Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 2

Sixty thousand young men rode out of a city one morning. Not one of them came home. And when their father, an old king, finally learned what had happened to them, there was no body to bury, and no funeral fire to light. There was only a heap of ash, deep under the earth, and a promise that would take three more generations to keep.

Source note. Label: scripture. This episode follows the Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda, chapters thirty-eight to forty-one. The boon of Bhrigu, the gourd of sixty thousand seeds, the theft of the horse by Indra, the digging of the sons, and the words of Garuda are in the text. The descriptions of the city and the sons' feelings are my retelling, added to help you see the scene.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the  ...