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178 own child? The touch of soft sandal paste, of women, of (cool) water is not so agreeable as the touch of one's own infant son locked in one's embrace. As a Brahmana is the foremost of all bipeds, a cow, the foremost of all quadrupeds, a protector, the foremost of all superiors, so is the son the foremost of all objects, agreeable to the touch. Let, therefore, this handsome child touch thee in embrace. There is nothing in the world more agreeable to the touch than the embrace of one's son. O chastiser of foes, I have brought forth this child, O monarch, capable of dispelling all thy sorrows after bearing him in my womb for full three years. O monarch of Puru's race. He shall perform a hundred horse-sacrifices-these were the words uttered from the sky when I was in the lying. in room. Indeed, men going into places remote from their homes take up there other's children on their laps and smelling their heads fell great happiness. Thou knowest that Brahmanas repeat these Vedic mantras on the occasion of the consecrating rites of infancy.--Thou art born, O son, of my body! Thou art sprung from my heart. Thou art myself in the form of son. Live thou to a hundred years! My life dependeth on thee, and the continuation of my race also, on thee. Therefore, O son, live thou in great happiness to a hundred years.--He hath sprung from thy body, this second being from thee! Behold thyself in thy son, as thou beholdest thy image in the clear lake! As the sacrificial fire is kindled from the domestic one, so hath this one sprung from thee! Though one, thou hast divided thyself I In course of bunting while engaged in pursuit of the deer, I was approached by thee, O king, I who was then a virgin in the asylum of my father! Urvasi, Purvachitti, Sahajanya, Menaka, Viswachi, and Ghritachi, these are the six foremost of Apsaras. Amongst them again, Menaka, born of Brahman, is the first. Descending from heaven on Earth, after intercourse with Viswamitra, she gave birth to me. That celebrated Apsara, Menaka. brought me forth in a valley of Himavat. Bereft of all affection, she went away, cast me there as if I was the child of some body else. What sinful act did I do, of old, in some other life that I was in infancy cast away by my parents and at present am cast away by thee! Put away by thee, I am ready to return to the asylum of my father. But it behoveth thee not to cast off this child who is thy own !"

"Hearing all this, Dushmanta said, 'O Sakuntala, I do not know having begot upon thee this son! Women generally speak untruths. Who shall believe in thy words? Destitute of all affection, the lewd Menaka is thy mother, and she cast thou off on the surface of Himvat as one throws away, after the worship is over, the flowery offering made to his gods. Thy father too of the Kshattriya race, the lustful Viswamitra, who was tempted to become a Brahmana, is destitute of all