Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.123

c9.123

One of those days Daśaratha went deep into the forest, hunting. While resting on the banks of river Sarayū he heard a sound like that of an elephant drinking water in the river. Without realising the fact that the voice was that of the son of a muni filling water in a pot for his aged parents, the King released an arrow against him. When Daśaratha walked to the spot, he realised his mistake. He had hit unknowingly a brahmin-boy, a muni's son. The boy lay wounded about to die. The boy explained to Daśaratha who he was and how he had come to the river to carry water to his aged parents. After telling the King details about him he breathed his last. Sobbing at his misadventure, Daśaratha went to the aged parents of the dead boy with the pot filled with water. The parents, who were blind thought that it was their son who was approaching them when Daśaratha revealed the sad story to them. After cursing Daśaratha that he too would die of separation from his son, the aged muni expired; his wife also died in his funeral pyre. The grief-stricken King returned to Ayodhyā.