When her companions saw her condition, her body thrilling all over and her eyes full of tears, they all gently asked her to tell them what gladdened her heart.

“Two princes,” she said, “have come to see the garden, both of tender age and altogether charming, one dark and the other fair; how can I describe them? For speech is sightless and the eyes are mute!”

All the clever maidens rejoiced to hear this. Perceiving the intense longing in Sita’s heart, one of them said, “They must be the two princes, my dear, who, I was told, arrived yesterday with the sage (Vishvamitra),-

-and who have both captivated the hearts of men and women of the city by casting the spell of their entrancing beauty. All are talking of their loveliness here, there and everywhere. We must certainly see them, for they are worth seeing!”

The words of this damsel highly pleased Sita and her eyes were restless to see them. With that dear companion to lead the way, she followed; none guessed that hers was an old love (for Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu and Sita of Lakshmi).

Remembering Narada’s words, she was filled with innocent love, and anxiously turned her gaze on every side like a startled fawn.

Hearing the tinkling of her bangles, the small bells on her girdle and the anklets, Rama thought within himself and then said to Lakshmana, “It sounds as though Cupid has sounded his kettledrum, ambitious to conquer the universe!”