Having spoken thus, the hermit built the funeral pyre for the dead boy, and when it was lit he and his wife leapt amidst the flames and entered the Kingdom of Death.
After Rama had departed from Ayodhya, his mother, Kausalya, reproached Dasaratha, saying: “Thou wouldst not break thy promise to Kaikeyi, but thou didst break thy promise made to thy counsellors that Rama should be thy successor.”
The Maharajah was bowed down with grief, and cried: “Oh! forgive me, Kausalya, because my heart is breaking while I mourn for my beloved son. Oh! do not wound me again, I pray thee.”
Kausalya wept and said: “Alas! my grief hath made me speak cruelly to thee.”
In the middle of the second night after Rama had departed, Dasaratha awoke and cried: “O Kausalya, I am dying with grief. Mine eyes have grown blind with weeping. Take my hand in thine and speak unto me. Oh! bitterly I grieve now that I cannot look upon Rama ere I die. Happy are they whose eyes behold him.... My heart beats feebly”....
When he had spoken thus, Dasaratha fell back and was silent. Kausalya, mother of Rama, and Sumitra, mother of Lakshmana, knelt beside him, and they swooned when his spirit fled.
In the morning messengers were sent speedily to Bharata, who sojourned in the kingdom of the Kaikeyas with his mother's sire, the rajah Aswapati, bidding him to return without delay. Seven nights passed while the prince journeyed towards Ayodhya. He knew not that Dasaratha had died until he reached the palace. Then Kaikeyi, his mother, informed him without tears. Bharata wept, and flung himself down upon the floor and cried aloud.
Kaikeyi said: “Thou shouldst not thus give way to grief, my son.”
Said Bharata: “If the Maharajah were alive, he would have embraced and kissed me on my return. But where is Rama, who is now as a sire unto me?”