act1
king dushyanta , goes for hunting with his force of strong armed men and chariots . they spot a deer, chase after it.the wounded male deer and the king and their men enters the hermitage of sage kanva near the river malini. they saw an innocent ashram kanya's watering the plants. shakuntala and dushyant meet each other .dushyant falls in love with shakuntala.
. kalidasa talks about shringar ras - writes - bramar, you are touching the timid and fearful eyes .you are so close to her ears as if wispering , in her efforts to drive you away, you come close to her lips , you are lucky to be so close to her and enjoying her beauty .
shakuntala also falls in love with dushyant and he comes to know that shakuntala is the daughter of sage viswamitra and apsara menaka. menaka left the child near the river ,and kanva rishi saw the child surrounded by shakunta birds, he named her shakuntala.
act2dushyant is satisfied that she can be a member of a royal family. he expressess his love for shakuntala to madhvya. describing her beauty he says shakuntala is the masterpiece of brahma. dushyant feels brahma to prove his accurate ability in creation , created shakuntala for him . he would have made the beautiful sketch first and then given it life .shakuntala is astonishingly beautiful .
kalidasa writes- the beautiful shakuntala walks few steps and stops in the pretext of a thorn in her feet. and watches dushyant behind the branch of a creper.
news comes from hermits requesting him to stay for some time and to stop the attack from the demons.. he gets a call from devi vasumathi also to come back to indraprastha as his presence is required in some rituals. he is hung in between shakuntala and indraprastha.
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dushyant thinks - mother is calling him to indraprastha and hermits are requesting him to help them, both are important to him he is in a confused state..
kalidasa says - it is like a big mountain obstructing the flow of a river .
he decides to go to hastinapur.
act 3
gowthami tells shakuntala to look after the guest in the ashram. she is happy and does her duty. she falls ill , dushyant thinks - is she really having fever or like me she is also in love. shakuntala explains her friends that she is in this state because of the rajarishi who came to protect the tapovan , since the moment she saw him she is in love and wants to marry him .
anusoya and priyamvada decides to do ghandarva vivah . when told about this to dushyant he says -
he had the fear of rejection , but now when she is also longing for him he felt happy.and said---
the person who wants laxmi will be blessed or not it is not known , but when laxmi herself wants to bless him then what is the difficulty..
when asked about shakuntala's position as he has many wife's - dushyant says -he has many wife but his ancestor's dignity rests in - the girdle of land with oceans and shakuntala.
one day when she was writing a letter to the king, he appears before her. both of them got married in (mutual concent ) ghandarva vivah . the people in the ashram knows about it.. shakuntala comes to know that dushyant is leaving for hastinapur, she feels bad for this seperation . he gives a wedding ring , in which his name is inscribed. he consoles and assures her to read each day a letter from the ring , before she spells the last letter he will be back
kalidasa has expressed viyog ras .
act4
shakuntala is day dreaming about dushyant . she is pragnent with their child. that time durvasa came to ashram. she inadvertently offends him and incurse a curse - in whose thought you are immersed he will forget you. the sage was consoled by priyamvada to atleast relax the severity of the curse . so he says on seeing the symbol of love he will get back the memory
here kalidasa proves- how she is immersed in the thought and how much people around her take care of her - karunya ras.
she is very tender , she may not be able to withstand the severity of this curse . so anusoya and priyamvada keeps this away from shakuntala. so shakuntala is not aware of this incidence.
shakuntala who is carrying , the future chakravarthi is compared to the fired shammi vruksh(tree).(it is wild tree of sacred importance. pandavas during their agyatwas hid their arms in the hollow of this tree .on dashahara day this tree is worshipped and the leaves are given to each other as prasad , which is considered equivalent to gold)
on his return kanva maharishi , comes to know about the marriage of shakuntala and news of her motherhood. he undertook the responsibility of sending her to her husband's home.ashram inmates, gowthami ,priyamvadha takes the responsibility of dressing her up.
here kalidasa says when kashyapa rishi told the animals that shakuntala is leaving . .with tears, deer stopped grazing grass, peacook stopped dancing, the trees and the birds gave permission to shakuntala. this says how a human is attached to nature
.she takes their blessings .with the blessings of the ashram people she takes leave.
one of the shishyas reminds-loved ones should be accompanied upto the river end .
.on the bank of the river nder a banyan tree kashyap rishi sits and advises shakuntala the grahini dharma- to serve the guru's and the elders , .to be friendly with other inmates, not to do anything against husband's wish even if she is humiliated, be kind hearted with the needy,not to be prideful .
he say if you follow all this then you can be blessed . otherwise both the families cannot be happy
shakuntala with two rishikumars and gowthami leaves for indraprastha..
