Today I have designated Rama as my successor. I believe he will be a successful king one day, he will do great things. I will begin planning the coronation ceremony immediately! It will be outstanding and it will highlight all his strengths, therefore the town will know I am leaving them in good hands.
I am very excited for my greatest son to follow in my footsteps, he has every qualification to be a miraculous king one day. I have told my wives and they are all very happy for Rama. I will tell Bharata when he returns from visiting his grandfather.
Everything is going perfectly. I must go now, there is a lot to be done!
-Dasharatha
Dear Diary,
Today Kaikeyi has come to me demanding Bharata become my successor and that Rama be exiled for fourteen years. I am at a complete loss as of what to do. I feel a great amount of loyalty to my dear son, however, I owe Kaikeyi two promises that have yet to be fulfilled. I am not one to break promises. Therefore I feel I must comply with Kaikeyi's demands and make Bharata king and exile Rama, against my better judgment. I do not feel like Bharata is fit for king, he does not have the followers or the leadership skills that Rama has.
Aside from that, how do I go about exiling my own son? Will he ever forgive me? I cannot imagine betraying him like that. The town will surely not support this.
I will write back when my final decision is made.
-Dasharatha
Dear Diary,
Today I proceeded with exiling my son; I feel both guilt and sadness. However, Rama keeps assuring me that all is well and I must not be angry with Kaikeyi. He quietly accepted his exile and is preparing to leave, surely he will arise and argue back soon or later, right? He must or else I will. I cannot take his simple acceptance of defeat.
Bharata has stepped up and agreed to take the throne and Kaikeyi is more than pleased. I am trying to consider Bharata in a new light and show him how to perform as king for his people. Hopefully this will be a task that is not out of his ability.
The end is nearing for me and I want my people to look back on my time on the throne and be nothing but pleased with the decisions I made as their king.
I must go now....Sumantra is calling my name.
-Dasharatha.
Photo: Wikipedia-Kaikeyi
Author's note:I did my story based on Dasharatha's daily through his decision to make Rama king until his decision to comply with Kaikeyi's demands. I interpreted how I thought he would be feeling throughout the process.
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.
This was my favorite story to read this week! I did my storytelling over it as well! I loved the idea of making this a diary entry so we can see what Dasaratha is potentially thinking when all of this is going on. I'm happy you were able to show the sadness that Dasaratha felt when he had to exile Rama. That was a pretty frustrating part to read. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI like that it's in diary format so that we can get a better picture of what he's thinking. I do wish, however you might've stressed his emotions a bit more. I feel like he was hysterical for a while and your version makes his reaction very mild. I think it's great that he lives long enough to tell Bharata he'll be king and teach some things. Good story!
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