Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Bāla · 2 of 50
2. The longing and the births
Bāla (बाल)
Daśaratha of Ayodhyā has three queens, Kausalyā, Kaikeyī, and Sumitrā, and no son. A sacrifice is held for children. From it comes a vessel of pāyasa, and he divides it. Kausalyā receives a share, Kaikeyī a share, Sumitrā a share and then the remainder. The arithmetic of the shares is the arithmetic of the sons. Rāma is born to Kausalyā. Bharata to Kaikeyī. Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna to Sumitrā.
The poem's reason for the birth is a boon already given, elsewhere, to Rāvaṇa. He cannot be killed by gods. A man can kill him. Viṣṇu takes birth as that man, and as his brothers. This page keeps the poem's frame and does not turn the birth into a system of incarnations to be memorized. What matters in Ayodhyā is simpler. An aging king has heirs. The city is glad. Lakṣmaṇa attaches himself to Rāma, and Śatrughna to Bharata, as if the pairs knew their plots in advance.
The household festival of his birth is a different shelf, Rāma Navamī. This chronicle stays with the poem. A child is born who will be asked, before he is king, to prove that a father's word outweighs a son's life.
नेपालीमा
दशरथका तीन रानी थिए, सन्तान थिएन। पुत्रेष्टि भयो। पायस बाँडियो। कौसल्याबाट राम, कैकेयीबाट भरत, सुमित्राबाट लक्ष्मण र शत्रुघ्न। कविताले जन्मको कारण रावणले पाएको वर भन्छ। उसलाई देवताले मार्न सक्दैनन्। मान्छेले सक्छ। यो पृष्ठले जन्मलाई कण्ठस्थ गर्नुपर्ने अवतार-सूची बनाउँदैन। बूढा राजाले उत्तराधिकारी पाए। जन्मको घरेलु पर्व अर्को तह हो। जन्मिएको बालकले राजा हुनुअघि पिताको वचन छोराको प्राणभन्दा ठूलो हो भन्ने प्रमाणित गर्नुपर्नेछ।