SHAKUNTALA

SHAKUNTALA
“Shakuntala” is an Indian play that revolves around a central
female figure, named Shakuntala, who trades her forest-dwelling
lifestyle for a more refined and noble life as a wife of a Sanskrit
king. Shakuntala is born in a heavily forested and remote part of
India, an area that she calls home for many years. Shakuntala
never feels like she truly belongs in her native natural
environment, a feeling that is reinforced when she breaks free of
her surroundings and moves into the palace of a local king,
assuming the position of one of his wives.

CHARACHTERS
Shakuntala
Shakuntala is the heroine of the play. A beautiful young woman, she is the daughter of a
royal sage and the nymph Menaka, and the foster daughter of Kanva.

King Dushyanta
King Dusyanta, a member of the Puru lineage, reigns in northern India, with his capital at
Hastinapura. He is the hero of the play. He is attentive to his royal duties, especially those of
caring for the oppressed and protecting religious practitioners.

Bharata
Sarvadamana is King Dusyanta’s and Shakuntala’s son. He is destined to become a world
emperor, a fate prophesied by Vaikhanasa at the beginning of the play.
 CHARACHTERS
Kanva
Kanva is a great ascetic sage, head of the hermitage that’s the setting of the play’s first few
acts, and Shakuntala’s beloved foster father.

Durvasas
Durvasas is a hot-tempered sage who visits the hermitage, then places a curse on
Shakuntala and King Dusyanta because Shakuntala, distracted by her new husband’s
absence and her pregnancy, fails to welcome him with appropriate formality.

Marica
Marica is the father of the god Indra and a divine sage, the head of the celestial hermitage to
which Shakuntala was spirited away by nymphs and has since lived with her son,
Sarvadamana. At the end of the play, he explains Durvasas’s curse to Shakuntala and King
Dusyanta, blesses their family, and sends them to live together in the King’s court.
MINOR CHARACHTERS

Matali
Anasuya
Priyamvada
Vidusaka
Vaikhanasa
Sanumati
Menaka
Karabhaka
Gautami
Sarngarava
Lady Hamsapadika,
Fisherman

STORY
Shakuntala was a beautiful maiden who was the adopted daughter
of Sage Karnva. She lived with him and her pet deer in his hermitage
in the forest. One day,Dushyanta, the kingof Hastinapur,
camehunting in the forest. He saw the beautiful deer and shot an
arrow at it. Shakuntala found her deer whimpering in pain and tried
to comfort it. Shakuntala loved the animals of the forest and her
affection for the animal touched Dushyanta's heart and he asked her
to forgive him for his cruelty. She forgive him but asked him tostay
in theforest for a fewdays to tend the wounded deer. They fell in love
and King Dushyanta married Shakuntala and gave her a wedding
ring hisname on it.The king thenleft for hiskingdom after promising
to return soon and take Shakuntala back with him.
One day , Sage Durwasa came to Shakuntala's door. He repeatedly
asked for water, but Shakuntala was lost in thoughts of Dushyanta
and paid no attention. The sage was insulted and got very angry.
Known for his temper, he cursed Shakuntala saying that the person
whom she was thinkingabout would forgether. When Shakuntala
heard the cause, she was frightened and begged the sage to forgive
her. The sage said that he could not takeback the curse, but he could
change it; if she showed Dushyanta something he had given her, then
he will remember again about
Due to the curse Dushyanta forgot Shakuntala. After days of
waiting for him to return, Shakuntala decided to go to the capital to
meet him. On the way, as Shakuntala was crossing a river, her
wedding ring fell into the water. A fish swallowed the ring. When
Shakuntala arrived at the palace, the king did not recognize her. He
asked her to prove her identity, but Shakuntala didn't have the ring
to show him as it was lost. She wept and told the king about the time
he had spent with her in the forest, but he couldn't remember
anything. Feeling sad, she left the palace.
Ashamed to returnto her father's home, she started living alone in
another part of the forest where she gave birth to a son. She called
him Bharata. Bharata was a brave boy who grew up among the
animals of the forest and would play with wild animals. One day at
the king's palace, a fisherman brought him a ring. He told the king
that he had found the ring in the stomach of a fish that he had
brought it straight to him. As soon as the king saw the ring, the
curse was broken and the king remembered Shakuntala. He was
very upset and hurried at once to her home in the forest to look for
her, but could not find her. In despair, he returned to his palace.
Few years passed. The king again went hunting in the forest. There
he was surprised to find a boy playing with a lion cub. The boy
fearlessly held open the mouth of the cub and said, " O king of the
jungle! Open your mouth wide, so I can count your teeth." The king
went up to the boy and asked him about his parents. The little boy
replied that he was the son of king Dushyanta and Shakuntala.
Dushyanta was very happy to have found Shakuntala and asked the
boy to take him to his mother. The family was united and Dushyanta
took Shakuntala and Bharata along with him to Hastinapur.
Bharata grew up to become a great king
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