Instantly he heard a man crying with pain. The king was disappointed. He ran to the spot and saw a hermit boy lying in a pool of blood beating his limbs on the ground and crying. The waterpot he had been dipping in the water lay close by. In answer to the questions of the King, the hermit boy whose name was Śravaṇa,¹ said, “Oh King ! What wrong have I done? My parents are sitting thirsty and blind with age, in the hermitage close-by. I, their only son, was dipping the pot to take water to them, when you sent the arrow at me. So, please take some water to them in this pot and console them.” Hearing this, with tears the King drew out the fatal arrow from the body of the boy and with that the boy Śravaṇa said good bye to the world. Daśaratha took water in the pot and went in search of the hermitage in the darkness. With difficulty he found out the hermitage and as he drew near, the aged parents of the boy heard his footsteps and called him eagerly. The King, with tearful eyes told them what had happened. There was loud wailing and crying in the hermitage. According to their wish the King took them to where their son lay. Then the King made a fire and placed the dead body of the boy in it. The aged and blind parents cursed Daśaratha, “You also will die of loss of children”. Then they also entered the fire and were burnt along with their son’s dead body. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Sarga 63).