Baal Kaanda
54 - Janaka's despatching of messengers to Ayodhya and departure of the marriage procession from there
Chaupais
Description
On magnificent elephants were mounted splendid seats with canopies wrought in a manner beyond all description. Elephants in rut, adorned with clanging bells, headed like beautiful (rumbling) clouds in the rainy month of Sravana (roughly corresponding to August). There were various kinds of other vehicles, such as charming palanquins, sedans etc., on which rode companies of noble Brahmanas, incarnations, as it were, of all the hymns of the Vedas. Genealogists, bards, panegyrists and rhapsodists too rode on vehicles appropriate to their respective rank; while mules, camels and oxen of various breeds carried on their backs commodities of innumerable kinds. Millions of porters marched with burdens slung across their shoulders; who could enumerate the varieties of goods they carried? Crowds of servants also proceeded on the journey equipping themselves in their own way and forming batches of their own.