{"product_id":"2940015723243","title":"Tales From The Hindu Dramatists","description":"SAKUNTALA OR THE LOST RING.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn ancient days, there was a mighty king of the Lunar dynasty by name\u003cbr\u003eDushyanta. He was the king of Hastinapur. He once goes out a-hunting and\u003cbr\u003ein the pursuit of a deer comes near the hermitage of the sage Kanwa, the\u003cbr\u003echief of the hermits, where some anchorites request him not to kill the\u003cbr\u003edeer. The king feels thirsty and was seeking water when he saw certain\u003cbr\u003emaidens of the hermits watering the favourite plants. One of them, an\u003cbr\u003eexquisitely beautiful and bashful maiden, named Sakuntala, received him.\u003cbr\u003eShe was the daughter of the celestial nymph Menaka by the celebrated\u003cbr\u003esage Viswamitra and foster-child of the hermit Kanwa. She is smitten\u003cbr\u003ewith love at the first sight of the king, standing confused at the\u003cbr\u003echange of her own feeling. The love at first sight which the king\u003cbr\u003econceives for her is of too deep a nature to be momentary. Struck by her\u003cbr\u003ebeauty he exclaims:--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Her lip is ruddy as an opening bud; her graceful arms resemble tender\u003cbr\u003eshoots; attractive as the bloom upon the tree, the glow of youth is\u003cbr\u003espread on all her limbs.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeizing an opportunity of addressing her, he soon feels that it is\u003cbr\u003eimpossible for him to return to his capital. His limbs move forward,\u003cbr\u003ewhile his heart flies back, like a silken standard borne against the\u003cbr\u003ebreeze. He seeks for opportunities for seeing her. With the thought\u003cbr\u003eabout her haunting him by day and night, he finds no rest, and no\u003cbr\u003epleasure even in his favourite recreation--sporting. Mathavya, the\u003cbr\u003ejester, friend and companion of the king, however, breaks the dull\u003cbr\u003emonotony of his anxious time. The opportunity which the king seeks\u003cbr\u003eoffers itself. The hermits send an embassy to the king asking him to\u003cbr\u003ecome over to the hermitage to guard their sacrifices. As he was making\u003cbr\u003epreparations for departure to the hermitage, Karavaka, a messenger from\u003cbr\u003ethe queen-mother, arrives asking his presence at the city of Hastinapur.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe is at first at a loss to extricate himself from this difficulty but a\u003cbr\u003ethought strikes him and he acts upon it. He sends the jester as his\u003cbr\u003esubstitute to the city. He is now at leisure to seek out the love-sick\u003cbr\u003eSakuntala who is drooping on account of her love for the king and is\u003cbr\u003ediscovered lying on a bed of flowers in an arbour. He comes to the\u003cbr\u003ehermitage, overhears her conversation with her two friends, shows\u003cbr\u003ehimself and offers to wed her. For a second time, the lovers thus meet.\u003cbr\u003eHe enquires of her parentage to see if there is any obstacle to their\u003cbr\u003ebeing united in marriage; whereupon Sakuntala asks her companion\u003cbr\u003ePriyambada to satisfy the king with an account of her birth. The king\u003cbr\u003ehearing the story of her birth asks the companion to get the consent of\u003cbr\u003eSakuntala to be married to him according to the form known as\u003cbr\u003e_gandharva_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSakuntala requests the king to wait till her foster-father Kanwa, who\u003cbr\u003ehad gone out on a pilgrimage, would come back and give his consent. But\u003cbr\u003ethe king, becoming importunate, she at last gives her consent. They are\u003cbr\u003emarried according to the _gandharva_ form, on the condition that the\u003cbr\u003eissue of the marriage should occupy the throne of Hastinapur. She\u003cbr\u003eaccepts from her lord a marriage-ring as the token of recognition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe king then goes away, after having promised to shortly send his\u003cbr\u003eministers and army to escort her to his Capital. When Kanwa returns to\u003cbr\u003ethe hermitage, he becomes aware of what has transpired during his\u003cbr\u003eabsence by his spiritual powers, and congratulates Sakuntala on having\u003cbr\u003echosen a husband worthy of her in every respect. Next day, when\u003cbr\u003eSakuntala is deeply absorbed in thoughts about her absent lord, the\u003cbr\u003ecelebrated choleric sage Durvasa comes and demands the rights of\u003cbr\u003ehospitality. But he is not greeted with due courtesy by Sakuntala owing\u003cbr\u003eto her pre-occupied state. Upon this, the ascetic pronounces a curse\u003cbr\u003ethat he whose thought has led her to forget her duties towards guests,\u003cbr\u003ewould disown her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSakuntala does not hear it, but Priyambada hears it and by entreaties\u003cbr\u003eappeases the wrath of the sage, who being conciliated ordains that the\u003cbr\u003ecurse would cease at the sight of some ornament of recognition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSakuntala becomes quick with child and in the seventh month of her\u003cbr\u003epregnancy is sent by her foster-father to Hastinapur, in the company of\u003cbr\u003eher sister Gautami, and his two disciples Sarngarva and Saradwata.\u003cbr\u003ePriyambada stays in the hermitage. Sakuntala takes leave of the sacred\u003cbr\u003egrove in which she has been brought up, of her flowers, her gazelles and\u003cbr\u003eher friends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe aged hermit of the grove thus expresses his feelings at the\u003cbr\u003eapproaching loss of Sakuntala:--","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147844927728,"sku":"2940015723243","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015723243","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}