The essence of this Kanda and entire Ramayana can be best described as “Honouring one’s own promise/word”.
King Dasaratha, though ruled the Kosala Province for thousands of years, was about to default, as per Valmiki Ramayana, in honouring his own promises, atleast on 2 occasions.
1) Sage Viswamitra comes to Ayodhya, for
seeking help of King Dasaratha in completing the Vedic Ritual that he
started. King Dasaratha gives promise to
Sage Viswamitra to extend what ever help he needed.
But after hearing about Maareecha and
Subhahu, the followers of Great demon King Ravana, he pleads his inability to
help Sage Viswamitra. At that juncture,
Sage Vasistha intervenes and advises the King to honour his promise.
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2) Again, King Dasaratha gives 2 boons to
Kaikeyi in earlier period and when the latter asks to honour his boons by
Coronating Bharata in place of Sri Rama and sending Sri Rama to forest, he
becomes mad and accuses Kaikeyi of bringing disgrace to both Kekaya and
Ikhsvaku lineages. Here, Sri Rama comes
to his rescue and saw that the King’s promises were honoured.
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It is very easy to give promise but hard
to honour it.
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