Bahuka Reunites with His Children Indrasena

Keshini brought the twins to Bahuka. He saw them and recognized them immediately — Indrasena and her brother, his own children, whom he had not seen since the night he fled into the forest, driven by the dice and the demon Kali. The king rushed to them. He embraced them, pulled them close, placed them on his lap. For a moment, he was not Bahuka the charioteer, not the deformed cook, not the servant of Rituparna. He was Nala, father of these children, king of Nishadha, a man who had lost everything and now held a piece of it again. He wept loudly. Great grief overcame him. He held his children — who were like divine children in their beauty — and cried, displaying his mental anguish openly, without restraint. The years of silence, the years of disguise, the years of serving others while his own kingdom slipped away — all of it poured out in that single embrace. Then, suddenly, he let his children go. He turned to Keshini. "These twins are just like my own children," he said, "and on suddenly seeing them, I began to shed tears. But you have been coming here quite often, and people may interpret these signs wrongly. We are guests in your country. Therefore, I bow down before you. Go away." He bowed before her — a king bowing to a maid — and sent her away. The reunion was over as quickly as it had begun. But the recognition had happened. The children had been seen. The father had held them, wept over them, and let them go.