‘Surveying that forest with its delighted birds, he beheld a lovely, enchanting, excellent hermitage — strewn with trees of many kinds, where the sacrificial fire blazed brightly, surrounded by ascetics and the sage-Valakhilyas, [full] of throngs of sages; with many altars for the fire, spread with beds of flowers, and gloriously shining with vast riverside groves — [standing] about the sacred river Malini, [with] sweet water, thronged with many flocks of birds, lovely as a forest of austerity, O king. Seeing even the fierce beasts gentle there, he was filled with joy. And that glorious great warrior drew near to that hermitage, resembling the world of the gods, altogether enchanting. He beheld the river clinging to the hermitage, [with] holy waters, standing there like the mother of all living beings: [a river] with sandbanks where ruddy geese dwelt, bearing a foam of flowers, where throngs of kinnaras abide, frequented by monkeys and bears; [a river] resounding with the sacred recitation of the Vedas, adorned with sandbanks, frequented by rutting elephants, tigers, and mighty serpents. That king, having beheld that river clinging to the hermitage, and the hermitage itself, resolved to enter.’