Śrī Vālmīki now elaborates on Rāma’s possession of more auspicious qualities [than the other sons of Daśaratha]. He was endowed with beauty. Ca indicates that He was also endowed with beauty, generosity and other attractive qualities (rūpaudārya-guṇaiḥ) as noted in Rāmāyaṇa 1.50.20. Rāma was vīryavān, that is, a heroic person who overpowers others effortlessly, just as musk emanates from a musk deer with no effort on its part. He was also anasūyakaḥ or nonenvious, that is, not finding fault in those who are faultlessly virtuous. None other than Kausalyā had a son like Rāma. He resembled Daśaratha in terms of appearance, gestures and activities, like a lamp from another lamp.

GLOSS. [Daśarathopamaḥ is derived from daśaratha and upamaḥ.] According to Halāyudha’s lexicon, daśa can mean “a bird”—daśaḥ pakṣī vihaṅgamaḥ. Here the bird [contextually] referred to is Garuḍa. [And ratha which literally refers to a chariot can mean “vehicle.”] Thus daśaratha here can refer to Lord Nārāyaṇa whose vehicle is the bird Garuḍa. Daśarathopamaḥ thus indicates that Rāma was equal to Lord Nārāyaṇa.

The Varāha Purāṇa has stated:

matsya-kūrma-varāhādyāḥ samā viṣṇor abhedataḥ
brahmādyās tv asamāḥ proktāḥ prakṛtiś ca samāsamā

“Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha and so on are equal to Viṣṇu because They are nondifferent from Him. Brahmā and other [living entities] are not equal to Him and Prakṛti is both equal to Him and not equal to Him.”¹

¹. Prakṛti in this verse refers to Lakṣmī. In his writings, Śrī Madhva quotes from several scriptures to prove that the ultimate controller of material nature is Lakṣmī and so he and his followers very commonly refer to her as Prakṛti.