Shravana- Hindu FigureMortal"The Devoted Son"

The Devoted Son

Shravana was the only son of two elderly, blind hermits who lived in the forest as ascetics. Despite his youth, he had dedicated his entire life to their care and comfort, serving them with a devotion that became legendary even among the sages. When his aged parents expressed a desire to undertake a pilgrimage to the sacred tirthas (holy bathing places), Shravana fashioned a shoulder yoke (kavadi) with two baskets suspended from either end, seated his mother in one and his father in the other, and carried them on his shoulders across the forests and rivers of northern India. He walked barefoot, stopping wherever they wished, narrating the scenery they could not see, and tending to their every need.

The Fatal Arrow

One evening during the journey, Shravana set his parents down near the banks of the Sarayu River and went to fetch water for them. He waded into the stream and began filling his water pot. The sound of the pot being submerged — a gurgling that resembled an elephant drinking — reached the ears of Prince Dasharatha, the young heir to the throne of Ayodhya, who was hunting in the forest. Dasharatha possessed a rare skill called shabdabhedi vidya, the ability to aim and shoot arrows guided purely by sound. Believing he was targeting an elephant at the riverbank, he released an arrow. It struck Shravana in the chest.

The Dying Boy

Dasharatha rushed to the river and found not an elephant but a young ascetic bleeding on the bank. Shravana, with his dying breath, did not curse his killer. Instead, his final concern was for his parents: he told Dasharatha where they were waiting and begged the prince to bring them water, for they would be parched and wondering why he had not returned. He died before Dasharatha could do anything to save him.

The Father's Curse

Dasharatha, stricken with guilt and horror, carried the water to Shravana's blind parents. When they heard an unfamiliar footstep and voice, they knew something was wrong. Dasharatha confessed what he had done. Shravana's father, consumed by grief, pronounced a curse upon the prince: just as he would now die from the agony of losing his son, so too would Dasharatha one day die of putra-shoka — grief caused by separation from his own beloved son. The old couple then performed their son's funeral rites and died together on the spot, unable to survive without him. Years later, when the aged King Dasharatha was forced to exile Rama to the forest at Kaikeyi's demand, he collapsed and died from the unbearable separation, and he remembered Shravana's father's curse in his final moments.