Significance of The Ring in Abhijnana Shakuntalam

Q: Significance of the ‘Ring’ and ‘Curse’
Or,
Significance of the Ring Episode in the
play ‘Abhijnana Shakuntalam’.
Ans: ‘Abhijnana Shakuntalam’ by Kalidasa, is a play which tells us

the love story of Shakuntala and Dushyanta. The play follows the
outline of the epic drama but the whole structure of the play is a
sophisticated Dramatic form.
The ring justifies the title of the play,

‘Abhijnana’ means ‘recognition’, therefore the title of the play is
recognition of Shakuntala and the ring plays an important role in
the loss of identity and the recognition of Shakuntala in the eyes of
king Dushyanta, our hero of the play.
While on a hunting trip
Dushyanta’s chase of a deer, brings him to the hermitage of Sage
Kanva. There he sees Shakuntala for the first time, observing
Shakuntala’s serene beauty, he falls in love with her at first sight.
Making deep love with her in the forest, Dushyanta honours her by
marrying her in the form of ‘Gandharvya’ marriage. Before
returning to his palace, Dushyanta gives Shakuntala a ring of his, as
a proof of their love and promises her that he would send his men
to bring her to his palace with honour.
Shankuntala waits and waits but no
messenger appears at her door. She is pregnant and this worries
her. One day, she stands on her threshold, lost in the sweet
memories of her lover Dushyanta, sage Durvasa happens to pass by
that route. He asks for alms but his words do not disturb her
reverie. On seeing the indifference of Shakuntala towards an
ascetic, the sage Durvasa is enraged and hurls a curse upon her that
her lover would forget her.
“He on whom you mused so single mindedly, wherefore you did
not perceive me, come as a guest, he will not remember you even if
reminded, just as a drunkard does not recall what was just said.”
Shakuntala is so much engrossed in her thoughts that she does not
know about this incident.
Her companions Priyamvada and Anusuya are a witness to all this.
They request the angry sage to make some amendment in the
curse. The sage makes a provision that on seeing some ornament of
Shakuntala, her husband will be able to recognize her. Here
Kalidasa makes use of ‘the device of memory and recollection‘ to
bring about the desired poetic effect and ‘Rasotpatti’. Shakuntala
remains ignorant about these developments.
A long time has passed yet no messenger comes from the royal
court. Due to the effect of the curse, Dushyanta has forgotten
everything about Shakuntala. Realizing that Shakuntala is pregnant,
her foster father sage Kanva decides to send her to her husband’s
house. He sends some of his disciples and ascetics as escorts with
her to Hastinapur. When they reach the court in Hastinapur,
Dushyanta is surprised to see a woman claiming to be his wife.
Dushyanta refuses to recognize Shakuntala because of the effect of
the curse. Her companions Priyamvada and Anusuya ask
Shakuntala to produce the signet ring given to her by the king
himself. But the ring is missing as the ring had slipped off from her
finger while washing her hands in the river. Again, chance plays its
role in the play. The curse provides a turning point in the play. And
this complicates the matter. Her companions and ascetics leave her
in the court and return to the hermitage. Shakuntala stands alone
in the court with her head bowed down with humiliation. But she
does not beg rather gives an impassioned and rational speech-
“O great king, even though you do recognize me, why do you say- I
do not know you? You speak thus carelessly as another lowborn
villian might speak.”
Kalidasa has presented this Repudiation Scene with unmatched
artistic skill.
Shakuntala’s real mother apsara Menaka is agonized to see all this.

She descends from heaven and takes Shakuntala with her. Every
one is amazed to see this incident. Dushyanta is amazed as well as
shocked but couldn’t recall anything. One day, his soldiers bring a
fisherman with the king’s ‘nam mudra’ in his hand. According to
him, he had found this ring in the belly of a fish. The recovery of the
lost ring leads to recognition. Now on seeing his signet-ring,
Dushyanta at once remembers Shakuntala and the effect of the
curse is over. Dushyanta is filled with a sense of remorse and guilt
for the ill-treatment with Shakuntala.
Now this ring which was a token of love suddenly is transformed

into an instrument through which Dushyanta forgets and then
recognizes Shakuntala later on thus fulfilling the curse of Durvasa.
In short we can say that the curse acts as an impediment to the
action and the ring acts as the token of recognition to resolve the
problem. In this drama not only are nature, flora and fauna made
into live character but even a ring appear as real character of play.
I personally feel that Kalidasa intentionally had separated two of

them and he had some strong reasons to do that. One of the
reasons which I feel had dominated Kalidasa mind is Love. Love is a
sacred feeling and one cannot recognize the importance of this
feeling until and unless he/she looses it for a while in his/her life.
The happiness that you gain when you find your lost love can not
be expressed in the form of words. By separating Shakuntala from
Dushyanta Kalidasa enhances the beauty charm and the purity of
love that was between them and made their love a priceless feeling
which the audience would have definitely enjoyed. Thus we see
that to give a special treatment to the two central characters of the
play Kalidasa discovered the concept of curse.
The curse not only drags the

sympathy of the audience towards Shakuntala but also successfully
brings the pity of audience towards Dushyant and thus freeing
Dushyant from any harsh comments or any hatred that he could
have possibly faced if the curse was not implemented. The curse
somehow also managed to save the dignity of ‘Gandharva Vivah’
because if the whole play would have been written in the same
manner excluding the curse episode then the Gandharva Vivah
which is one of the types of marriage mentioned in Puranas would
have been under the supervision of some intellectual minds that
were present in that time, therefore this curse can be treated as an
element which somehow managed to preserve the dignity of this
type of marriage.
When we closely observe a ring

considering its geometry we can say that ring is in the form of
circle, i.e. it ends from where it begins forming a circle, similarly in
this text of Kalidasa the structure of the text also somewhat seems
to form a circle. We can understand it better when I say that this
story begins with the romance of Dushyant and Shakuntala and
ends with the same note, though the middle of text leads us to
some sad notes when Dushyanta fails to recognize Shakuntala. So
we can see the whole incident of meeting Shakuntala and
Dushyanta and then the separation of the two and again their
reunion seems to form a circle, thus we can say that the structure
of the text is very much similar to the geometrical figure of the ring.

Significance of The Ring in Abhijnana Shakuntalam

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How does the ring play an important role in the story?

What is the curse that Durvasa places on Shakuntala?

Q: Significance of the ‘Ring’ and ‘Curse’

Ans: ‘Abhijnana Shakuntalam’ by Kalidasa, is a play which tells us

The ring justifies the title of the play,

Shakuntala’s real mother apsara Menaka is agonized to see all this.

Now this ring which was a token of love suddenly is transformed

I personally feel that Kalidasa intentionally had separated two of

The curse not only drags the

When we closely observe a ring

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