Part 2b - The Characters (6) Sakuntala

Sakuntala is the poet's ideal of a woman. Her beauty is incomparable (c. f. "manusisu katham va syadasya rupavya sambhavah " etc. "citra nivesya parikalpitasattvayoga ruponcayena manasa vidhina krta nu " etc.). But perfect beauty, as we have seen in the case of Dushyanta, has its physical as well as the mental side- Hence all the distinctive traits of the female mind are illustrated in Sakuntala. Her timidity gives the king an opportunity to introduce himself (cf. avasaro'yamatmana ' darsayitum etc.). She is affectionate even to the inferior creation. The trees and shrubs of the hermitage are brothers and sisters to her; c. f. "asti me sodarata ho'pi etesu " etc. "patu na prathama vyavasyati jala ' yusmasvapotesuya nadatta priyamandanapi bhavatam sohena ya pallavam | sradya vah kusumaprasutisamaye yasya bhavatpratsavah seyam yati sakuntala patigrha ' sarva ranujnayatam || " She is a tender and expert nurse. Compare--- 'yasya tvaya vranaviropanaminga donam tela nyasicyata mukhe kusasucividdha | syamakamustiparivarddhi tako jahati so'ya na puvakrtakah padavim mrgasta || " "aciraprasutaya jananya vina vivarddhi 'ta eva " etc. She cannot leave the hermitage without bidding farewell to the creeper vanajyotsna | She weeps when parting with the little fawn. Her eagerness to meet her husband still leaves.

room for an overpowering anxiety for the poor doe that is nearing the period of delivery. So liberally endowed with the womanly virtues, she is unconscious of her merit ( e.f. "ayi sratmagunavamanini " etc.), of her filial love, it is enough to say that she makes even Kanva exclaim- "samamesyati mama sokah katham nu vatse tvaya racitapurvam | utajaddari viruddha nauvaravali vilokayatah || " As wife, Sakuntala seems to have resolved to live up to the ideal held before her by Kanva. We have no occasion to judge her in relation to her elders, co-wives, and attendants. But as regards her husband, the celebrated line-bhatteh viprakrtapi rosanataya ma ma pratipa gamah has never been since uttered before a more willing and capable pupil, In the face of the gravest insult, when she was apparently most meanly fad, she could not use a word harsher than towards her husband. When the fatal decision was finally announced, she only said "bhagavati vasudhedehi me vivaram " and blamed not her husband, the au thor of her misery, but her destiny (c.f. "sa nindanto khani bhagyani vala vahata - cepa ' kranditunca pravatta " otc.) like another model woman, Sita, who- "na cavadabhatu ravana maya nirakarisyo jinahate'pi | atmanameva sthiraduhkhabhaja punah punadam skrtina nininda || " Both observe austerities after being discarded-Sakuntala like a poor mortal "vasaneparisusare vasana niyamaksamamukhi ghrtaikavenih " but Sita with the divine resolve- "saha tapah surya nivistadrstirui prasutesvaritam yatisya | bhuyo yatha me jananantare'pi tvameva bhartta na ca viprayogah ||