Canto 2: Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa ()Chapter 1: Daśaratha Desires to Appoint Rāma as the Crown PrinceText 2.1.35
Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 1: Daśaratha Desires to Appoint Rāma as the Crown Prince
Text 2.1.35
अथ राज्ञो बभूवैवं वृद्धस्य चिरजीविनः।
प्रीतिरेषा कथं रामो राजा स्यान्मयि जीवति॥
atha rājño babhūvaivaṁ vṛddhasya cira-jīvinaḥ
prītir eṣā kathaṁ rāmo rājā syān mayi jīvati
atha = then; rājñaḥ = the king; babhūva = thought; evam = thus; vṛddhasya = for I am old; cira-jivinaḥ = and have lived long; prītiḥ = would be my pleasure; eṣā = this; katham = how; rāmaḥ = Rāma; rājā = the king; syāt = can become; mayi jīvati = while I am alive.
Then the king thought thus, “How can Rāma become the king while I am alive? This would be my pleasure, for I am old and have lived long.”
Texts 35 to 39 clarify the previous text. After the king noticed Rāma’s qualities, he thought as described in texts 35 to 39. King Daśaratha considered himself to be old by age. Daśaratha remembered that he had granted Kaikeyī two boons and was apprehensive about them.1 Therefore he wondered how Rāma could be made the king while he was alive.
1. As it will be clear later in this Canto when Rāma meets Bharata in Citrakūṭa, Daśaratha had married Kaikeyī with the condition that her son would become the next king. But after Rāma’s birth, none of them took this seriously upon being attracted to Rāma’s all-pleasing transcendental qualities. Still, Daśaratha had granted Kaikeyī two boons earlier on and he was frightened that she might use them to prevent Rāma from becoming the king. Therefore he was filled with great anxiety about enthroning Rāma before he died.