The city was full of flags and banners and festal arches. It was decorated in a way which defies description. Showers of flowers dropped from heaven; everybody was rapt in the joy of absorption into Brahma. Women streamed forth in troops; they came running in their natural toilet. Carrying jars of gold and salvers full of auspicious articles, they entered the portals of the royal palace singing as they went along. Waving lights and passing offerings round and round over the child’s head as an act of exorcism they threw themselves at the babe’s feet again and again. Bards, minstrels, panegyrists and songsters chanted solemn praises of the Lord of Raghus. Everyone gave whatever one possessed; even he who received did not retain it. All the lanes of the city were muddy with pastes of musk, sandal and saffron. (1—4)