Bharata and Shatrughna went to see Rama in the forest, bringing news of their father's death.
"He was so angry at my mother that he wanted Shatrughna to perform the funeral, not me," Bharata explained, weeping.
"And even after the funeral," said Shatrughna, "his spirit is restless. He won't cross the river of death and comes to me in dreams, demanding that we hunt a wild rhino, his four sons, together."
So Dasharatha's sons hunted and killed a rhino.
A flock of crows feasted on the carcass, and this appeased the spirit of Dasharatha; he no longer troubled Shatrughna's dreams.
Inspired by: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana by Devdutt Pattanaik
Notes: This story is on p. 94 of the book. Pattanaik notes that this legend comes from a Ramayana folk play performed in Odisha. Pattanaik also includes a legend where Sita feeds the spirit of Dasharatha with pinda balls made of sand (pp. 94-5).
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