Csaba Dezső* Vṛddhekṣvākuvratam. The commentators’ interpretations of the passages describing the renunciation of kings in the Raghuvaṃśa https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2021-0021 Received July 17, 2021; accepted January 31, 2022; published online ▪▪▪ Abstract: At the end of their life, after transferring the kingdom to their grown-up sons, several kings of the Sūryavaṃśa chose to retire from the world and devoted their last years to asceticism and meditation. The verses of the Raghuvaṃśa describing these kings show considerable variation mainly along the lines of which āśrama (stage of life) the king enters at the end of his life. In many cases the commentators discuss these variants and argue pro and contra the availability of saṃnyāsa for people of royal status, thus participating in a larger mediaeval debate observable in texts on dharmaśāstra. This paper takes into consideration former studies on the subject by Tsuchida, Olivelle and Goodall, and most importantly discusses both published and unpublished commentaries on the Raghuvaṃśa, examining what authorities they quote to give support to their views on this dharmaśāstric issue, as well as the efforts they make to present the Raghuvaṃśa as being both internally consistent and in harmony with the teach- ings on dharma they consider valid. Keywords: āśrama; commentaries; Raghuvaṃśa; renunciation; saṃnyāsa 1 Introduction In his article Die Weltentsagung der Ikṣvāku-Könige Ryutaro Tsuchida examined those passages of the Raghuvaṃśa which describe kings who withdraw from the world at the end of their life. Tsuchida distinguished two groups: to the first belong those kings who in their old age transfer the kingdom to their worthy sons and retire to the forest to live as hermits and strive for liberation from the cycle of rebirths; the kings of the second group end their lives voluntarily at a sacred bathing place (tīrtha) and then are reborn in heaven among the gods. The custom that characterises the first group is said to be the “family vow”, kulavrata, of the *Corresponding author: Csaba Dezső, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, E-mail: dezso.csaba@btk.elte.hu. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3595-0941 ASIA 2022; ▪▪▪(▪▪▪): 1–23 ASIA-2021-0021_proof ■ 25 February 2022 ■ 7:29 pm CORRECTED PROOF