Death of Dasaratha after the exile of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita is narrated in the Ayodhya Kanda. Rama, after hearing from Kaikeyi about the two boons granted to her by Dasaratha, decided at once to go to the forest and asked for the coronation of Bharata to the throne of Ayodhya. Hearing about the banishment of Rama to the jungle for fourteen years, Lakshmana and Sita also decided to go along with Rama. Rama, Lakshmana and Sita together left Ayodhya for the jungle. Dasaratha, the king of Ayodhya, loved Rama very much and thus after Rama`s depart he was utterly struck with grief and remembered the curse which was given to him by a sage and his wife long ago.
Meanwhile the kingdom of Ayodhya was transformed into a place of grief and mourning, without comfort for king or people after the departure of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita. On the fifth day of Rama`s exile, just when Kaushalya for a moment yielded to her sorrow and reproached her lord, there came into Dasaratha`s mind a recollection of a sin committed in a past life by means of an arrow-finding-its-mark-by-sound - which sin now bore the fruit of exile and death. Remembering this sin, he told Kaushalya the same night how the same was committed by him.
Dasaratha`s Sin
Long ago, when Dasaratha was a young king he was a skilled bowman. He could hit the aim by sound alone. Once when on a hunting expedition, by the river Sarayu, the young king heard a sound like the rilling of a water-jar or the roaring of an elephant. Then he shot an arrow in the direction of the sound, for it was dark, so that nothing could be seen and soon after heard moans and cries, and the king found a hermit named Shravan Kumar by the bank, pierced by his shaft. Shravan Kumar told the king of his estate and bade him seek his aged parents in the hermitage near by, and therewith he lost is breath, and left the king lamenting for his sin. Dasaratha then sought his father and his mother, who were anxious in mind because of their son`s delay, and confessed to them his deed; and the rishi, who by his curse might have burned him to a cinder, spared his life since he freely told him all that had befallen. But when the funeral pyre was ready, and those aged ones, called by a vision of their son, burned their bodies with his upon the pyre, they cursed the king saying that in the end the king of Ayodhya should meet his death by grieving for a son.
Dasaratha, thus, informs Kaushalya that the time has finally arrived for his death as uttered by the sage. Dasaratha told that he could not bear the pain of Rama`s exile into the forest and his state was like a smoking lamp that burns low when very little oil was left. Thus, calling Rama, Kaushalya, Sumitra, and addressing Kaikeyi as `cruel Kaikeyi` Raja Dasaratha died.
Bharata`s return from Girivraja to Ayodhya
When the news a Dasaratha`s death spread Ayodhya was plunged in deeper grief, for in a kingless country all goes amiss, rain does not fall, there are no rejoicings, nor prosperity, nor safety; a kingdom without a king is like a river without water, a wood without grass, a herd of kine without a keeper; a king is father and mother and takes care of the welfare of all men and creatures. Considering the situation, the palace officers and family priests took counsel, headed by Vashishta, to send envoys to Bharata, with a message that he should come at once for a matter that might not be delayed; but these envoys should not tell him anything of Rama`s exile or the king`s death. Riding in well-horsed cars, those envoys, going very swiftly, reached on an evening the wealthy city of Girivraja, in Kekaya, where Bharata was lodged with his maternal uncle. That same night Bharata dreamt many evil dreams and might not be comforted. The envoys entered and were well received.
Bharata inquired if all was well with his father and mothers and brothers, and was assured that it was even so. Then the ambassadors delivered their message, and Bharata told his uncle and his grandfather, and took leave to go to Ayodhya. They conferred on him many gifts, as woolen clothes and deer-skins and elephants and dogs and swift horses; but he, filled with anxiety because of the dreams and the very hasty journey of the envoys, had little pleasure in the gifts, and taking with him Shatrughna, he departed quickly to Ayodhya.
Kaikeyi`s son beheld that best of cities at sunrise on the seventh day. Seeing that all was dark and silent in that place of sadness, and beholding many inauspicious sights foreboding ill, Bharata entered the royal palace with a heavy heart. Not seeing his father in his quarters, he sought his mother Kaikeyi and touched her feet. She rose from her golden seat delighted, and asked him of his welfare and his journey. This he told her, and he asked for the king and enquired if his father is with mother Kaushalya. Bharata asked for Rama as he addressed him as his father, brother and friend and also searched for Dasaratha. Then Kaikeyi told Bharata everything as to how his father died and about the two boons for which Rama along with Lakshmana and Sita went into exile in the forest for fourteen years and how she planned for his coronation to the throne of Ayodhya. Bharata asked Kaikeyi about the last words uttered by his father at the time of his death and Kaikeyi told that the king last told that those would be most fortunate who would see Rama, along with Lakshmana and Sita returning from exile to Ayodhya.
After hearing everything Bharata became furious and blamed Kaikeyi as Dasaratha`s murderer. Then he told Kaikeyi that she had no idea of his love for Rama and made up his mind to bring back Rama from exile. He cursed his mother that she would suffer misery in this world and also after death. Then came Kaushalya and Vashishtha and greeted Bharata; and, guided by that skilful sage, Bharata performed all funeral rites of his father, and with his mothers walked sun wise around the burning pyre, and after mourning for ten days gathered up the ashes. Then, as he still grieved out of all measure, Vashishtha counseled him, discoursing of the birth and death of beings and the fate of every creature. Thus comforted, those chiefs of men held up their heads again, like Indra`s shining banner stained by sun and rain.
