Kalidasa Assignment

Discuss love and marriage in Kalidasa's Abhijnana Shakuntalam.
The story of the drama Abhijnana Shakuntalam is about the love affair of Shakuntala and
Dushyanta. The play is embedded with the themes of their love affair, secret marriage,
separation of imprecation and reunion of immortal love of the two, woven from the beginning
till the end to achieve the saga of unforgettable love story of separation and reunion. The
theme of the drama is based on the Indian philosophy, "true love is immortal".
Kalidasa has shown when love leads to failure, kindness reaches for completion.
The curse plays a vital role by which Dushyanta forgets everything about Shakuntala. But
the supreme form of love is the serene that was sharply followed and succeeded by
Shakuntala. Kalidasa concludes the drama with the declaration that Shakuntala's life is a
creation of factual love and external beauty that determined true love is immoral.
Abhijnana Shakuntalam is a drama which contains the strong and true love of King
Dushyanta and Shakuntala. At first, it was written in Sanskrit language by Kalidasa, later
translated to English Language. The central characters of the drama are the king Dushyanta
and Shakuntala. The initial part of the drama begins with the immediate love of the king
Dushyanta for Shakuntala. Shakuntala was forsaken by her parents at birth and becomes an
adult in a small hermitage under the care of the sage Kanva. Karline McLain argues the
atmosphere of Shakuntala growing up is that, "... in this remote environment, surrounded
by her animal companions and a couple of girlfriends". Kalidasa depicts the beauty of
Shakuntala through the poetic verse of the King Dhusyanta that certainly attests the quality
of Kalidasa's verse, King. She is quite right.
"Beneath the barken dress Upon the shoulder tied, In maiden loveliness Her young
breast seems to hide, As when a flower amid The leaves by autumn tossed - Pale,
withered leaves - lies hid And half its grace is lost."
Yet in truth the bark dress is not an enemy to her beauty. It serves as an added ornament.
For
"The meanest vesture glows On beauty that enchants: The lotus of Tóvelier shows
Amid dull water-plants; The moon in added splendour Shines for its spark of dark; Yet
more the maiden slender Charms in her dress of bark."
At the time of Kanva's absence in the hermitage, the king Dhusyanta falls in love Shakuntala
and proposes her to marry instantaneously. Both Shakuntala and the King love each other
and they lead respectable lives for a few days. The king Dushyanta has an inevitable
situation that he has to go back to the capital to comply with his duty as a king. Before he
leaves Shakuntala, gives a ring to use as evidence of their marriage which may help her to
rejoin him to lead a delightful life in the palace at Hastinapura. After the departure of the king
Dushyanta an old sage arrives at the hermitage. Shakuntala fails to offer food and receive
him, the old sage finds Shakuntala has married and curses her about what she is thinking of.
His curse causes Dushyanta to forget everything about Shakuntala. Kalidasa portrays the
characters Priyamvada and Anasuya, as the companions of Shakuntala, introduced not just
to tantalize and play with Shakuntala only. But Kalidasa makes them witness the true love
and marriage of Shakuntala and the king Dushyanta.
These characters are observers of everything about Shakuntala's life including the curse that
fell upon her. It is an important one that Shakuntala is unaware of the curse upon her until
the end of the drama, her friends kept it a secret. Priyamvada requests the old sage who
cursed Shakuntala, to nullify the power of curse. By the cause of Priyamvada's demand for
her friend the old sage weakened the curse on Shakuntala that if she has a momentous
object for representing their relationship they can retrieve their relationship. Kalidasa
stunningly reveals this issue in the tête-à-tête between Anasuya and Priyamvada,
"PRIYAMA-VADA: For him that is quite a lot, Tell me, how did it happen?
ANASUYA: When he did not want to come back I said to him: "Your holiness! Consider her
former devotion, forgive now this offence of your daughter whose worthiness you can
perceive by your own powers."
PRIYAM-VADA: What then?
ANASUYA: Then, saying. "What I have said cannot but come true; my curse will be lifted by
the sight of a token of recognition", he vanished."
Shakuntala moves toward the palace of the king Dushyanta to retrieve their relationship. She
is forced to cross a wide river along the way to the palace. When she dips her hand into the
river, loses the ring which is the only evidence to retrieve her relationship with Dhusyanta.
After she reached the palace, she got a chance to greet Dushyanta, but he does not have
any more memories of Shakuntala. She is deposed from the palace. But she has a strong
belief in her true love that will rejoin her to the king. Later a fisherman finds out the king's ring
in the belly of a fish and honestly gives the ring to the palace. When Dushyanta sees the ring
he gets back the memory of Shakuntala's true love.
Kalidasa sharply depicts the critical circumstance of true love and he changes the destiny
through the discovering the ring in the belly of a fish that Shakuntala lost in the river Ganges.
But Kalidasa portrays another critical situation in the drama that when the king comes to
know all about his true love for Shakuntala, he is engaged in a war unfortunately. Even
though it is a life-threatening situation at the moment, it offers a chance to her true love for
exhibiting the power through the picture of Dushyanta overcoming his enemies in the war.
Kalidasa highlights the strength of truelove in the way it succeeds from all hurdles. Kalidasa
used these sorts of situations to outburst the ultimate power of true love in all concerns in
this drama. Dushyanta is offered a trip to the Hindu heavens for several years. After the king
gets back to the palace has the chance by the real sake of true love to reunite with
Shakuntala. She becomes his queen and bears a son finally.
Finally Kalidasa concludes with assertion of Shakuntala's life is creation of factual love, of
external beauty that determined true love is immortal.

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Discuss love and marriage in Kalidasa's Abhijnana Shakuntalam.

PRIYAM-VADA: What then?

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