392. DSC 253/ 4th Sem: Abhigyan or Abhijnana Sakuntalam

"Abhigyan Shakuntalam" has been considered the best known play in India and is also popular all over the world. It has been written by Kalidas who possibly belonged to the times of Chandragupta II or 3rd century AD. But for Kalidas, centuries doesn't matter. His this particular ancient play has transcended times.

The word, Abhigyan means knowledge or recognition. And Shakuntalam means the narrative of Shakuntala.

Ancient storytelling is, picking up a tale which was already available. And people would pick up episodes most of the time from the two great ancient epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. So is Shakuntala's narrative picked up from Mahabharata by Kalidas. He has gone into the details of the epic Mahabharata and visualised it with Shakuntala and Dushyant. However, kalidas has inserted a few changes in the story. It is estimated that he came after 400-500 years later than the writings of Mahabharata and there would be singers who would move from village to village singing the Mahabharata. It is expected that Kalidas must had acquainted with the various storylines of the epic Mahabharata in that way. Another technical aspect of ancient creative writing has been the use of intrusion by the divine gods directly in the lives of mortals. Then, this particular story-patch despite being part of the epic Mahabharata had also  been meant for stage play for an audience imbibed with court, whose expectations had also to be taken care of by Kalidas. So, he showed a powerful king of the world who protects the subjects. There are munis and ashrams in the kingdom who played vital role in the beliefs of the people. 

The story runs with the king going for hunting and he enters a forest. He becomes tired after killing and destroying animals and creepers and needed rest. So he found the abode of a hermitage in this same forest and there he comes across a young woman. She is the main character of the play by the name Shakuntala and is not aware of the world that is inhabited outside the hermitage. She was clothed in a ascetic way with the barks of trees and flowers and leaves as ornaments. The king had come across such innocent woman and such attire for the first time and got besotted at the first sight. Soon they develop intimacy and he promises her to make her the Queen and his people would lead her to his kingdom. As the relationship developed she also seeked full permission from the elderly women and the supposed father in the ashram. In the world, relationship in a marriage is considered the most important thought and social practice. And for her this relationship was equivalent to that sacramental relation. She was said to be a nymph and born out of certain divine intervention between the God Indra who had fallen in love with her mother Menka. So, it was known to everybody that Shakuntala was the daughter of the God and so half-celestial. But maybe this young woman Shakuntala realises the reality of marriage and relationship at her own cost of the choice of a man or king. She also realises that the pain this relationship would bring in the future was actually ordained by God. The conclusion about this realisation or recognition is called the Abhigyan. However, Kalidas mixes a serious theme of holy alliance of marriage with romance, pleasure and entertainment.

So Shakuntala gets married to Dushyant in the Gandharva style and begets a child. When he leaves her, he gave her a ring as relic. When he left, Shakuntala was completely immersed in love with him and would remain busy in his thoughts the entire days. One day, a great sage had arrived for biksha or alms. Being unable to catch her attention he cursed her that about whoever she was thinking will actually forget her. The people around the ashram realising it, came and pleaded the sage to undo the curse. He said it can't be done now but a relic given by the person of whom she has been thinking would bring that person's memory of her back. Kalidas actually divides the play in two parts through the device of the trick of the ring.

The ring was initially lost in the water. And so when she goes to Dushyant's kingdom he was not having her memory as per the effect of the curse and so refused to recognise. Shakuntala becomes very angry at this, argues with the king for this kind of neglect. The argument displayed her immense strength. Then at that point, the intervention of God Indra takes place. And Dushyant was compelled to accept the fact. In the meantime, the ring was refound too, from the stomach of a fish caught by someone else nearby the kingdom. Since it was a regal ring, the person was first thought to have been a thief. But the king on seeing it actually remembers his relation with Shakuntala. The ring plays the pivotal role in acquiring this recognition. It again compels the King, her husband to get back to the point of memory. The play ends on these lines. The conflict has been resolved and the marriage sees happiness now.

The denial by Dushyant was also necessary because what would his subjects think at the arrival of a young woman with child and at such an act, until the god intervened. The divine intervention also got back his respectable position in society remained intact. Now the subjects expressed that since she was away from the husband, she needs to go through the fire-test to prove her chastity. This storyline goes parallel with Ramayan.

This multi-layered kind of association is connects the theme and structure of the play.

The play is about a woman. And the position of women at that time was not as bad as it became later. The story revolves around Shakuntal's difficulties and dilemmas. Most of the time, a woman's perspectives are often clouded by male gaze. Shakuntala is shown by Kalidas as a very strong woman here. She restores back her place as a queen through arguments and not charity, tears or sympathy. Again, the institution of marriage is under question from the present modern point of view, where the loyalty test of fire had to be given by women only. The test must have been natural to that society then. Also Dushyant already had a number of women or Queens in his matrimony line. And he shares it openly in the play. But from the present points of views, the morality of matrimony then was jeopardised. The romance in the play is the quality of the king where he could dare into another relationship with a new woman found in the forest. He also showed relaxed temperament all the time as expected from a king. The sense of justice to all women have also been justified by Kalidas as per ancient marital rules when Dushyant ultimately accepts her in the royal household. Equality between genders has been maintained in this way although power structure was controlled by men. Shakuntala was definitely a strong woman because if she was not identified and accepted by the king she would have been subjectef to shame and social gaze. So, her arguments played a huge role in displaying her strength. Again, a woman is shown as a woman by Kalidas until God/s intervene. Again, Dushyant is shown comparing the women in the hermitage to wild animals. This also brings forth society's negative gaze upon women in those days.

Kalidas displays his depth and quality best when in the court argument, Shakuntala could call Dushyant evil who described women to overgrown weeds and animals and how could justice be expected now from such a king and man. This argument from shakuntala's mouth placed Kalidas among the great writers of Indian classical literature.

This theatrically flawless play has seven acts and can be enacted in two or three hours. Like the Mahabharata, this play is also teemed with poetry and shlokas wherever expected.