Dasharatha Draws the Three Beloved Forms to His Heart
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 76
Doha 76 · Movement 2 of 2
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Dasharatha looks again and again at Sita, Ram, and Lakshmana. His gaze moves among the three beautiful forms as though sight might prevent distance.
Love unmans the king. He gathers them repeatedly against his heart, releasing only to look and drawing them close once more.
The doha suspends royal business within embrace. No command is given and no argument advanced. The father attempts through the body what authority cannot accomplish: to hold the departing ones inside the circle of his arms, where forest, oath, and fourteen years cannot yet enter.
Dasharatha loosens each embrace only long enough to see the faces he cannot bear to lose.
Read the passage from the Manas
सीय सहित सुत सुभग दोउ देखि देखि अकुलाइ। बारहिं बार सनेह बस राउ लेइ उर लाइ।।76।।
Looking again and again at Sita and his two handsome sons, the king grows distraught. Overcome by love, he draws them to his heart again and again.