Tales From The Hindu Dramatists

SAKUNTALA OR THE LOST RING.


In ancient days, there was a mighty king of the Lunar dynasty by name
Dushyanta. He was the king of Hastinapur. He once goes out a-hunting and
in the pursuit of a deer comes near the hermitage of the sage Kanwa, the
chief of the hermits, where some anchorites request him not to kill the
deer. The king feels thirsty and was seeking water when he saw certain
maidens of the hermits watering the favourite plants. One of them, an
exquisitely beautiful and bashful maiden, named Sakuntala, received him.
She was the daughter of the celestial nymph Menaka by the celebrated
sage Viswamitra and foster-child of the hermit Kanwa. She is smitten
with love at the first sight of the king, standing confused at the
change of her own feeling. The love at first sight which the king
conceives for her is of too deep a nature to be momentary. Struck by her
beauty he exclaims:--

"Her lip is ruddy as an opening bud; her graceful arms resemble tender
shoots; attractive as the bloom upon the tree, the glow of youth is
spread on all her limbs."

Seizing an opportunity of addressing her, he soon feels that it is
impossible for him to return to his capital. His limbs move forward,
while his heart flies back, like a silken standard borne against the
breeze. He seeks for opportunities for seeing her. With the thought
about her haunting him by day and night, he finds no rest, and no
pleasure even in his favourite recreation--sporting. Mathavya, the
jester, friend and companion of the king, however, breaks the dull
monotony of his anxious time. The opportunity which the king seeks
offers itself. The hermits send an embassy to the king asking him to
come over to the hermitage to guard their sacrifices. As he was making
preparations for departure to the hermitage, Karavaka, a messenger from
the queen-mother, arrives asking his presence at the city of Hastinapur.

He is at first at a loss to extricate himself from this difficulty but a
thought strikes him and he acts upon it. He sends the jester as his
substitute to the city. He is now at leisure to seek out the love-sick
Sakuntala who is drooping on account of her love for the king and is
discovered lying on a bed of flowers in an arbour. He comes to the
hermitage, overhears her conversation with her two friends, shows
himself and offers to wed her. For a second time, the lovers thus meet.
He enquires of her parentage to see if there is any obstacle to their
being united in marriage; whereupon Sakuntala asks her companion
Priyambada to satisfy the king with an account of her birth. The king
hearing the story of her birth asks the companion to get the consent of
Sakuntala to be married to him according to the form known as
_gandharva_.

Sakuntala requests the king to wait till her foster-father Kanwa, who
had gone out on a pilgrimage, would come back and give his consent. But
the king, becoming importunate, she at last gives her consent. They are
married according to the _gandharva_ form, on the condition that the
issue of the marriage should occupy the throne of Hastinapur. She
accepts from her lord a marriage-ring as the token of recognition.

The king then goes away, after having promised to shortly send his
ministers and army to escort her to his Capital. When Kanwa returns to
the hermitage, he becomes aware of what has transpired during his
absence by his spiritual powers, and congratulates Sakuntala on having
chosen a husband worthy of her in every respect. Next day, when
Sakuntala is deeply absorbed in thoughts about her absent lord, the
celebrated choleric sage Durvasa comes and demands the rights of
hospitality. But he is not greeted with due courtesy by Sakuntala owing
to her pre-occupied state. Upon this, the ascetic pronounces a curse
that he whose thought has led her to forget her duties towards guests,
would disown her.

Sakuntala does not hear it, but Priyambada hears it and by entreaties
appeases the wrath of the sage, who being conciliated ordains that the
curse would cease at the sight of some ornament of recognition.

Sakuntala becomes quick with child and in the seventh month of her
pregnancy is sent by her foster-father to Hastinapur, in the company of
her sister Gautami, and his two disciples Sarngarva and Saradwata.
Priyambada stays in the hermitage. Sakuntala takes leave of the sacred
grove in which she has been brought up, of her flowers, her gazelles and
her friends.

The aged hermit of the grove thus expresses his feelings at the
approaching loss of Sakuntala:--