66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan

3
TWO PROMISES REVIVED
In his busy life Dasaratha perhaps had never studied his
mirror properly. He had had no occasion to scrutinize himself
too long in the mirror or engage himself in any introspection.
Suddenly one day he noticed the whitening hair and the
wrinkles under his eyes—noticed the slight tremor of his
hands, the fatigue of his legs while engaged in a game, and
realized that age had come on. It was by no means
inconsiderable. The original poet Valmiki mentions that
Dasaratha was sixty thousand years old! In our modern
reckoning we may not agree with that figure, but put it at
sixty, seventy, or eighty years; whatever it was, ripeness is
indicated.
In the loneliness of his chamber, Dasaratha told himself,
“One must know when to cease, and not wait for death or
dotage. While my faculties are intact, let me seek retirement
and rest. There is no sense in continuing and repeating the
same set of activities performed all these several thousand
years, as it seems to me now. Enough, I have done enough. I
must now find the time to stand back and watch and lay
aside the burdens of office.”
He arrived at a drastic decision. He summoned his aide