  The action of the non-abelian T-dual of the WZW model is related to an
appropriate gauged WZW action via a limiting procedure. We extend this type of
equivalence to general sigma-models with non-abelian isometries and their
non-abelian T-duals, focusing on Principal Chiral models. We reinforce and
refine this equivalence by arguing that the non-abelian T-duals are the
effective backgrounds describing states of an appropriate parent theory
corresponding to divergently large highest weight representations. The proof
involves carrying out a subtle limiting procedure in the group representations
and relating them to appropriate limits in the corresponding backgrounds. We
illustrate the general method by providing several non-trivial examples.
