With their own hands the king and queen joyfully brought and placed before Rama golden vases and beautiful jewelled trays filled with holy water, fragrant and pure.With their own hands the king and queen joyfully brought and placed before Rama golden vases and beautiful jewelled trays filled with holy water, fragrant and pure.

The sages recited the Vedas in propitious tones and from the sky fell flowers at this favourable hour. The royal couple were enraptured to behold the bridegroom, and began to wash his holy feet.

With their whole frame trembling with rapturous love, they began to wash Rama’s lotus feet. The sounds of singing and kettledrums and shouts of victory in the sky as well as in the city swept over the four quarters of the world. The lotus feet that ever sparkle bright in the lake of Shiva’s bosom, by thinking of which even for once the mind gets purified and all the impurities of the Kaliyuga are driven away.

-by whose touch the sage Gautama’s sinful wife attained salvation, whose honey (Ganga) adorns Shiva’s head is called by the gods perfect purity, and by resorting to which with their bee-like minds sages and mystics attain the goal of their liking –it is those feet that the most blessed Janaka washed amid shouts of victory from all corners. -by whose touch the sage Gautama’s sinful wife attained salvation, whose honey (Ganga) adorns Shiva’s head is called by the gods perfect purity, and by resorting to which with their bee-like minds sages and mystics attain the goal of their liking –it is those feet that the most blessed Janaka washed amid shouts of victory from all corners.

Joining the hands of the bride and the bridegroom, the family priests recited the genealogy of the two families. When they saw that the bridegroom had accepted the bride’s hand, Brahma and the other divinities and men and sages were filled with rapture. As the royal pair gazed on the bridegroom, the very fountain of joy, they were in ecstasies and their hearts were filled with rapture. Having gone through all the rites sanctioned by the Vedas and family usage, the glorious king Janaka gave his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom.Joining the hands of the bride and the bridegroom, the family priests recited the genealogy of the two families. When they saw that the bridegroom had accepted the bride’s hand, Brahma and the other divinities and men and sages were filled with rapture. As the royal pair gazed on the bridegroom, the very fountain of joy, they were in ecstasies and their hearts were filled with rapture. Having gone through all the rites sanctioned by the Vedas and family usage, the glorious king Janaka gave his daughter in marriage to the bridegroom.

As Himavan gave away Parvati to Shiva, and the deity presiding over the seas bestowed Lakshmi on Vishnu, so did Janaka entrust Sita to Rama, and the world was glorified anew. King Videha (Janaka) was unable to make any supplication, for that prince (Rama) of swarthy complexion had truly made him Videha (by robbing him of his senses). When oblations had been offered to the sacred fire with all due rite and the knot tied (as a token of their indissoluble union), the circling of the fire began. (The bride and the bridegroom circumambulate the fire with the ends of their garments tied together into a knot. The union thus takes place in the presence of the fire-god).As Himavan gave away Parvati to Shiva, and the deity presiding over the seas bestowed Lakshmi on Vishnu, so did Janaka entrust Sita to Rama, and the world was glorified anew. King Videha (Janaka) was unable to make any supplication, for that prince (Rama) of swarthy complexion had truly made him Videha (by robbing him of his senses). When oblations had been offered to the sacred fire with all due rite and the knot tied (as a token of their indissoluble union), the circling of the fire began. (The bride and the bridegroom circumambulate the fire with the ends of their garments tied together into a knot. The union thus takes place in the presence of the fire-god).

At the sound of the huzzas, the praises of the bards, the recitation of the Vedic texts, the din of the festal songs and the beating of kettledrums, the all-wise immortals rejoiced and rained down blossoms from the tree of Paradise.At the sound of the huzzas, the praises of the bards, the recitation of the Vedic texts, the din of the festal songs and the beating of kettledrums, the all-wise immortals rejoiced and rained down blossoms from the tree of Paradise.