The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala Throughout Shakuntala, duty and love are closely intertwined. This connection is in keeping with the importance of dharma (duty) in Hindu practice at the time. Dharma, along with artha (material success) and kama (desire), was understood to be one of the primary goals of human existence, while the ultimate goal of that existence was to attain moksha, or liberation from worldly existence. In the play, there is particular tension between dharma and kama.
The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala
Perhaps no other faith glorifies the notion of love as
Hinduism. This is evident from the amazing variety of mythical love stories
that abounds Sanskrit literature, which is undoubtedly one of the richest
treasure hoards of exciting love tales. Classical love legends from Hindu
mythology and folklore of India are both passionate and sensuous in content,
and never fail to appeal to the romantic in us. These fables stretches our
imagination, engage our emotions and, entertain us. The legend of the
exquisitely beautiful Shakuntala and the mighty king Dushyant is a thrilling love
story from the epic Mahabharata, which the great ancient poet Kalidasa retold
in his immortal play 'Abhijnanashakuntalam'.
While on a hunting trip, King Dushyant of the Puru dynasty
meets the hermit-girl Shakuntala. They fall in love with each other at first
sight and, in the absence of her father, Shakuntala weds the king in a ceremony
of 'Ghandharva'-a form of marriage by mutual consent with mother Nature as the
witness. When the time comes for Dushyant to return to his palace, he promises
to send an envoy to escort her to his castle.As a fond remembrance he gives her
a signet ring.
The structure of the play— The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala - from
opposition between duty and love during Shakuntala’s courtship, to failed
efforts to harmonize them in the middle of the play, to reconciliation between
them in the final act—suggests that reconciling the competing goals of human
existence is a lifelong journey, but that when that struggle is faithfully
undertaken, it eventually proceeds toward spiritual liberation.
In the description of the love scenes in the Abhijnana
Shakuntala, an extravagance of emotion and passion has been displayed. In the
play Abhigyan Shakuntalam, myth, legend and dream-vision have been blended with
top graphical and conversational dimension to give this love story more depth
and a multilayered texture. The world in Shakuntalam is a world of fairies,
enchantment and myths. The hero of the play Dushyanta meets Shakuntala in the
forest and this meeting is similar to the meeting between Savitri and Satyavan
in Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri. The forest serves as the meeting point for the
couples and Nature has been used as a backdrop to enhance the romantic effect
of the romantic tale. The opening lines take the readers into a world of
romance and adventure. The king leaves his kingdom to enter a new kingdom. It
is a mythical world where the thin border line between realism and romance
vanishes.
The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala The opening pages of the play present Shakuntala as the child of Nature and often she is compared with flowers like Jasmine. The king belongs to other world which is alien to Nature. The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala , When Shakuntala visits the king, she suffers. This is her movement from Nature to the materialistic world. Later when the king is left behind by Shakuntala, he is filled with a feeling of remorse. Twice he enters the sacred region, first the tapovan, the hermitage of Kanva, and later the hermitage of Maricha. Before the king can enter this world, he has to be purified. First he proves his worth by battling the forces of darkness and disorder that threaten the order of the universe, observes Thapar.
So Kalidasa presents two different worlds in this play. They are the green world of Nature and the gilded world of the royal court which are poles apart. There is no reconciliation Act I and VII present the hermitage of Kanva and Maricha that enjoy the bliss of Nature. Imagery is rich with the descriptions of flowers and honey bees hovering over them and the perennial water springs in the Himalayas. The colour imagery suggests the display of colour from the natural world, the flora and fauna. Here the lotus is golden and the place for meditation a lush green sylvan surrounding with deer jumping around the jeweled caves where celestial nymphs dance. The Hemkoot mountain is the abode of sage Maricha which represents a world of perfection. It is rightly said that words are the key to open doors for imagination on its journey of exploration into the fictional world.
Kalidasa has
also employed the device of irony in Abhigyan Shakuntalam to heighten the
emotional impact of the situation. The use of the curse motif and the ring
motif justifies itself. It provides an explanation to the recognition or
abhiryan’ of Shakuntala. The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala,
In fact, this recognition is for
Dushyanta who knows the truth only after losing his wife. In the beginning, the
king is infatuated with Shakuntala’s perennial beauty and he also enjoys her
carnally. He fails to see and experience the transformative side of her
personality as he finds her, “..an object of Nature. She is flower to smell, a
gem to hold and an ornament to wear. She is hardly a person to him. It is only
at the end of the play that he sees her as a person and knows her truly.” Rightly
observes Romila Thapar. The theme of love and marriage in Abhijnana Shakuntala.
All the romantic
Sanskrit plays, poets have employed highly poetic as well as erotic imagery to
describe the beauty of the heroine and the love making. Throughout the play,
she is seen constantly changing, developing into a mature woman playing
multiple social roles of a wife, a mother and a woman with a transformative
touch, in Jungian terms. When one compares Shakuntala of the first Act with the
Shakuntala of Act VII, it shows her passage from innocence to experience from
the abstract to the concrete, from the hermitage to Hastinapur, and finally
from separation to reunion.
It is said that true
love always finds its way. Years later, coincidently the king retrieves his
memory back. He breaks down in guilt and shame and yearns for his beloved wife
Shakuntala. When he finally meets his son Bharat and Shakuntala in sage
Marica’s Hermitage, he breaks down in front of her and begs her forgiveness.
This is another display of love, that makes a king break down in front of
another person. We can imagine how strong the love of Duhsanta is towards
Shakuntala. Shakuntala too forgives her husband and agrees to return back with
him. Shakuntala’s life was surrounded by the love and devotion for her husband.
Even though she suffered humiliation in his hands, she still managed to forgive
him, because her love was pure and deep.
The story is a beautiful representation of love and romance. Shakuntala’s faith in love forced every energy to reunite the two lovers. The story begins with love and ends with living happily with love, as one of the characteristics of Sanskrit Literature.
सदियों पुरानी है ये प्रेम कथा, जब एक मछली ने मिलाया प्रेमी को
एक राजा को वन
पुत्री से प्यार
हो गया था। दोनों ने
शादी की। लेकिन
वक्त ने सबकुछ
भुला दिया। तब
एक मछली ने दोनों को
फिर मिलाया। हम
बात कर रहे हैं पराक्रमी
राजा दुष्यंत और
शकुंतला के प्रेम
कहानी की। ये कहानी शुरू
हुई थी उत्तराखंड
के पौड़ी गढ़वाल
जनपद स्थित कण्वाश्रम
में।
एक बार हस्तिनापुर नरेश दुष्यंत
आखेट खेलने वन
में गये। जिस
वन में वे शिकार के
लिये गये थे उसी वन
में कण्व ऋषि
का आश्रम था।
कण्व ऋषि के दर्शन करने
के लिये महाराज
दुष्यंत उनके आश्रम
पहुंच गये। पुकार
लगाने पर एक सुंदर कन्या
ने आश्रम से
निकल कर कहा,
“हे राजन! महर्षि
तो तीर्थ यात्रा
पर गये हैं,
किन्तु आपका इस आश्रम में
स्वागत है।”
उस कन्या
को देख कर महाराज दुष्यंत
ने पूछा, “बालिके!
आप कौन हैं?”
बालिका ने कहा,
“मेरा नाम शकुन्तला
है और मैं कण्व ऋषि
की पुत्री हूँ।”
उस कन्या की
बात सुन कर महाराज दुष्यंत
आश्चर्यचकित होकर बोले,
“महर्षि तो आजन्म
ब्रह्मचारी हैं फिर
आप उनकी पुत्री
कैसे हईं?”
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