before the king who, however, causes the poor accused to be set free,
rewarding him handsomely for his find.

Recollection of his former love now returns to him. His strong and
passionate love for Sakuntala surges upon him with doubled and
redoubled-force.

Indulging in sorrow at his repudiation of Sakuntala, the king passes
three long years; at the end of which Matali, Indra's charioteer,
appears to ask the king's aid in vanquishing the demons. He makes his
aerial voyage in Indra's car. While he is coming back from the realm of
Indra, he alights on the hermitage of Maricha.

Here he sees a young boy tormenting a lion-whelp. Taking his hand,
without knowing him to be his own son, he exclaims:--"If now the touch
of but a stranger's child thus sends a thrill of joy through all my
limbs, what transports must be awakened in the soul of that blest father
from whose loins he sprang!"

From the vaunting speeches of the boy, the king gathers that the boy is
a scion of the race of Puru. His heart everflows with affection for him.
A collection of circumstantial evidence points the boy to be his son.
The amulet on the boy indicates his parentage.

But while he is in a doubtful mood as to the parentage of the refractory
boy, he meets the sage Maricha from whom he learns everything. The name
of the boy is Sarvadamana, afterwards known as Bharata, the most famous
king of the Lunar race, whose authority is said to have extended over a
great part of India, and from whom India is to this day called Bharata
or Bharatavarsa (the country or domain of Bharata.)