King Dasharatha emerges in the Ramayana as essentially a noble character, though flawed by the weakness that allowed him to be swayed by his second wife Kaikeyi, whose ambitions for her son caused the king to banish the crown prince Rama for fourteen years. Having succumbed to this pressure, Dasharatha, plagued by regrets, took to his sickbed, where he eventually died of grief. The sorrow of his queens and female attendants is conveyed by their dishevelled hair and by the cradling of their cheeks in their hands.

Opaque watercolour and gold on paper

Folio from an illustrated manuscript of Ramayana from the reign of Akbar (1556–1605)