Anecdotal Evidence

  The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose  (The Bard, The Merchant of Venice) Context In the Drona Parva,  Bhūriśravas is engaged in a battle with Sātyaki. He renders Sātyaki unconscious and almost beheads him. Arjuna - urged by Krishna - intervenes to dismember Bhūriśravas's arm, leading to one of those excellent exchanges about the fuzziness of morality in the battlefield, that Mahabharatham is replete with. The enervated Bhūriśravas sheds his arms and begins to fast to death on the battlefriend.  But Satyaki regains consciousness and beheads him. The entire Kaurava army rails at him for his un-Kshatriya-like action. And Satyaki defends his actions elaborately. As a final point when making his case he says: M.N.Dutt translates the verses thus: Kisari Mohan Ganguly, who translated the Mahabharatham chapter by chapter says thus: In days of yore, Valmiki sang this verse on earth, viz., 'Thou sayest, O ape, that women should not be slain. In all ages, howeve...

 In the original story of Sakuntala, as told in the Mahabhratha, there is no ring. Sakuntala appears in Dushmanta's court with their son and requests Dushmanta to declare him the heir to his throne, as he had promised her, before their gandharva vivāham. Though Dushmanta very much remembers their encounter (and thus recognises legitimacy of the claim), he still pretends not to remember and asks her provocative, insulting questions in his court.  But he is ' being cruel only to be kind '. For, this sets the dramatic stage for  a fine articulation of her case by Sakuntala, which ends in the divine voice from the sky, declaring her to be true and for Dushmanta to accept her and their son. And then, Dushmanta tells his courtiers that he always knew but his word would have been insufficient proof to the court. We are of course, more aware of the storyline of KāLidāsa's play abhijñānasākuntalam, where the poet made significant departures. The elevation of the 'word/memory...