Mālavikā is a princess who was born and brought up in a palace; she is well-versed in dance and music; she was always a part of the life of antaḥpura and looked forward towards it. Urvaśī is a mature woman and is like a prostitute of the devas; there is a lot of difference between Śakuntalā’s romantic love and those experienced by Mālavikā and Urvaśī; though Śakuntalā is young and youthful, she had never experienced romance with a man; when she meets Duṣyanta, love sprouts in her heart, but she probably does not understand the feeling she is experiencing; she merely calls it a vikāra that is against the tapovana. She was born in the vicinity of the tapovana and grew up there; she was nurtured and tutored by maharṣis; she enjoyed watering trees and plants and spent time with fawns. She was like akhaṇḍa-puṇya-phala – unbroken and blemishless fructification of good deeds; she was an embodiment of all noble virtues. She was a good host, treated the older people with respect, and engaged herself in deva-pūjā; she never exercised undue freedom. Duṣyanta, who had picked up from the antaḥpura the art of cajoling a beloved, offers to Śakuntalā that he will massage her feet; however, the lady, who has been brought up in the āśrama feels uncomfortable. No one else who was with her shared Duṣyanta’s nature; Kaṇva, Gautamī, Kaśyapa, Aditi, Anasūyā, and Priyaṃvadā were all like Śakuntalā. She follows Kaṇva’s advice to the letter and adorns the role of a noble married woman – the gṛhiṇī-pada; we can also infer that Śakuntalā never became a pest to her family; she was never a kulasya ādhi. In the Mahābhārata, Śakuntalā is beautiful, strong, and daring. She is like Draupadī’s younger sister in her nature; she introduces herself without inhibitions to the king and makes him pledge that her son will be the successor to the throne of Hastināpura. Though she had never seen life in a city, she goes into the palace of her own, and boldly faces the king; she even argues with the king in the royal assembly, even as several people watch her; she causes tremors in her audience and sends a tremble down their spines. In Kālidāsa’s play, Śakuntalā is a very sāttvic and soft person. Irāvatī, is a sour fruit filled with envy and anger; Dhāriṇī and Auśīnarī are mature and ripe. Śakuntalā is selfless and sacrifices everything for the sake of her husband; she is a sweet fructification of time immemorial puṇya. In the play, Śakuntalā spends most of her pregnancy months in Sage Kaṇva’s āśrama and arrives in the king’s court, when she is almost expecting a child; there, she is not recognised by Duṣyanta and is rejected by him and all others. She cries out, helplessly, “Mother Earth! Please come and take me away!” She goes away from Earth for a long time and stays in Hemakūṭa. Though she was an eka-veṇī-dharā[1] during her separation from Duṣyanta, as soon as she sees him, she exclaims, “Ah! He seems to have grown emaciated!” When the sage Kaṇva tells her that she had to suffer because of Durvāsa’s curse, she feels happy with the thought that her husband did not reject her for no reason. In the Mahābhārata, Śakuntalā, as the daughter of Viśvāmitra, is endowed with kṣattriya qualities. In the play, on the other hand, Śakuntalā is the divine child brought up by Kaṇva and Gautamī, who are akin to Kaśyapa and Dākṣāyaṇī; she is an ideal wife. Just as she selflessly loves her husband, she pours her affection upon her son, Bharata as well. She, unlike Urvaśī, does not abandon her child for the sake of marital bliss with her husband; even before she gives birth to her child, she displays concern about his welfare and seeks his kingship; she takes care of the child as the entire essence of her life in Kaṇva’s āśrama – yāntyevaṃ gṛhiṇīpadaṃ yovatayo vāmāḥ kulasyādhayaḥ.
Kālidāsa is wrongly hailed as a poet of sambhoga-śṛṅgāra and he has been called so because of his creation of the Abhijñāna-śākuntala. Śākuntalā is like the younger sister of Bhāsa’s Vāsavadattā, Padmāvatī, and Sītā.
The poet displays great skill in portraying the minor characters as well. It is usually hard to bring out the characteristic traits of secondary characters, who play various functional roles. But the poet’s portrayal is so nuanced that he even shows shades of differences between Anasūyā and Priyaṃvadā as well as Śārṅgarava and Śāradvata, who almost appear like twin characters. Anasūyā is dignified, mature, and wise at all times; Priyaṃvadā is cheerful, light-hearted, and smart; both maidens have immense love for Śākuntalā. Śārṅgarava is short-tempered; he speaks quite a lot and his words are harsh. Śāradvata is peaceful by nature; he does not speak much; nevertheless, whenever he speaks, he does so with a tone of finality. Sage Kaṇva is an embodiment of tranquillity and is away from the worldly realm; still, he is bound by the cord of affection and carries out his responsibility with joy and care. Because of his soft and gentle heart and also because of Śākuntalā’s kind nature, it almost looks like Kaṇva’s life of detachment was impeded. (However, it seems like Kālidāsa is trying to suggest that only a kind-hearted person can become a real tapasvī; a mean and dry person can never become one) Kaṇva is like a householder who lives the life of a tapasvī; still, he is superior to the rest – yat kāṅkṣati tapobhiranyamunayastasmin tapasyantyamī
To be continued ...
The current series of articles is an enlarged adaption of Prof. A. R. Krishnasastri's Kannada treatise Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka. They are presented along with additional information and footnotes by Arjun Bharadwaj.
[1] Hair plaited in a single strand, suggesting her agony
