The Fall of the House of Daśaratha: Kingship in the Raghuvaṃśa

This article argues that Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṃśa (The Lineage of Raghu) constitutes a novel rereading of Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa, in which Kālidāsa reinterprets the reigns of Daśaratha and his son, Rāma, by resituating the epic narrative in the longer arc of a genealogy of the Ikṣvāku dynasty. This syntactic shift transforms the meaning of the reigns of Daśaratha and his son, in rereading their lives in the novel context of kingship of the Gupta period. In this narrative logic, the article contends, Daśaratha’s transgression during hunting, which results in his killing a hermit boy, ought to be read as the pivotal and climactic episode. The episode marks a caesura in the narrative’s depiction of two divergent models of sovereignty. The pre-Daśaratha kings, Dilīpa, Raghu, and Aja, enact their majesty through spectacular rituals of sovereignty centered around the two twin concerns of kingship, namely, the acquisition of the two mistresses that ensure its endurance. Royal glory (Śrī) and the king’s chief bride together enable the perdurance of the lineage. In moments of crisis and transition, the sovereign is further supported by the broader apparatus of power, comprising the court and the normative codes, that guide royal conduct. Daśaratha’s failure to adhere to the normative codes of royal conduct results in the killing of the hermit boy and causes a rupture in the secure transition of kingship. The pre-Daśaratha model never again succeeds. Instead, the ritual body of the king is replaced by the śāstric governmentality of the court and the codes of kingship. These two sources of administrative power find expression in the reigns of the final two kings of prominence in the narrative. Indeed, the narrative concludes with the death of Agnivarṇa, and the court’s conferral of kingship to the pregnant queen who, in the absence of the monarch, rules according to the code of governance.