Go, dispatch messengers to the city of Ayodhya to invite king Dasharath and bring him here’. Gladly Janaka responded, ‘Very well, gracious sir’, and summoned the messengers and dispatched them forthwith.

He then summoned the leading citizens, and they all came and respectfully bowed their heads. ‘Decorate’, said the king, ‘the bazars and the streets, the houses and the temples and the whole city on all its four sides’.

They returned in joy, each to his own house. The king then sent for his own servants and instructed them, ‘Have splendid pavilions constructed and set up with due care’. They obeyed in all gladness and went-

and sent for a number of clever artisans skilled in the construction of pavilions. Invoking Brahma, they set to work and made pillars of gold like plantain trees-

-with leaves and fruits of emeralds and flowers of rubies. The Creator himself was lost in bewilderment at the sight of that most marvellous pavilion.

The bamboo rods they fashioned all of emerald, straight and knotted, so that they could not be distinguished from real ones. Betel-plants (the leaves of which are chewed in India with areca-nut parings) were artistically fashioned in gold and looked so charming with their leaves that they could not be known for false.

These creepers were intertwined into so many ropes (for holding the bamboos together) with strings of glittering pearls inserted here and there. After much cutting and engraving and inlaying they made lotuses of rubies, emeralds, diamonds and turquoises.