The Recognition of Sakuntala

By Kalidasa

While out on a hunting trip, a king encounters a lovely maiden, and the course of their secret romance sweeps the audience from a forest hermitage to a dazzling palace to ethereal celestial realms. The tale of King Dusyanta and Śakuntala, who meet by chance and are separated by a curse, was derived from an episode in the Mahabharata, India's grand religious epic. The Recognition of Śakuntala, written in the 5th century by the greatest of the ancient Indian playwrights, offers a classic introduction to Indian theater and aesthetics.
In addition to its enchanting love story, this play presents a religious drama. It promotes the doctrine of karma, in which all experiences are influenced by actions from earlier in life, and it represents an allegory of the relationship between the worshiper and the sacred. Students of drama, religious studies, and world literature will appreciate this affordable and accessible edition of a timeless play.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Jul 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486153858

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Reviews for The Recognition of Sakuntala

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Written in 400 A.D., this drama is an absolutely lovely combination of prose and poetry, humans and gods, and spirituality and sensuality. It really is all about love, is it not? Such a pleasure!

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The forthright ardor of a smitten king. Cautious allure making a tripping retreat. Blood boiling, happy enough to shout, more alive than killing demons with Indra. Just for a moment, the sage-raised girl become the soul of mischief, looking back for a second because under your apprehensions you know he's the one. He smells just. Her hair is so. It's really really really gonna happen, of course, because these heroes are charming in a world-is-new way, all clean white teeth, and everything is promised them. When the sage Durvasas comes along to throw a curse into the mix, there's no knife to anyone's guts, no Mantuan crypt--he just wiggles his eyebrows (clean as all the rest, just an irascible old man chasing butterflies) and gives everybody an excuse to fret and gossip and explore the nature of love and duty in irrepressible prose-verse (oh, to read Sanskrit!).And remember, this is a story about true, romantic love in a world where the king already has two wives and has to leave all the time to fight demons, where he never sees his kid until he's four years old and then the kid's all "you're not my dada!" (The kid is also the personification of India. Indra's charioteer makes fun of Dusyanta for being overawed by the sky god's sweet ride. The comic, the smiling Bollywood or sitcomic even, sits so comfortably within and around the epic here). This is a love story that, with all its ambiguities and little fears teasened out by circumstances only so they can be swept away by passion and happily-ever-after, a post-fallow fruition like all the real stories--this is a love story that can speak to us now, not as a part of our archetypal monogamous-nuclear-family-style romantic heritage (monogamonucleosis?) but against the odds as reflecting the real circumstances of our lives.I've already alluded to Shakespeare twice. Shit. This play is fuller of sap and mood swings than Romeo and Juliet. It's a lusher, more magnificent cosmic verdation than The Winter's Tale, which I expected this book to recall for me. I didn't expect to think of Much Ado About Nothing--but Sakuntala's fuller of that fascinating mix of the placid and fearsome, the joy of the young and divine that can't quite banish the troubling social and gender dynamics burbling underneath. I can do better than just comparing this to Shakespeare. But I'll have another chance. New seasons will come in their multiplicity, and I'll visit Sakuntala's bower again.

[janeajones · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kalidasa is considered India's Shakespeare, though in the tradition of Sanskrit/Hindu/Buddhist drama, all of his plays are romances. Sakuntala is a charming, mythic tale of a king who falls in love with a nature maiden -- troubles ensue caused by the curse of angry monk, nymphs and gods come to the rescue and all ends happily. Wonderful contrasts between the natural world and the artistic world of the court. Although reading it can never capture the multi-art (poetry, dialogue, dance, song) performance, it's still a delight. (Review of Barbara Stoler Miller's translation in THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF WORLD LITERATURE)