Dasharatha (Sanskrit: दशरथ, IAST: Daśaratha; born Nemi) was the king of Kosala, with its capital at Ayodhya, in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

[1] King Dasharatha was believed to be an incarnation of Svayambhuva Manu, the son of the Hindu creator god, Brahma.

His counsellor and charioteer, Sumantra, told him of a prophecy that by bringing the sage Rishyasringa to Ayodhyā, he would beget sons.

[9] To fulfil the prophecy, Dasharatha traveled to Anga, where king Romapada's daughter Shanta was married to Rishyasringa.

As her two boons, Kaikeyi demanded that Bharata be crowned king, and Rama be sent to the forest for a period of fourteen years.

He narrated to Kausalya and Sumitra about how, by accident, he had killed a young man named Shravana, mistaking him to be a deer.

He was an expert in hunting by determining the direction of sound and heard the gurgle of an animal drinking water.

Dasharatha hurried there to find a boy lying sprawled on the banks of the river with an arrow lodged in his chest.

The parents, grief-stricken, cursed Prince Dasharatha: "Just as we are suffering and dying due to the separation from our beloved son, you too shall have the same fate.