||Sri Ram Jayram Jaya Jaya Ram||

Chapter -103 – Dhoha

The grand procession of the people of the groom to the city of Mithila

The people of the city of Ayodhya started decorating their homes, public places, streets, etc, in great enthusiasm, even though the City of Ayodhya is always marvelous, the people wanted to exhibit their love and respect for their caring and compassionate prince Rama, they engaged in various decorative works. The city gained a new look with the decorative, Dhwaja, Pathaka, curtains, Chamara, and built numerous tents and decorated them with golden Kalash, Thorana, gem decorated windows.   They have decorated with the grass, turmeric, curd, Akshatha, flower garlands in the tents. The people always keep their houses decorated with the marvelous Rangoli drawn, sprinkled the streets with the water contained the paste of sandalwood, saffron, Gorochana and camphor.  The most attractive women assembled in the city,  some of them had supreme brilliance, some of them had a lustrous face like the moon, some had the eyes resembles antelope, some of them excelled the beauty of Devi Rathi, and had sixteen types of skills of beautification, sang melodiously that excelled the Cuckoos. The splendor of the palace of King Dhashratha was beyond description, the Mandapa constructed was attracted to the whole Universe, was decorated with various Mangaladhravya. The sounds of Dhundhubi reverberated in the sky; Vandhigans were singing in praise of the clan of Raghu, the twice-born were reciting Vedic chants, the attractive women folks singing in praise of Rama and Sita. The city of Ayodhya was overflowing with bliss.  How a poet did describe the splendor of the city of Ayodhya, which is the birthplace of the Supreme Lord Rama, who is the jewel in the crown of deities ?.

King Dhashratha called for Bharatha and spoke “ Oh! Dear son, get ready with the horses, elephants, and chariots, and be prepared to leave for the wedding procession of Rama.” Bharatha and Shathrughna were extremely happy, Bharatha instructed the care-takers of the animals and they rushed to follow the orders of the princes. They have decorated the horses, elephants, and chariots with various decorative, there were various types of good quality horses in different colors and breed got ready for the procession, there were attractive and fast-runners of various breeds, they flew like the wind, there were handsome princes of Bharatha’s age driven the chariots, horses, and elephants. The Princes were attired in marvelous clothe, adorned in various ornaments all over the body, wielded in bow and arrow. These youth were experts in the usage of armaments, enthusiastic, and valorous as well. The procession followed with the sounds of divine instruments, and repercussions. The charioteers were decorated their chariot with various colors of Dhwaja, Pathaka, Chamara, bells, and gems, they excelled in the beauty of the chariot of Surya. They had lots of marvelous horses with their ears in black color; they were safely tied to the chariots.  Even the ascetic got attracted to the beauty of these horses adorned in ornaments,  had great speed, seemed their hooves are not touching the water or sand. The chariots were filled with various Astra Shastra, thus the preparation for the procession got over and duly informed their master.

The people of the groom arrived in a number of chariots assembled in the out of the city; everyone has performed their duties in a perfect manner. The elephants got ready with beautiful seats on their upper back, these elephants were beautifully decorated with ornaments and silk garments, they moved in cluster resembled the dark rain clouds in the month of Shravana. There were numerous vehicles, palanquin, Doli decorated with colorful silk clothes and ornaments.  The twice-born took a seat in the palanquin resembled the Chandass of Vedas. Magatha, Sutha, Vandhiganas traveled on the vehicles according to their status. The goods were carried on the back of donkeys, camels, and bulls, and crores of people carried the luggage on their shoulders. There were several thousand attendants of the palace assembled on that journey. They were extremely happy and anxious to meet Rama and Lakshmana.