Valmiki Ramayana 2.13.25: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 13, Shloka 25
अयोध्याकाण्डे त्रयोदशः सर्गः | Kaikeyi Presses the Boons; Dasaratha’s Lament and Collapse
Setting: Ayodhyā (palace floor of Kaikeyī’ s chamber)
ततस्स राजा पुनरेव मूर्छितः प्रियामतुष्टां प्रतिकूलभाषिणीम् ।
समीक्ष्य पुत्रस्य विवासनं प्रति क्षितौ विसंज्ञो निपपात दुखितः ॥२५॥
tataḥ sa rājā punar eva mūrchitaḥ priyām atuṣṭāṃ pratikūla-bhāṣiṇīm |
samīkṣya putrasya vivāsanaṃ prati kṣitau visaṃjño nipapāta duḥkhitaḥ ||25||
फिर राजा बेहोश हो गया। उसकी पत्नी खुश नहीं थी, उल्टा बोल रही थी। वो कहती थी, तुम्हारे बेटे को वनस भेजो। राजा दुख से ज़मीन पर गिर गया, होश नहीं रहा।
Sandhi Notes
- ततस्स → ततः सः
- प्रियामतुष्टां → प्रियाम् अतुष्टाम्
- मूर्छितःप्रियाम् → मूर्छितः प्रियाम्
- विवासनं प्रतिक्षितौ → विवासनम् प्रति क्षितौ
Seeing his dear wife not pleased (despite his pleadings) and urging him, to the contrary, for the banishment of his son, the king overcome with grief fell down unconscious on the floor.
The teaching
When dharma is cornered by coercive demands, inner strength is required; otherwise grief can paralyze even the best ruler.
Duties in tension
- Keeping a pledged boon vs protecting innocent son from unjust exile
- Marital obligation vs moral resistance to wrongdoing
- King’ s duty to stability vs personal grief incapacitating governance
- Ethical theme
- Dharma-sankata / nīti-viṣama
- How it resolves
- Breakdown/impasse (physical collapse)
For your practice
Reflection on steadiness (dhairya) and surrender of outcomes; supports vairāgya practice by seeing the fragility of worldly power.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Karuna (compassion), with Bhayanaka (fear)
- Mood
- Catastrophic, fainting, grief-stricken
Themes
- Dharma
- Satya
- Ethics
- Itihasa
- Tragedy
The king’ s collapse dramatizes bondage (bandha) to relationships and outcomes; the groundward fall mirrors the mind’ s fall when prāṇa is shaken by grief.
Sorrow (shoka) as product of duality and attachment, a recurring Upanishadic diagnosis, here enacted in royal life.
- Dasharatha and Kaikeyi
- Husband shattered by wife’ s opposition (despairing)
- Kaikeyi and Rama
- Pressing for banishment (hostile)
- Dasharatha and Rama
- Father collapsing at prospect of son’ s exile (heartbroken love)
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.14 (Daśaratha’ s repeated swoons); Rāmacaritamānasa Ayodhyākāṇḍa (Daśaratha’ s collapse on hearing exile)
Purāṇic motifs of a king’ s body mirroring the state’ s health (rājā as embodiment of rāṣṭra)
2.13.24 (Kaikeyī’ s refusal); 2.15-2.16 (preparations and consequences)
Anuṣṭubh
Grieving, dramatic narrative
Sudden drop to mandra on mūrchitaḥ / nipapāta
FAQs
The verse highlights the crushing weight of conflicting duties: personal love and paternal care collide with the binding force of promises (satya), producing moral and emotional collapse.
Kaikeyī persists in demanding Rāma’s exile; Daśaratha, overwhelmed, faints and falls.
Daśaratha’s deep attachment and moral sensitivity—his body reacts to the unbearable ethical conflict.
Ask anything about this verse
Answers come straight from the texts, with the shlokas they draw on. Ask in your own words.
A free sign-in with Google or Apple keeps your chat saved across web and the app.
Read Valmiki Ramayana in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with word-by-word meanings, Sanskrit recitation where available, and more.
