Dasa’s Capital

Dasa’s Capital is the seat of the kingdom at the center of Dasa’s interrupted and restored rule: as a boy displaced from his inheritance, he visits it without recognizing his claim; as an adult, he returns to be acclaimed Rajah; and in the war with Govinda, its capture brings his reign to catastrophe. Across these reversals, the city shifts from glittering spectacle to home and seat of government, then to a conquered place where Dasa’s family suffers its decisive loss.

Festival and Displacement

The capital first draws Dasa back when he and the herdsmen are near the city and hear that a festival is being prepared. The frail, aging Prince Ravana has set the occasion for his son Nala to succeed him. Dasa wants to see the city he remembers only faintly from childhood, as well as its music, parade, noble tournament, townspeople, and magnates. He joins the three young men selected to carry butter from the herdsmen to the court for the sacrifices.

At the palace, the Brahman Vasudeva receives the butter but does not recognize Dasa. The herdsmen then join the celebrations. They watch the sacrifices, the parade of elephants, and Nala’s flower-decked carriage, accompanied by drums. The spectacle astonishes Dasa, even as he regards its pomp with the practical reserve of a herdsman. He is absorbed in what he sees, and the fact that he is the kingdom’s dispossessed firstborn never occurs to him. Nor does he connect Nala, whom he has forgotten, with the succession taking place in his stead. He dislikes the young prince’s vanity and self-importance, but the festival soon carries his attention elsewhere.

Return and Recognition

Years later, the capital is no longer a world visited in ignorance. After Dasa’s identity and royal claim have been restored, he travels toward the city in a procession advancing by short stages. Runners announce that the young Rajah has been found and is on his way. The city answers with the sound of gongs and drums, and a white-clad procession of Brahmans comes out to meet him. Their leader is the successor to Vasudeva, who had sent Dasa among the herdsmen roughly twenty years earlier and had died only recently.

The Brahmans hail Dasa, sing hymns, and lead him to the palace, where sacrificial fires have been prepared. There he is received with further welcomes, homages, blessings, and speeches; the city celebrates into the night. The scale of this return contrasts with Dasa’s earlier visit: the boy who watched Nala’s accession without knowing he had been displaced is now publicly welcomed as Rajah. Yet the grandeur remains unreal to him. At the celebration, the person who feels most immediately real is his wife, Pravati, whom he embraces again.

Palace and Rule

The palace makes the capital more than a ceremonial destination: it is Dasa’s home and the working center of his restored kingship. He learns what he needs to rule through daily instruction from two Brahmans. He attends sacrifices, gives judgments, and trains in chivalry and warfare; Gopala teaches him politics, including the position and privileges of his house, the future claims of his sons, and the kingdom’s enemies and potential allies.

That political education gives the capital’s splendor a precarious foundation. Nala’s mother, who had taken Dasa’s rights and sought his life, has fled to Govinda’s protection. Govinda’s house has long been an enemy of Dasa’s family and disputes territory. The Rajah of Gaipali is more favorably disposed toward Dasa, but kinship with Govinda prevents him from joining an alliance against him. Dasa visits Gaipali and exchanges courtesies, while at home his council weighs whether to invade in response to raids or wait for Govinda’s larger attack, so that responsibility for breaking the peace will be plain.

Invasion and Loss

Govinda’s major attack turns the capital into the object of a war Dasa had hoped to avert. A raid draws Dasa, his cavalry captain, and his best troops toward the frontier. While they are away, Govinda’s main force invades, storms the city gates, and besieges the palace. On hearing the news, Dasa turns back, knowing that Pravati and their son are trapped inside and that fighting has spread through the streets. He rushes toward the city, fights his way through to the palace, and continues until he collapses at twilight, exhausted and wounded.

When Dasa regains consciousness, the battle is lost and the city and palace are in enemy hands. Bound and brought before Govinda, he is led into a room in the palace where he had kept his scrolls. Pravati sits there under guard, their dead son Ravana across her knees. Her stillness and altered appearance convey the enormity of the loss without changing the immediate fact: the family home has become a place of occupation and grief. Dasa kneels beside his child and mourns both Ravana and Pravati. The capital’s final role in this sequence is therefore the inverse of its public welcome: the palace that received Dasa as ruler becomes the setting of his defeat and his family’s bereavement.