Śakuntalā by Kālidāsa

First produced:Abhijnāna´ākuntala, c. 395 c.e.; first transcribed, c. 395 c.e. (English translation, 1789)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Love

Time of plot: Golden Age of India

Locale: India

Principal characters

• Śakuntalā, the beautiful daughter of a Brahman and a nymph
• Kanwa, Śakuntalā’s foster father and a wise hermit
• Dushyanta, the king of India, in love with Śakuntalā
• Mathavya, the court jester

The Story:

Dushyanta, the king of India, is hunting one day when his chariot takes him into the sacred grounds of a religious establishment. A hermit stops the king and reminds him that he has sworn to protect the religious people who live there. The king leaves his chariot and wanders through the hallowed groves. As he walks, he hears voices and then sees three young women passing through the grove to water the plants growing there. When a bee, angered by their presence, flies at one of the young women, she playfully calls out for Dushyanta to rescue her, not knowing that the king is anywhere near.

Dushyanta, stepping from his hiding place, announces himself, but not as the king; rather, he says that he is the king’s representative appointed to oversee the safety of the grove and its inhabitants. While they talk, Dushyanta learns that Śakuntalā, the young woman who had cried out, is no ordinary maid but the child of a Brahman and a water nymph. Dushyanta falls in love with her. Śakuntalā also feels the first pangs of love for the king and believes that the Hindu god of love has struck her with his five flower-tipped arrows.

Mathavya, the king’s jester, complains to his master that the king and his retinue spend too much time in hunting and that this life is too hard on him. Ostensibly to humor the jester, but actually to have more time to seek out Śakuntalā, the king calls off any further hunting and orders his retinue to camp near the sacred grove in which Śakuntalā lives with her foster father, a hermit wise man named Kanwa. A short time later, word comes to the camp that the king’s mother wishes him to return to the capital to take part in certain ceremonies, but Dushyanta is so smitten with love for Śakuntalā that he sends his retinue back while he remains at the sacred grove in the hope of seeing Śakuntalā again.

Since their first meeting, both the king and Śakuntalā have languished with love. At last Dushyanta finds an excuse and opportunity to revisit the grove, and there he meets Śakuntalā again. Both are clearly in love, but neither knows how to tell the other. One of Śakuntalā’s attendants finally conceives the idea of having her send a love note to the king. As Śakuntalā writes the note, Dushyanta hears her speaking the words aloud. He steps from his place of concealment and tells her of his determination to make her his consort and the head of his household, above all his other wives. Śakuntalā leaves, telling him that she will have to talk over the subject of marriage with her attendants, for her foster father, Kanwa, is absent and so cannot give his consent.

Sometime later, a scurrilous and eccentric sage comes to the sacred grove. He feels himself slighted by Śakuntalā, who had not heard of his arrival and so has not accomplished the rites of hospitality to suit him. In his anger, he calls down a curse on the young woman, although she does not know of it. The curse is that her lover will not remember her until he sees once again the ring of recognition that he will give her. The attendants who hear the curse are afraid to tell Śakuntalā for fear she will become ill with worry.

Before Dushyanta leaves the sacred grove to return to his palace, Śakuntalā agrees to a secret marriage and becomes his wife, but she decides to remain at the grove until the return of her foster father. Before he leaves, the king gives her a ring as a sign of her new status. Not long after Dushyanta’s departure, Kanwa returns. Having the gift of omniscience, he knows all that has taken place, and as he reenters the sacred grove, a supernatural voice tells him that Śakuntalā shall give birth to a son destined to rule the world. Kanwa, thus assured of the future, gives his blessing to the union of Śakuntalā and Dushyanta. He has his people make the necessary preparations for sending the bride to her husband, to appear as the royal consort.

When the time comes for her departure, Śakuntalā is filled with regret, for she loves the sacred grove where she was reared. In addition, she has premonitions that her future will not be a happy one. Kanwa insists, however, that she make ready to leave, so that her son can be born in his father’s palace.

When the hermits of the sacred wood appear in Dushyanta’s presence with Śakuntalā, the curse proved true, for the king fails to remember Śakuntalā and his marriage to her. The hermits, feeling that they have done their duty in escorting Śakuntalā to her husband, leave her in the king’s household. Śakuntalā, heartbroken at her husband’s failure to remember her, looks for the ring of recognition he had given her, but the ring has been lost during the journey from the sacred wood to the palace.

Not long after Dushyanta has sent Śakuntalā from his presence, his courtiers come to tell him that a strange, winged being was seen flying into the palace gardens, where it picked up Śakuntalā and carried her away into the heavens. The king is much disturbed by this, but he resolves to put the event from his mind. Later, the ring of recognition, bearing the king’s crest, is discovered in the hands of a poor fisherman, who had found it in the belly of a carp. The ring is carried to Dushyanta; no sooner has he set eyes on it than he remembers Śakuntalā and their secret marriage, for the sight of the ring removes the curse.

Remembering Śakuntalā does him no good; when she was snatched from the palace garden, she was lost to mortal eyes. Dushyanta grows sad and refuses to be comforted. Meanwhile, the nymph who stole Śakuntalā from the palace garden keeps watch and takes note of the king’s unhappiness. Finally she takes pity on him and has the chariot of the god Indra sent down to earth to convey Dushyanta to heaven for a reunion with Śakuntalā.

In heaven the king finds a young boy playing with a lion. He is amazed to see what the child is doing and feels a strong attraction toward him. While Dushyanta watches, an amulet falls from the child’s neck. The king picks it up and replaces it on the boy’s shoulders, much to the surprise of the boy’s heavenly attendants, for the amulet is deadly to all but the child’s parents. Dushyanta, recognized as the boy’s true father, is taken to Śakuntalā, who readily forgives her husband, for she has heard the story of the curse. The gods, happy to see the pair reunited, send them back to earth, along with their little son Bharata, to live many years in happiness together.

Bibliography

Bose, Mandakranta. Supernatural Intervention in “The Tempest” and “Śakuntalā.” Salzburg, Austria: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universitat Salzburg, 1980. Explains the basis for comparing Kālidāsa’s play with William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (pr. 1611, pb. 1623), focusing on the important structural function of supernatural forces in the two works. Notes how the structures of the societies in which playwrights live affect the use of mythic devices in their dramas.

Harris, Mary B. Kalidasa: Poet of Nature. Boston: Meador Press, 1936. Thematic study of Kālidāsa’s use of nature in his plays remains a valuable resource. Presents analysis of Śakuntalā as well as the writer’s other major dramatic works and several of his nondramatic writings.

Knapp, Bettina L. “Kalidasa’s Sanskrit Drama, Sakuntala: From Passivity to Adamantine Essence.” In Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Describes the development of Śakuntalā’s character, tracing how she evolves from a passive, unconscious, and archetypical maiden to a conscious, decisive, and spiritual mother.

Krishnamoorthy, K. Kālidāsa. New York: Twayne, 1972. Offers an introduction to the writer and his works. Describes Śakuntalā as a play about the raptures and torments of love, highlighting the important Indian values of “duty, property, love, and spiritual good.”

Miller, Barbara Stoler, ed. Theater of Memory: The Plays of Kālidāsa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. Provides an excellent introduction to Kālidāsa’s major dramatic works. Includes the full text of Śakuntalā, translated into English by Miller, and offers commentary that emphasizes the work’s major themes and the playwright’s mastery of dramatic techniques.

Sinha, Biswajit. Kalidasa. Vol. 3 in Encyclopaedia of Indian Theatre. Delhi: Raj, 2002. Presents information about Kālidāsa’s life as well as discussion of his plays and their various productions, including cinematic adaptations.

Thapar, Romila. Śakuntalā: Texts, Readings, Histories. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999. Examines various versions of the legend of Śakuntalā, tracing the transformation of the autonomous, assertive figure of Śakuntalā in the Mahabharata to the more submissive woman in Kālidāsa’s play.

Wells, Henry W. “Theatrical Techniques on the Sanskrit Stage.” In The Classical Drama of India: Studies in Its Values for the Literature and Theatre of the World. 1963. Reprint. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975. Examines the theatrical qualities of Śakuntalā, focusing on the construction of scenes, dialogue, and development of dramatic tensions that reach a climax in the final act.