Child Bharat

Kunti continued, "With this the nanny came through the ashoka grove bearing a toy bird.

Toy Shakunta bird.

It was a little replica of the kind of birds that attended Shakuntala when she was a helpless infant, abandoned in the woods by her mother the apsara Menaka, so long ago. 

Shakunta birds cared for the little infant

And when the nanny came through the aśoka trees, she said: "Here boy. I brought you your toy. Your shakunta birdie. Here boy. Come and play with the birdie." And she showed him the brightly painted bird of clay.

But the boy only heard the word, "shakunta."

"Mother!" he said. "Where is my mother?" he cried, running toward the nanny.

Dushyant went pale. The blood disappeared from his cheeks. "That word. shakunt," he thought. "Could it be that this child had some connection with his long lost love, the innocent girl he had known in the forest of mangos so long ago at the ashram of the sage Kanva? What cruel twist of fate had led to this moment?"

And at this moment the boy grabbed the bird from the nurses hand and ran about in the grove of ashoka trees. As the sunshine threw dappled shadows on the earth he ran barefoot with tousled hair waving the bird about as if it really could fly. 

And as he ran waving his arms about, the nurse could see that an amulet was missing from his wrist.

"Where is your bracelet boy?" she said.

But the boy simply ran around chasing the bird that flew from his hand in his imagination.

"His bracelet fell when he was playing with the lion cubs," said the king, pointing to a glistening object on the ground. 

Bharat playing with lion cub

And where he looked was a golden wrist-bangle studded with precious stones, shining in the golden sands of the ashoka grove. 

Gold bracelet

"Here, allow me." And he reached to pick it up.

"Don't!" said the nurse, grabbing the king's hand before he could touch the amulet. But the king brushed her away and took hold of the shining object, holding it up to the light to inspect it. How it shined in the morning sun! Was this some divine jewelry, crafted from the gods. 

The king smiled at the nurse, admiring the bracelet "Why not?"

"Your majesty. I can see that you are a noble king. But you are in a land of strange miracles. This child is not ordinary at all. When he was born here in this holy place of pilgrimage, Kashyapa himself, son of Marichi, gave this bracelet to the infant at the time of his birth ceremony. 

Endowed with magic powers the amulet is charmed. If it falls to the ground no one may touch it except the boy himself or his parents. That bracelet you are holding is mystical"

"And what happens if someone else touches the amulet, someone other than the boy's father or mother."

The nurse looked him in the eye. "It is a protective amulet. It transforms into an asp and stings him, or anyone else who dares to molest the boy. How strange that it has lost its power. Normally you would writhing in pain from snakebite by now. Perhaps it was broken in the fall"

"Have you ever seen such a terrible thing happen before?" said the king.

"More than once," said the maid.

With this the boy finished his frolicking, ran back to the nurse and the king who returned his amulet. Fixing it once again to his wrist, the boy looked at the king again as if for the first time.  He frowned and said, "Where's my mother?" 

Child Bharat

Dushyant smiled and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Just now we are going to meet her," he said. "You shall see her in just a minute."

The boy tried to shake the foreign hand off his shoulder. "Let me go."

But Dushyant's hand of fatherly affection was firm on the boy's shoulder.

"Be patient, my son." he said. "We shall see your mother in just a moment."

"Let me go," said the boy, "shaking free. Don't call me 'son.' You're not my father."

"We'll soon see about that."

"Let me go! I want to see my mother!" said the boy, pulling free.