Kausalya plunged in sorrow felt a great emptiness like the sea with its waters thrown out. Cradling Dasaratha's head in her lap, looking at Kaikeyi she said, "With Rama banished and Dasaratha dead, the kingdom is now yours to enjoy. Which woman, having lost her husband, who is her god, will want to live, except you who have abandoned your dharma? Just as poisoned food is not aware of the poison in it, a greedy person is not aware of the evil effects of his greed. Your treachery has rendered Rama homeless and Dasaratha lifeless. Impelled by you, unable to dishonor his plighted word, Dasarahta had to send away Rama. Rama does not know that I am now a widow and without sanctuary. As a devoted wife, I will enter the blaze of the funeral pyre."

Kausalya's laments were heart rending as those in charge of the royal funeral tried to extricate the king's body from her embrace. In the aftermath of the tragic events that had come to pass, in Ayodhya its sorrowing population questioned themselves, "Death has deprived us of Dasaratha and fate has deprived us of Rama. How can we survive the evil Kaikeyi, who has even killed her consort?" The king mourning for a son lay dead. Grieving for that king, his consorts lay stricken on the palace floor and the sun as if averse to witnessing such tragedy dipped into the western horizon letting the darkness of night invade the earth.