Damayanti Sends Keshini to Observe Bahuka
Damayanti, hearing Brihadashva's account, suspects the charioteer Bahuka is her lost husband Nala. She sends her maid Keshini to secretly observe him — and Keshini returns with reports of impossible things: narrow passages widening before him, vessels filling with water at his glance, fire refusing to burn him, and flowers growing fresher in his hands.
Brihadashva finished his account. Damayanti had heard everything — the story of Nala and the dice game, the exile, the abandonment in the forest, the years of separation. And now she knew: the charioteer Bahuka who had driven Rituparna to Vidarbha was no ordinary man.
She was overcome with grief. But grief, in Damayanti, turned to action.
She called Keshini, her trusted maid. "Go and examine Bahuka in many ways," she said. "Do not say anything. Stay near him and observe his conduct. Whenever he does something, find out the reason. Notice if he does anything attentively. If fire is to be given to him, place an obstruction. If he asks for water, be in no hurry to give it. Observe everything about his conduct and come and tell me. Report everything about whatever else you happen to see."
Keshini left quickly.
She watched Bahuka through the day. What she saw was not the conduct of a charioteer. It was something else entirely — something that made her hurry back to Damayanti with her report.
"Never before have I seen, or heard of, a man with conduct like this," Keshini said. "He is firm and pure in his conduct. When he comes to a short passage, he never lowers his head. But on seeing him, the passage is elevated, and he comfortably passes through. A narrow opening becomes a wide opening for him."
She told Damayanti about the kitchen. The king had sent a great quantity of food for Rituparna — the flesh of many animals. A vessel had been provided for cleaning the meat. When Bahuka looked at the vessel, it filled up with water for cleaning. He grasped a handful of straw, made it into kindling, and held it up — and suddenly it blazed up in flames.
"On witnessing that extraordinary sight, I was astounded and came back here," Keshini said.
But there was more. "Though he touched fire, it did not burn him down. The water flowed rapidly on his instructions. And I witnessed yet another great wonder. He took some flowers in his hand and pressed them gently. When these flowers were pressed in his hands, they became even more fresh and fragrant."
Having heard about these deeds, Damayanti decided that Nala was known through his acts and signs. He had been regained — not yet in body, but in certainty. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 370