Story of the Curse on Dasharatha is found in the Aranya
Kanda of Ramayana. King Dasaratha was a great warrior and he had even helped
Indra in the war in against demons. He was one of the greatest archers and
could hit an arrow on target by merely listening to the source of the sound.
One day the king was on a hunting expedition near a forest
in Ayodhya. The king could not find any animal for a long period of time. Then
he suddenly heard a sound of some animal drinking water.
He shot an arrow in the direction of the sound and suddenly
he heard the cry of a man.
To his utter dismay, the king found that he had shot a young
man. The young man was Shravan Kumar a devoted son. He used to carry his blind parents
in baskets by tying the baskets to the two ends of a strong pole.
When the unfortunate incident took place, young Shravan
Kumar was collecting water for his blind parents.
Shravan Kumar pardoned Dasaratha but requested him to take
water to his old blind parents.
Dasaratha took the water to the blind parents. He then
informed them about their son’s death. The angry parents then cursed Dasaratha
that he will die due to the pain caused due to the parting of his son.
Dasaratha died after he was forced to send Sri
Ram to the forest.