Shakuntala - Book Report/Review Example

Shakuntala is a pouplar play written in mix of Sanskrit and the Maharashtri Prakrita , a dialect of Sanskrit , by Kalidasa. Although, the exact date has not yet been confirmed, it is believed to be dated back to a period between the 1st century BC and 4th century AD. The Shakuntala is generally taken to be the finest example of a rasa drama in Classical Sanskrit literature. Here the relation of plot-structure to rasa is explored, and an attempt is made to show that the Indian theory of plot, often overlooked or regarded as a mechanical formula, is a carefully crafted complement to the rasa theory, of great help in the interpretation of dramatic works.

(Gerow, 559) The primary protagonist of the play is a Shakuntala, daughter of sage Vishwamitra and Menaka.. The other vital characters in the play are namely- Sage Kanva, Dushyanta, king of Hastinapura, Durvasa an ancient sage who is anger-prone and a fisherman. Menaka was an apsara who was sent to distract sage Vishwamitra from his deep meditations by Indra. She successfully distracted him and the resulted conjugal bliss led to the birth of Shakuntala. Vishwamitra, now angered by the loss of the virtue gained through his many hard years of strict ascetism, parted himself from his child and the mother and returned to his meditation.

Menaka found that she could neither leave the child with him, nor could she take her with her to the heavenly realms. So she left Shankuntala on the banks of a river under the mighty Himalayas. She was found by sage Kanva who named her and brought her up. Shakuntala grew up into a beautiful young maiden. One day Dushayanta, pursuing a male deer wounded by his arrow into the ashrama of sage Kanva, saw Shakuntala nursing the deer, her pet, and fell in love with her. He asked her forgiveness for harming the deer and spent some time at the ashrama.

They fell in love and Dushyanta married Shakuntala there in the ashrama. Having to leave after some time due to unrest in the capital city, Dushyanta gave Shakuntala a royal ring as a sign of their love, promising her that he would return for her. Having to bear the loss of her husband, Shakuntala was lost in his thoughts and often distracted by daydreams. One day, sage Durvasa came to the ashrama and she could not greet him properly due her distraction. Durvasa due his anger cursed Shakuntala that " the one in whose thoughts she is lost in, will forget her".

But later when told of the person she was thinking about, he made an amendment to his curse and said that " if the person is shown a token of love, he will remember everything. Time passed, and Shakuntala, wondering why Dushyanta did not return for her, finally set out for the capital city with her father and some of her companions. On the way, they had to cross a river by a canoe ferry and, seduced by the deep blue waters of the river, Shakuntala ran her fingers through the water.

Her ring slipped off her finger without her realizing it. Arriving at Dushyanta's court, Shakuntala was hurt and surprised when her husband did not recognize her, nor recollected anything about her. Humiliated, Shakuntala returned to the forests and, collecting her son, settled in a wild part of the forest by herself. Here she spent her days as Bharat, her son, grew older. Surrounded only by wild animals, Bharat grew to be a strong youth and made a sport of opening the mouths of tigers and lions and counting their teeth!

In the meantime , a fisherman found the royal ring in the belly of a fish that he had caught. He tried to sell it, but was caught while doing so by some royal guards.The ring was brought to king Dushyanta and having seen it, he remembered about his deserted wife. He set out to the forest in search of her and found her through their son who was at that time playing with some lions. The family reunited and lived together thereafter. The special qualities of classical Indian drama may be observed even in this sketchy outline: neither tragic nor comic, the play explores a series of emotional moments and contrasts the different spheres which Hindu culture designates for human beings.

The play describes the quest for harmony between the court and the forest through the different scenes which portray Dushyanta's world of dharma, or duty, and Shakuntala's realm of nature and spontaneous action. Their love does not depend on psychological factors; the playwright does not build characterization or seek verisimilitude in the way Western dramatists generally do. Scenes seem separated from each other and are structured not so much in order to provide a logical sequence of events as to offer opportunities to illustrate a particular flavor of sentiment (rasa) for an audience of connoisseurs.

Shakuntala's sensuousness and Dushyanta's strength are portrayed through gesture, music, and costume as well as in dialogue. Even the dialogue discriminates among characters, for those cast in noble roles, like the king and the sage, speak Sanskrit verse, while women and comic characters speak prose in the dialect of commoners, called Prakrit. The effects achieved by classical Sanskrit drama depend on skillful, disciplined performance, on the one hand, and on well-versed audiences, on the other.

Theatrical presentation relied almost exclusively on royal patronage: audiences comprised small groups of the educated elite, perhaps two hundred persons at a time, collected in a special room in a palace. Classical actors perfected a physical code of eye movements, hand gestures, danced postures, and the like, so that each member of the audience could appreciate the finesse of their execution. Every finger had to be held in a carefully rehearsed way, since it was a sign of a certain emotion or state of being.

This is a most elegant art form. Like all classical Sanskrit plays, Shakuntala begins with an invocation to a god and a prologue. Rather than attempt to draw the audience into an emotionally realistic situation, this dramatic tradition insists on its artificiality. Plot Structure and the Development of Rasa in the Sakuntala. Pt. I Edwin Gerow Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 99, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1979), pp. 559