Valmiki Ramayana 2.58.2-3: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 58, Shlokas 2-3
अष्टपञ्चाशः सर्गः (Sarga 58): Daśaratha Questions Sumantra; Messages from the Forest Threshold
Setting: Ayodhyā palace (king’s chamber/court vicinity)Places named: Ayodhyā
अथ सूतो महाराजं कृताञ्जलिरुपस्थितः ।
राममेवानुशोचन्तं दुःखशोकसमन्वितम् ॥२॥
वृद्धं परमसन्तप्तं नवग्रहमिव द्विपम् ।
विनिश्वसन्तं ध्यायन्तमस्वस्थ मिव कुङञरम् ॥३॥
atha sūto mahārājaṃ kṛtāñjalir upasthitaḥ |
rāmam evānuśocantaṃ duḥkhaśokasamanvitam ||2||
vṛddhaṃ paramasantaptaṃ navagraham iva dvipam |
viniśvasantaṃ dhyāyantam asvastham iva kuñjaram ||3||
सूत रथ ने हाथ जोड़ के राजा के पास आके कहा। राजा बूढ़ा था, बहुत दुखी था, बस राम का नाम रो रहा था। ऐसा लग रहा था जैसे कोई पकड़ा हुआ हाथी चैन से मर रहा हो, साँस ले रहा हो, कुछ समझ में नहीं आ रहा था।
Sandhi Notes
- कृताञ्जलिरुपस्थितः = कृताञ्जलिः + उपस्थितः (visarga loss)
- राममेव = रामम् + एव (m+e→me)
- ध्यायन्तमस्वस्थम् = ध्यायन्तम् + अस्वस्थम् (m+a→ma). Note: the accusative participles (अनुशोचन्तम् etc.) qualify the implied object 'महाराजम्' (king) whom the sūta approached
Then the charioteer with folded palms approached the king who, deeply afflicted with grief and pain, was brooding over Rama alone. Aged Dasaratha was heaving deep sighs like a newlycaptured, indisposed elephant.
The teaching
When vows are granted without foresight, dharma can collapse into irreversible suffering; rulers must unite satya with viveka.
Duties in tension
- Keeping a pledged boon (satya) vs protecting son and ensuring just succession
- Kingly duty to uphold welfare vs personal bondage to promise
- Ethical theme
- Rājadharma / satya-vrata with pramāda (lack of foresight)
- How it resolves
- Tragic (no satisfying resolution; grief consumes the agent)
For your practice
Meditation on compassion and the cost of attachment; prompts prayer for steadiness (dhairya) amid loss.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Karuna (compassion), with Shanta (peace)
- Mood
- Lamenting, exhausted, heartbroken
Themes
- Itihasa
- Dharma
- Satya
- Pathos
- Kingship under grief
The mighty (king/elephant) rendered powerless by attachment; grief reveals the fragility of worldly sovereignty (anityatā).
Echo of the insight that external power cannot secure inner steadiness; sorrow arises from attachment (as later systematized in mokṣa discourse).
- Suta and Dasharatha
- Servant-messenger approaching king with reverence (respectful concern)
- Dasharatha and Rama
- Father grieving for exiled son (overwhelming sorrow)
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.59–2.60 (Daśaratha’s continued lament leading toward his end); Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.20–2.21 (Ayodhyā’s grief mirroring the king’s)
Purāṇic/Itihāsa motif: the king as elephant (gaja) symbolizing sovereignty subdued by fate
Ayodhyākāṇḍa: Daśaratha’s earlier promise to Kaikeyī culminating in his breakdown; foreshadowing his death from grief
Mixed: Anuṣṭup ślokas (with extended descriptive pādas across verses)
Grieving
Slow vilambita with deep kampita on "duḥkha-śoka" and "viniśvasantam"
FAQs
It highlights the human cost when dharma and royal decisions fracture family bonds—grief becomes a consequence of moral and political rupture.
Sumantra comes to Daśaratha, who is devastated and continually thinking of Rāma after the exile decision.
Daśaratha’s deep paternal attachment (though painful here), showing the epic’s realism about emotion within dharmic crises.
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