Happily the women of the city waved their lustral lights around his head, rejoicing to see the four noble princes. They were still more glad when they lifted the fair curtains of the palanquins and beheld the brides.

Thus gladdening the hearts of all, they arrived at the gate of the royal palace, where the delighted mothers performed the lustral rite for the princes and their brides.

Time after time they waved the festal lamps about their heads in a rapture of love that is beyond all words. They scattered around in boundless profusion ornaments and gems and costumes of various kinds.

The queen-mothers were enraptured to behold their four sons and their brides. As they gazed again and again on the beauty of Sita and Rama, they joyously regarded the object of their lives as realized.

As her companions looked over and over again into Sita’s face, they sang and exulted over the merit they had won. Every moment the gods rained down flowers and danced and sang and offered their obsequious homage.

Beholding the four charming pairs, Sarasvati ransacked all her store of similes, but her choice fell on none; they all seemed too trivial. She therefore stood gazing with unwinking eyes, enchanted with their loveliness.

Having performed the rites prescribed by the Vedas and the custom of the family, the queen-mothers waved lustral lights over all the princes and their brides and brought them to the palace, offering water to them as a mark of respect and spreading ceremonial carpets along the way.