Vaishampayana said: “Having said this much, Shakuntala went away; and then, to Dushyanta, surrounded by priests, the purohita, teachers, and counselors, a bodiless voice spoke from the sky: ‘The mother is but a vessel [holding] the father; the son is that very father, by whom he was begotten; O Dushyanta, nourish your son, do not despise Shakuntala. O lord of men, he who gave the seed is the father; the son delivers his ancestors from the abode of Yama; you are the begetter of this fruit; Shakuntala has spoken the truth. A wife bears a son as a second, divided limb of the husband’s own body; therefore, O King Dushyanta, nourish the son born of Shakuntala. O Paurava, who among the living would abandon his own living son? That would be ruin; nourish the great-souled son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala. And since by our word he must be nourished (bhartavya) by you, let your son therefore be named Bharata.’ King Paurava, having heard this utterance of the gods, greatly rejoiced, and said to the purohita and counselors: ‘Hear the words of this heavenly messenger; I myself know him indeed as my own child. If I had accepted this son merely on her word, there would have been doubt among the people, and he would not have been recognized as pure.’”