730. Dasaratha says, “You were going to become king
as the people of this flourishing country
bowed to your strong feet and worshipped you.
When you were about to sit on the throne,
O Rāma, your step-mother said,
‘Go and stay for a long time in the large forest. ’
I listened to the words of Kaikeyi, your mother,
and asked you to go to the forest.
O my dear son, that is what I did to you!”
Word by Word (WBW) meaning
(The words may be rearranged to facilitate conversion from poetry to prose (Aṉvayam). Please read the meanings (in black) continuously to form the sentence and understand the simplified meaning based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai for the verse.)
In this deeply moving pāsuram, the Āzhvār fully immerses himself in the profound anguish and heartbreak of Emperor Daśaratha. Channeling the emperor's sorrow, he laments the cruel twist of fate at the very moment of Śrī Rāma's coronation, crying out against the machinations of Kaikēyī that condemned the perfect Prince to a harsh forest