SHAKUNTHALAM ACT 6
(ENTER KING’S BROTHERINLAW, THE POLICE CHIEF; AND TWO POLICEMEN, HOLDING A MAN, ARMS SHACKLED BEHIND)
Policemen : (beating) You thief, say, from where did you get this ring, with the king’s name engraved on the gem setting?
Man: (in fear) Please you masters, I am not such kind.
First Policeman: Was it presented to you by the king taking you for a wonderful Brahmin!
Man : Please just hear me. I am a fisherman, living in Shakravathara.
Second Policeman: Rascal, did we ask you your caste?
Chief: Soochaka, allow him to say all in their order. Don’t interrupt him in the middle.
Both: As you order, sir. (to the man) Speak.
Man: I maintain my family by making fishing implements like net, hook, etc.
Chief: (laughing) A clean profession!
Man: Action, suited to one’s nature,
However contemptible, should not be shunned.
The priest who kills animals for sacrifice
Is filled with pity and very soft at heart.
Chief: Go on, go on.
Man: One day when I cut a fish into pieces, I found in its inside this ring sparkling with a gem. Afterwards when I took it for sale, I was caught by these sirs. Kill me or leave me; this is how it came to me.
Chief: Januka, no doubt, This fishy smelling alligator- eater is surely a fisherman. How he got this ring is to be investigated. Let us go to the king’s palace.
Policemen: As you say. (turning to the man)Come, you cut-purse.
(all walk around)
Chief: Soochaka, wait at this city gate and look to this fellow carefully. I shall just show this ring to the king and tell him how it came to us. I will be back with his orders.
Both: Please do go in. His Highness would be pleased.
(exit Chief)
First policeman: Januka, Chief is taking a lot of time.
Second Policeman: Are not kings to be approached at their convenience!
First Policeman :Januka: My hands are itching to make a flower garland for his execution.
Man : Don’t you be a killer for no reason.
Second Policeman: Here is our Chief coming with a paper in his hand, after getting king’s orders. You will soon be an offering to vultures or fall into mouth of dogs.
Chief : (entering) Soochaka, free this fisherman. His story of how he got the ring seems possible.
Soochak: Your order, sir.
Januka: This fellow has gone to Death’s realm and returned.
Man: (bowing low to the chief) Master, what do you think now about my profession?
Chief: And he has asked me to give him as a present this amount equal to the value of the ring.
Man: (accepting it humbly) Thanks, I am very much obliged to you
Soochaka: Of course he has to be obliged, for having been taken from the cross and seated on the back of an elephant.
Januka: Chief, This present shows that the king is mighty pleased with the ring.
Chief: I don’t think that it is the value of the gem that pleased him. He seems reminded of some loved person by its sight. For a second, though by nature strong and reserved, he seemed shaken.
Soochaka: Chief, you have done a great service to him.
Januka: rather say, to this master fisherman! (looks at the man, enviously)
Man: Sirs, let the half of this be the price of your flowers.
Januka: This much is proper.
Chief: Fisherman, now you have become my close friend. This our first friendship, we will celebrate with a toast of wine. Let us go to the wine shop.
(all exit)
(END OF PROLOGUE)
[Thn comes a heavenly couretsan named Sanumati]
Sanumati: I have duly performed my duty of being present, as we should do by turns, at the holy lake, Apsaratheerthirthha, because it is the time of immersion in its waters by the pious. Now I will find out in person how that saintly king fares. Through Menaka, Shakunthala has become after all a part of myself. And on account of her daughter, she had asked it. (looking about) How is it that at this seasonal festival, the king’s palace is devoid of all festivities! Of course I am capable of knowing eveything by my spiritual powers. But I have to respect my friend’s wishes. Well, I shall , hidden behind my magic veil, stand close to these two gardener girls and find out.
(enter a maid looking at a blossoming mango tree, and another behind.)
First: Flower bud, pink, green and white,
I have seen you, Spring-time’s all of life,
Harbinger of Season’s charms,
Be pleased and bless us all!
Second : Parabrithika, what are you muttering to yourself?
First: Madhukarika, Parabhrithika is just mad with joy at the sight of mango blossoms!
Second : (delighted, rushes) How! Spring is already come!
First: Madukarika, this is your time for singing and dancing madly.
Second: My friend, hold me while I stand on my toe and pluck the blossom, to offer to the God of love.
First: If only I could get half the fruit of your prayers!
Second: That goes without saying, since we are really one in spirit, just split in two bodies.(leaning on her friend, plucks the blossom) Ha! This flower though not fully blown, smells sweet , as it breaks from the stalk! (cups hands In offering)
Mango bud, I am giving you now
To Cupid who has drawn his bow.
Be you his extra sixth arrow
To aim at maids whose lovers are away.
(throws the flower buds)
Chamberlain: (enter s suddenly, pushing off the curtain, and angrily) Don’t do that. You thoughtless girl! When the king has banned spring festivities, you start plucking flower buds!
Both : (terrified) Please forgive us. We don’t understand.
Chamberlain: What! You have’nt heard? Eeven the trees of Spring have obeyed the king’s orders, as also the birds nesting in them. See,
The mango trees,though long in bloom, do not yet their pollen bear,
The Kurabaka blossoms, though all set, continue in the state of buds,
Even when the winter’s gone, cuckkoo’s songs are stuck in throat,
Even Cupid, I do feel, retracts his arrow, from his quiver half-drawn.
Both: No doubt. Our saintly king has great powers.
First: Sir, it is only a few days since we have been brought here to serve at the feet of His Highness. And thus we came to be given this job of maintaining this pleasure garden. Since we are newly come, we did not hear this news.
Chamberlain: I see. Don’t do it again.
Both : Sir, excuse us, we feel curious. If it is something we can hear, please tell us why this Spring festival has been proscribed?
Sanumati: Human beings are are fond of festivals. There should be really some grave reason.
Chamberlain: It has spread all over. Why cant I tell you! Havent you ladies come to hear the scandal about Shakunthala’s rejection?
Both: we have heard from the Prince, upto the finding of the ring.
Chamberlain: In that case there is little to tell. From the moment His Highness remembered, on seeing the ring, that he had really married her in secret, the king was overwhelmed by remorse. So much that
He hates all pretty things, does not meet ministers daily as before,
Spends sleepless nights by tossing from edge to edge of bed,
And when, out of courtesey, proper reply to his other wives gives,
Calls them by wrong names and becomes struck with shame.
Sanumati: I like this!
Chamberlain: Because of this depressed mood, he has given up all festivities,
(in the greenroom) : Come, come, Your Highness.
Chamberlain: (listening) : Look, His Highness is coming right towards us . You may attend to your work.
Both : Sure! (and exit)
[ENTER THE KING, ATTIRED AS SUITS HIS REMORSEFUL CONDITION, AS WELL AS COURT JESTER AND GATEKEEPER]
Chamberlain: (observing the king) Ha! The beauty of an out-of-the- ordinary body in all conditions! Though so upset, His Highness is so pleasing to the eyes. Even so,
Forgoing special embellishments, with only one gold bangle on forearm,
Lips pale and dried up with sighs, and eyes all red
Because of brooding sleepless nights, his body glow is such
That, though thinned, he hardly looks so, like a cut and polished diamond.
Sanumati: I am not surprised at all that even after the humiliation of rejection, she pines for him still.
King: (walking slowly, sunk in thought)
My heart, which slept when my doe-eyed beloved tried to wake me up,
Alas! now has woken up, only to suffer the sorrows of remorse.
Sanumathi: Such are the fortunes of the poor girl!
Court Jester: (to himself) Again he is seized of the Sakunthala fever. Don’t know how to cure him!
Chamberlain: (approaching) Hail, Your Highness. The pleasure-garden lands have been all checked. Your Highness may retire to any place You like.
King: Vethravati, Tell minister Mr. Pishuna this from me. Since I was long awake last night, I don’t want to take my official seat of duty. Let him note down on paper his findings about people’s problems, and send to me.
Gate keeper: As your Highness orders. (exit)
King: Vatayana, you too may attend to your duties.
Chamberlain: As your highness orders. (exit)
Court Jester : You have got rid of flies! Now you can please yourself in this part of the garden, charming with patches of winter sunshine.
King: Friend, the saying that calamities rush through all crevices, is not untrue. See.
My mind is just freed from the stupour that blocked
The memory of my love for the hermit girl;
Cupid, in order to strike at me, my friend,
Has his mango blossom dart readied on his bow.
Court Jester: Just wait, I will break Cupid’s bow with this wooden stick. (walks around and lifting the stick, tries to pull down the mango blossoms)
King: (smiling) Fine, I have seen your Brahmin prowess! ----Friend, where shall I sit and longingly roam my eyes over the vines that resemble to some extent my beloved?
Court Jester: Haven’t you told your personal attendant, Chathurika, that you would spend this time in the jasmine arbour, and you want her to bring the portrait you yourself drew on the drawing board?
King: Such is the place for relief of heart. Show the way there.
Court Jester: Here, here, my Lord.
( Both walk, and Sanumathi follows)
Court Jester: Certainly this jasmine bower, with a marble slab in it, is waiting to welcome us, displaying the splendour of its offerings. So please enter and take your seat, sir.
(Both enter and sit)
Sanumathi: Leaning on this creeper, I will have a peep at my friend’s picture. Then I will tell her about her husband’s all-round love for her. (so doing, stands)
King: Now I remember all about Shakunthala. And I did tell you . But you were not present at the time of my disavowal. And you never spoke about it even before that. Like me, did you also forget!
Court Jester: I didn’t forget. But after telling me all that, in the end you said it was merely a joke and there was no truth in it. Being a clod-head, I believed that. Or fate is all powerful.
Sanumathi: It is even so.
King: (after deep thought)Friend, help me!
Court Jester: My Lord, what is this! This doesn’t become you at all. Never will sensible people succcumb to grief. Are not trees motionless even in strong wind?
King Recalling the condition of my beloved, as she stood stunned at my disavowal, I feel completely helpless. You see
When, as she, rejected by me, turned to follow her own folk,
Her father’s pupil, himself like to father, repeatedly shouted “STOP!”
Those looks, bleary with streaming tears, that she once more cast
On cruel me, like a poisoned arrow sharp, me for ever burn.
Sanumathi: Such is one’s selfishness! I revel at his unhappiness!
Court Jester: Friend, I have an idea. She must have been carried away by some celestial being.
King: Who will dare to touch a chaste woman! I have heard that Menaka gave birth to her. My heart tells me that your friend was removed from here by one of her sompanions.
Sanumathi: The wonder is that he forgot, not the awakening!
Court Jester. If that is so, surely you will meet her again.
King : How!
Court Jester: Parents will never stand their daughter being miserable, separated from husband.
King: Friend,
Is it dream, illusion, or derangement of mind,
Is it that the fruit of meritorious deeds is all lost?
What is gone is indeed for never to return gone,
Wishes are truly like a blind leap from the shore!
Court Jester: Don’t say so. Is not the finding of the ring itself a sure sign of unexpected reunion?
King: (looking at the ring) Look, is not this ring, fallen from a hard-to-reach place, to be pitied!
Surely, your good deeds appear , o ring,
As scanty as mine, seen from their outcome;
Have’nt you fallen , after gettinga place
Among her fingers, so pretty with pink nails!
Sanumathi: If it had fallen in other hands, then truly it would have been pitiable.
Court Jester: Sir, under what circumstances did this name -seal get into the lady’s hands
Sanumathi: He is moved by curiosity, same as i.
King: Listen. As I pepared to go to my city, my love asked me. “ How long would it be before I hear from you?”
Court Jester: Yes, then?
King: Then I put the seal ring on her finger and replied,
Count the letters of my name, one by one,
Daily, and before you come to the end,
My dear, my people will be at your side
To take you to my family household.
And that I, cruel hearted as I am, failed to do in my folly.
Sanumathi: Lovely way indeed of fixing lime limit, but negated by fate!
Court Jester: How did it come inside the fish cut by the fisherman?
King: It fell into the Ganges waters from your friend’s hand, as she was worshipping at the Shachithirtha.
Court Jester : That explains it.
Sanumati: That is why the good king, in his fear of doing wrong, had doubts about the marriage. Or such a love wants any sign to remember? How is it so!
King : I shall rebuke the ring for this.
Court Jester: (to himself) Now he is on the way to madness!
King:
How, leaving that soft and pretty hand,
Did you into the water take a dip?
Or,
An inanimate thing, plainly, cannot value judge;
How come that I too did my darling cast away!
Court Jester : (to himself) How! I am getting devoured by hunger!
King : My dear, I gave up without cause, please have pity on me, and show yourself once again to me, who burns in heart with remorse.
(Entering suddenly with the drawing board in hand)
Chaturika: This is the portrait of Her Ladyship. (shows the board)
Court Jester; Well done, my friend. A beautiful invocation of feelings by a sweet composition of colours. My eyes seem to stumble on the lows and highs in it.
Sanumathi : Ha! What skill of the great king! It seems that my friend is acually standing before me.
King: Whatever in the picture wouldd not suit,
Has to something else been changed.
In spite of that her loveliness
Is hardly in its lines preserved.
Sanumathi: This becomes his love intensified by remorse, as well as his modesty.
Court Jester: Sir, now I see three ladies. And all equally beautiful. Which is Shakunthala here?
Sanumathi : This fellow has eyes in vain, if he cannot recognize such beauty.
King : Who do you guess is she?
Court Jester: She , who is depicted,standing apparently a little tired at the side of the mango tree, with flowers dropped from the loose hair-band clinging to the tips of tresses, perspiration drops bursting out on cheeks, and hands out-stetched, must be Shakunthala; others her friends.
King: You are smart! There is here some mark of my mental state.
The impression of my moist fingers is seen to smudge the edges of lines,
And a tear drop fallen from the cheek is seen to cause here the paint to swell .
Chathurika, This place where I find relief from my sorrow is only half drawn. Bring the paint brush.
Chathurika: MR. Madhavya, just hold this board while I bring the brush.
King: I myself will hold it. ( he does so and Chathurika leaves )
King: First casting away my love, when she in person came,
And now making much of her merely in a picture drawn,
I am like one who, passing a stream with abundant water flow,
Has become , my friend, to a mere mirage attached!
Court Jester: (to himself) This Highness has indeed gone past the the river and ended up in a mirage. (aloud) Sir, what else do you want to add?
Sanumati: He may want to draw the spots favoured by my friend.
King : Listen :
I have to draw the river Malini, with swan couples nestling in the sands,
At either side the sacred Himalayan dales with seated deer on them,
And I want to sketch the doe rubbing its left eye on the horn
Of the black deer beneath a tree, from boughs of which bark-clothes hang.
Court Jester: ( to himself) As I see it, he is going to fill the board with hordes of long- bearded hermits.
King: Friend, we have forgotten Shakunthala’s favourite ornament.
Court Jester : What is that?
Sanumathi: Whicf will befit forest life and her loveliness.
King: I have omitted the Sirisha flower, my friend,
With hanging filaments, tied on to her ears;
Nor have I drawn the string of lotus- stalk
Soft as moon’s rays, in between her breasts.
Court Jester: Sir, why is madam Shakunthala, standing with her face covered by her red-lotus -like forearm, as if she is terribly afraid? Ah! This bastard of a bee, on the look out to steal honey from flowers, is pestering her.
King: Stop this pest, please!
Court Jester: You alone, the tamer of the wild, is able to stop him.
King: Right. Look you, Mister, the dear guest of flower plants,why do you take this trouble of hovering around?
This lady bee, full of love for you, sitting on the flower,
Though thirsty, waits, and without you will not drink.
Sanumathi : Very dignified indeed, is his reproach of the bee.
King: What, you don’t obey me! Then hear now!
If you, o! bee,touch my love’s cherry red lips,
Alluring like a fresh sapling’s tender leaf,
Sipped ever so gently in love sport by me,
I will make you inside a lotus bud captive.
Court Jester : He is not afraid of such severe punishment! (laughing, to himself) He is gone quite mad. By association with him, I have also become of the same colour. (aloud) Sir, this is but a picture.
King : what! Picture!
Sanumathi : Even I did not realize it; then how can he, emotionallly involved in the drawing as he is.
King: my friend, why did you do this nit-picking!
While I was enjoying with all my heart her sight as if she in person stood,
By reminding me, you have again my love into a mere picture turned.
(sheds tears)
Sanumathi : A strange kind of bereavement, contrary to all past and future.
King : My friend, why am I suffering this sorrow without pause?
Union with her in my dreams
Is by sleeplessness debarred,
And tears don’t let me see
Her at least in a picture drawn.
Sanumathi : In every way you have wiped out Shakunthala’s sorrow at rejection.
Chathurika (entering) Hail, hail ,Your Highness. With the paint-box in hand, I started for here.
King: And then?
Chathurika : Her highness the queen Vasumathi, along with Tharalika, took it by force from me, saying “ I’ll take it to my husband”.
Court Jester : Lucky, you escaped.
Chathurika: while Tharalika was freeing my Lady’s shawl caught in a bough, I made my escape.
King : Friend, the queen is coming, and she is very proud of her position. You please hide this picture.
Court Jester : Say “yourself”. When you get free of the deadly poison of your harem, call me, I will be in the Meghaprathichhanda palace. (exit at a fast pace)
Sanumathi : Though now his heart is elsewhere, he shows regard for his first love. His friendships are loose-bonded.
Gate keeper (entering with a paper in hand) Hail, hail, my Lord!
King: Vetravathi, did you meet the queen on the way?
Gate keeper : Yes, of course.Seeing me with a letter in hand, she returned.
King : Being sensible, she does not want to disturb me at work,
Gate keeper: The minister says, “because of a lot of accounting to do with the amount of cash received, only one man’s complaint could be attended to, and that, as noted down, I am submitting.”
King : Show me the letter.
(the gatekeeper hands over the paper)
King (going through it) What! One Dhanamitra, a trader in the seas died in a boat mishap. Poor fellow had no offspring. The minster writes, his property should go to the treasury. (sadly) Childlessness is indeed terrible. Since he is very rich, he must have many wives. Please find out whether there is any of his wives who is pregnant.
Gate keeper: Just we heard that the daughter of a merchant of Saketa, one of his wives, has had the rites for male delivery performed.
King : Is not a foetus also entitled to father’s property? Go and tell this to the minister.
Gate keeper.Your orders, my Lord. (starts to go)
King: Just come here.
Gate keeper: Here I am.
King : What if he has children or not!
Whichever whichever kinsman is to any of my subjects lost,
That will Dushyantha be to them, in virtuous way, be it proclaimed.
Gate keeper : Thus it is to proclaim? (exit and reenters) Your Highness’s orders are welcomed, like timely showers.
King : (taking a long hot breath) Property of families, on the death of the head, without offspring, falls into the hands of others . This is going to be the fate of Pooru’s line when I am no more!
Sanumathi: May this bad outcome never happen!
King: Fie on me, for casting away the good that came unsolicited to me!
Sanumathi : No doubt he is reproaching himself, keeping my friend in mind.
King : With my own Self in her planted,
I discarded my rightful wife.
Like Earth, with seed sown on time,
Getting ready to yield great fruit.
Sanumathi : Your progeny will be unbroken now.
Chathurika: (aside) After hearing the news about the merchant, His highness’s distress is doubled. Go and get Madhavya from the Meghaptatichanda in order to console him.
Gate keeper: Good idea! Exit)
King : Hah! Dushyantha’s ancestors are in peril of losing their sustenance.
In fear who, after him, in our house
Will offer the libations scripturally prescibed,
My Ancesters, after washing away their tears,
drink what’s left of the water poured by issue-less me.
(and faints)
Chathurika: (looking upset) My Lord, don’t grieve.
Sanumathi : When light is there, you cover it and suffer darkness. Now itself I will relieve him. Or I have heard from the mouth of Indra’s mother, when she consoled Shakunthala, that soon the Devas themselves , eager for their share of sacrifices, will so act that her husband would soon welcome her as his rightful wife. So it is better to wait till then.Meanwhile I will make my dear friend happy with this news. (leaves in a hurry)
Voice (in greenroom) : Sacrilege, sacrilege, Sacrilege!!!
King: (coming out of stupour, and hearing) Ah! It seems like Madhavya’s distressed voice. Hullo, who is there!
Gate Keeper: (entering) My Lord, save your friend, his life is in danger.
King : By whom is the boy over-powered?
Gate Keeper: An invisible Being caught and carried him on to the terrace of the Meghapraticchanda palace.
King: (rising) No, No. even my houses are infested by spirits!
When I am not able to know my own
Foolish mistakes done day by day,
How can I know fully who among
My people, goes and by which way
( from the greenroom) : Friend, alas, alas!
King: ( Walks at a fast pace) Don’t fear, don’t fear, my friend.
(from greenroom) : Alas, alas! How can I not fear! One fellow here is bending my neck backwards to break me into pieces.
King ( casting looks around) Bow, please!
A foreign help: ( with bow, entering) : Master, here is the bow along with the finger guard.
( THE King holds the bow with arrow)
( in the greenroom) : I thirsting for the blood oozing from your neck,
Will kill you as a tiger does a quivering beast.
Let Dushyantha now to your rescue come,
He who,to save the distressed, his bow carries!
King: ( angrily)What! He is pointing to me! Wait, corpse-eater, now you will be no more! (lifting the bow) Vetravati, show the way to the stairs.
Gate keeper: Here, here, Your Highness,
(all procced hurriedly)
King : (looking around) This place is empty!
(In the greenroom) :Alas, alas! I can see you. You don’t see me. Like a mouse caught by a cat, I have lost hope of life.
King: You, proud of your vanishing tricks, My weapon will see you. Look, I am readying the arrow,
Which will kill you who is to be killed,
And save this brahmin who is to be saved;
Like the swan which takes only milk
Leaving the water mixed with it.
( and he fixes the arrow )
Matali : (without the Court Jester, enters)
Gods have the Asuras your target made.
Draw this bow against them alone.
It is pleased gentle looks that good people cast
On their friends, not such terrible darts.
King: Ha! Matali! Wecome, Indra’s charioteer!
Court Jester: He who was killing me, like an animal for sacrifice is received with welcome!
Matali: May you live long, listen why I am sent to you.
King: I am all ears.
Matali : There is a set of Asuras called Durjaya, (invincible), offspring of Kalanemi.
King. There is. I have heard of them from Narada once.
Matali: Him Indra your friend can not defeat in war,
You are the one to kill him from the battle front, it’s thought;
The nocturnal darkness which the Sun can’t destroy
Is removed in the end by full Moon’s rays.
So please now take your weapons, get into Indra’s chariot, and start on your way to victory.
King: I feel indeed blessed by this honour from Indra. But why did you do it to Madhavya?
Matli: That also I will tell you. For some reason I found you were preoccupied with some unhappiness in your mind. Then I did this to provoke you. For
When firewood is stirred, fire blazes forth,
The serpent, when attacked, lifts up his hood;
It is generally when they are excited
That people show their mettle well.
King: (aside) Friend, the order of the king of Heaven is inviolable. So now tell the minister Pishuna this, after explaining the matter.
Let your brain alone
Protect the people now,
This stringed bow of mine
is in another work engaged.
Court Jester : As you order! (exit)
Matali : Please do get into the chariot, sir.
(the king climbs into the chariot)
[ALL EXIT]
END OF ACT SIX
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
act 7
SHAKUNTHALAM ACT SEVEN
(enter the king in a chariot moving through the sky, and Matali)
King: Matali, I feel as if I have not been of any help to Indra, when I consider the special reception accorded to me by him.
Matali: My dear sir, I think both of you are equally dissatisfied.
You think what you did for him is nothing,
Compared to the honours he bestowed.
In wonder at your valourous deeds,
He thinks the same of his reception’s worth.
King; Matali, don’t say so. The send off he gave me was beyond one’a fondest expectations. In front of all the Devas, he made me sit on his throne along with him and
Looking at Jayanta standing near
With an inward plea, he smiled,
And tied round my neck the celestial flower garland,
Bearing marks of sandal paste rubbed off his chest.
Matali : What is it you don’t deserve from the Lord of Heaven! See.
Two have rooted out the Asura thorns
From peace-loving Indra’s heavenly world:
Now, your smooth-jointed sharp arrows,
And the Man-Lion’s nails in the ancient past.
King: Even here it is Indra’s greatness that is praise-worthy.
That employees succeed in enterprises great,
You know, is the result of the respect the master gives.
Would Dawn be able to annihilate the darkness of night,
If the Sun had not placed him in fore front?
Matali : This becomes you. (after driving some distance) Dear sir, observe the glory of your fame, established on the Heaven’s surface.
With the colours left from the Heaven’s beauties’ make-up,
These Devas, on the cloth-like leaves of the Kalpaka vines,
Write, after deep thought for material fit for song,
The story of your life.
King: Matali, the other day, in my eagerness for the fight against Asuras, I did not pay attention to the way to Heaven. In which Wind-God’s sphere are we now?
Matali: This, they say, is the region called Parivaha, purified
By the second of the three steps Vishnu took.
It is what supports the Ganges flowing in the sky,
And what rotates the stars with their apportioned rays.
King, That is why my soul with its internal and external senses are freshened up. (looking at the chariot wheel) We seem now to have come down to the region of clouds.
Matali : How do you know?
King: Your chariot, with the wheel-rims wet from spray,
Indicates its passage over the rain-filled clouds,
And by the Chataka-birds darting through the spokes,
And by the horses with the lightning flashes lit.
Matali: Soon you would be in your own country.
King : AS we descend, the world of mortals looks wonderful!
The land seems to slide from top of mountains rising up,
Trees, with bared trunks, abandons the covering of their leaves,
Rivers, shrunk with no water seen, expand and come in full view,
Look, as if thrown up by somebody, Earth is being brought to me.
Matali: Well observed. (looking with admiration) Ha! how lovely and beautiful is the Earth!
King: Matali, which is this mountain, immersed in the seas, on the eastern as well as the western side, and oozing liquid gold, that comes to view like a bank of evening clouds?
Matali : Dear sir, it is the Hemakoota mountain, the abode of Kimpurushas, the holiest place for fruition of penance. See,
Kashyapa the progenitor of all creation,
Father of Devas as well as Asuras,
Born of Marici, the son of the self-born Brahma,
Performs penance here, along with his wife.
King : In that case, good fortune should not be passed by; I would like to go, after pay ing respect to him.
Matali : Very good decision.
(they descend)
King: (in admiration) The wheel rims do not make any noise,
No dust is seen to be raised by it,
Because you hold it from touching ground.
Your chariot, though landed, does not seems so.
Matali : This much alone is the difference between you and Indra, the performer of a hundred sacrifices.
King, Matali, in which place is Kashyapa’s ashram?
Matali: (indicating with his hand)
There, where like a fixed stump, stands an ascetic, facing the disc of the Sun,
His body half buried in anthill, with chest on which snake skins stick,
Neck, in a loop of dry creeper shoots, tightly bound,
And a shock of matted hair, filled with bird nests, over the shoulders spread.
King: Let me bow before this performer of terrible penances.
Matali : ( pulling the reins) Your Majesty, we have now entered Kashyapa’s ashram, where the Mandaara trees of Heaven are nursed by Aditi herself.
King : This is indeed a haven of peace, much more than Heaven. I feel as if immersed in a pool of nectar.
Matali; (bringing the chariot to a halt) : You may get down, sir.
King: (getting down): Matali, what about you now?
Matali: I have anchored the chariot. I shall also get down. (doing so) Here, my Lord. (after going around) See the the penance groves of the ascetics.
King: Am I not looking in wonder!
They live on air, in a forest of divine trees which provide all one wants, Perform their ablutions in water brown from the pollen of golden lotus plants,
Meditate on gem bearing rocks, abstain in the presence of damsels divine,
What others do penance for, there they their penances perform!
Matali : High soaring indeed are the aspirations of the great. (walking further, into the sky) Hullo, VriddhaShakalya, what is His Holiness Kashyapa doing now? What, “asked by Aditi about a devoted wife’s duties, he is expounding it to her and other wives of the sages.”
King: (listening) O! we must wait for proper time to visit the sages.
Matali :(looking at the king) : You may stand under this Ashoka tree: I shall just look for an opportunity to inform the saint.
King : AS you think proper.
Matali : Sir, let me go. (exit)
King: (indicating an omen) ; I have no hope at all of getting what I want,
Why in vain are you throbbing, my arm? A good fortune once spurned
Is hard indeed to get back again.
(in the green room) : I say, don’t be naughty. What to do, he is gone back to his nature!
King (listening): This is is no place for bad conduct. Who is it being reprimanded? (looking in the direction of sound, in wonder) : Aha! Who is this boy, with more than a boy’s strength, closely followed by two women ascetics?
He, in order to play with him,
Pulls, ruffling its mane,
By force a lion cub,
Which has only half finished sucking milk,
(then enters a boy, doing as described by the women ascetics)
Boy: Lion, open your mouth; Let me count your teeth.
First : Naughty boy, why do you trouble these animals which are no different to us from our own children? Haha! Daily grows yourfool-hardiness! No wonder, you are named Sarvadamana, the tamer of all, by the Rishis.
King: How is it, that my mind is attracted to this boy, as if he were my own son. Surely childlessness makes me sentimental.
Second: Look, this lioness will attack you, if you don’t leave alone its baby child.
Boy : (smiling) Aha! Mighty afraid I am! (thrusts lower lip)
King: This boy seems to me a seed of some mighty Power,
Like fire,in the state of spark, waiting for fuel, to blaze!
First: My dear, leave this baby lion. I’ll give another thing to play with.
Boy: Where? Give. (extends his arm)
King : How! He has the signs of an emperor of the world!
His hand, extended to receive the tempting thing,
Shines with web-connected fingers, like a single lotus,
Of which the petal gaps are unseen,
Blown open by reddening rays of early morning light.
Second: See, Suvrata, it is not possible to stop him by merely talking. You go . In my cottage there is a painted clay peacock, belonging to the boy Markandeya. Give it to him.
First : Right!
Boy: I want to play only with him.
King: How I yearn for this spoiled boy.!
Lucky are they who hold their sons as they nestle in their laps,
Watch them exposing their budding teeth as they without reason laugh,
Uttering words of indistinct sounds with a pretty charm its own,
And get dirty from the dust sticking on their limbs.
Woman : Yes, he does’t listen to me. (looking backwards) Hi! Is there any of the hermitage boys around? (seeing the king) Gracious sir, Just come here. Free this small lion from the clutches of this boy, who is troubling it with his child’s play.
King : (approaching with a smile) Look, you sage’s son,
Why do you behave in this unbecoming way for ashram life,
Setting at nought the restraint taught from birth,
And spoil the happiness one gets from animals’ love,
Like a cobra child does to the sandal tree?
Woman: Sir, he is not really a sage’s son.
King: His looks and actions show that. Because I saw him in these surroundings, I thought otherwise. (doing as requested, and feeling the boy’s touch, to kimself)
By the touch of a boy, scion of somebody else’s house,
A feeling of pleasure spreads through my limbs;
How much joy will that lucky man have in his heart,
From whose loins he is actually sprung!
Woman; (observing both) Wonder, wonder!
King : Madam, like what!
Woman: I am surprised because you look so much like him. And also that he did not resist you, though a stranger.
King: (fondling the boy) If he is not a hermit’s son, then which is his family?
Woman: The race of Pooru.
King : (to himself) How! He is of the same race as me! That is why this lady thinks he resembles me. There is of course this final duty for the members of Pooru’s race:
They after first enjoying stay in palaces of delights,
While protecting the earth,
Dwell later at the foot of trees,
Devoted to ascetic vows alone.
King: (aloud) But this is no place where mortals can come by themselves.
Woman: What you say, sir, is absolutely true. But his mother, being related to Apsaras, gave birth to him in this ashram of Kashyapa, the father of gods.
King (to kimself) Ha! This is another ground of hope for me. (aloud) Then which saintly king’s wife was the lady?
Woman: Who wants to mention the name of that person who abandoned his lawful wife?
King : ( to himself) This story seems to point to myself. Shall I ask the name of the boy’s mother? Or it is not decent to talk about other people’s wives.
First woman (entering with the clay peacock) Sarvadamana, see the beauty of the bird!
Boy : ( looking up)Where is my mother?
[ Here an explanation is called for. What the woman said was, “Shakunthalavanyam”. The word can be split to Shakuntha, meanig bird, and lavanya, meaning beauty, OR Shakunthalaa and vaNya (which is probably prakrit for varna). Anyhow the boy, catching the first few syllables, jumps to the conclusion that she was talking of Shakunthala, his mother.]
Both the women: The boy, so attached to his mother, is deceived by similarity to the name
Second woman: She told you, “ see the beauty of this clay peacock”.
King: What! Is his mother’s name also Shakunthala? Ofcourse there can be similarities of name. Wll this mere talk of a name, end in more misery for me, like a mirage!
Boy: Mummy, I like this pretty peacock! (takes the toy)
First: (seeing that and alarmed) I don’t see the amulet on his wrist.
King : Don’t , don’t worry. It is , I think, fallen while playing with the lion cub. (and tries to pick it up)
Both : Please don’t hold it. --He has already done it.
King: Why did you forbid me?
First : Hear, Your Majesty. This is a herb, called Aparajitha, given during his birth-time rites by His Holiness, Kashyapa. No one other than his parents is to take it up if it falls on the ground.
King: What if he takes?
First: It will turn into a serpent and bite.
King: Have you ladies seen this in person any time?
Both : Several times!
King: (joyfully, to himself) How is it, I can hardly congratulate myself even when my desire is fulfilled! (hugs the boy)
Second: Come, Suvrata. We will tell this news to Shakunthala.
(both exit)
Boy: Leave me. Let me go to mother.
King: My son, along with me, you can greet your mother.
Boy: My father is Dushyantha, not you!
King: (smiling) Even this denial convinces me.
(then enters Shakunthala,with a single braid of hair)
Shakunthala: Even when I heard that Sarvadamana’s amulet retained its form at the time it should have changed, I had no hope of good fortune. Or it is possible to happen as Sanumati said.
King: Oh! This is she, Shakunthala!
Clad in soiled clothes, with only a braid of hair,
Emaciated in face from observance of abstinent rites,
She, pure in heart, practises a dedicated life of vows
Because of separation, alas, from the very cruel me.
Shakunthala: (seeing the king pale with remorse) He does not look like my husband at all. Then who can it be who defiles my son, protected by the amulet, by touching him?
Boy: (approaching mother) :Mummy, this stranger calls me son and embraces me.
King: My dear, even the cruelty I did to you has ended happily now that I see you have recognized me.
Shakunthala: (to herself) Quiet, quiet, my heart. Fate has at last given up hostility and taken pity on me. This is surely my husband.
King: Dear, Luckily now you stand in front of me, who at last is freed
From mental stupour by remembrance of the past,
Like Rohini, at the eclipse end
Reunited with the Moon.
Shakunthala: Hail,my husband! (stops half-said, choked with tears)
King: Pretty one, Even though your wish for my success
Is blocked by tears, I have indeed won,
Since I could see your face once again,
lips without any make-up glowing red.
Boy : mummy, who is he?
Shakunthala: Child, ask your Fortunes!
King: (falling at the feet of Shakunthala)
Let all grief at my rejection disappear from your heart;
There was some great derangement in my mind at that time.
Such behaviour at the good is common when stupidity is very great,
A blind man shakes off even a garland, taking it for a snake.
Shakunthala: Get up , husband. Surely some past deeds of mine, which went against morality, came to fruition in those days; Otherwise why should a compassionate man like you turn agaist me!
( king gets up)
Shakunthala: How then did you remember this ill-fated person?
King: I will tell you, after pulling out this thorn of sadness in my heart.
The tear drop troubling your lower lip
Which in my folly I ignored once.
Let me now wipe it clinging on your curv’d eye-lash
And get over the sorrow of remorse, my dear.
(and does so)
Shakunthala: (seeing the ring with his name) This is that ring!
King: When I got the ring I got my memory back.
Shakunthala: It behaved badly, by not being available at the time for convicing you.
King: In that case, let the vine acquire the blossom, as a sign of the union with Spring.
Shakunthala: Still I don’t trust it. Better you wear it yourself.
Matali: (entering) Happily, Your Highness is united with your wife and able to meet your son.
King: All my wishes have borne the sweetest of fruits. Matali, is not Lord Indra aware of all this development?
Matali : (smiling) What is not known to the Gods! Please come, sir, the great sage Kashyapa is ready to meet you.
King: Hold the boy. I would like to meet the sage, along with you.
Shakunthala: I feel shy to go before these eders with you.
King: But it has be done at such happy times. Come, come.
(so they go around)
(And then enters Kashyapa, seated with Adithi)
Kashyapa: Adithi,
This is the lord of all earth, called Dushyanta,
Always in the front of your son’s battle field.
By his bow is accomplished all that is to be done,
Indra’s thunder-bolt is only an ornamental piece.
Adithi: One can guess his prowess from the appearance
Matali: Dear sir, these parents of Gods are looking at you, with eyes that betoken their love for you. Please approach.
King: Matali: These two form a couple,
Who sages say is the cause of the Power that is split in twelve,
Who gave birth to the Lord of all three worlds, chief sharer of sacrifice,
And in whom the supreme Person, above the Self-born, took birth,
And who, after Daksha and Marichi, are one remove from Creator himself.
Matali: Yes, of course.
King (approaching) Dushyantha, at the service of Indra, bows humbly before both of you
Kashyapa: Ckild, live long. Protect the earth.
Adithi: Child, be you unrivalled.
Shakunthala: Along with my boy, I worship at your feet.
Kashypa: Child, Your husbsnd is equal to Indra,
Son is like Jayantha, Indra’s son,
No other blessing is fit for you:
Be you like Shachi, Indra’s wife.
Adithi: My child, Be honoured by your husband. And may this boy live long and be the joy of both the families. Do sit.
(all sit facing the sage)
Kashyapa: (pointing at each of them)
Virtuous Shakunthala here,
This good child, and you,
Faith, Wealth and Good Fortune,
All three have happily come together.
King: Holy One, what is this: first fulfilment, then seeing? Unprecedented is your blessing. For
First comes flower, then the fruit,
First clouds form, then it rains,
This is the order of cause and effect,
But before your blessings prosperity comes!
Matali : This is how the primeval gods bless.
King: Great sage, I have done a great offence to reverend Kanva, your kinsman, by repudiating, from failure of memory, this your servant when she was brought by her relatives to me, some time after I had married her by Gandharva rites. Later, on seeing the ring, I recollected that I had married her. All this looks so strange to me.
Kashyapa : Don’t think you have done anything wrong. And forgetfulness is hardly possible in you. Listen.
King : I am all attention.
Kashyapa: When Menaka came to Adithi with Shakunthala, who was clearly in some confusion after her bath in the Apsarstheerttha, then itself I undrestood from contemplation that this innocent dutiful wife was repudiated by you, because of the curse of Durvasas, and not anything else, and that this curse will cease at the sight of the ring.
King : (showing relief) Then I am not guilty of this shameful conduct.
Shakunthala: (to herself) Luckily, my husband did not reject for no reason. But I don’t remember that I was cursed. Or in my absent-mindedness due to separation, I did not know that this curse was on me. That mstt be why my friends told me that I should show the ring to my husband.
Kashyapa: My child, you have got what you wished for. You should not bear any grudge against him who is your partner in the duties of life
You were affected by curse; you are now mistress over your husband,
Who, then cruel from memoryy loss, Is freed of that spell.
Beauty never shows in a mirror that is clouded by dust,
But when it is cleaned, is there for all to see.
King: It is as you say, holy sir.
Kashyapa: Won’t you be proud of your son from Shakunthala, whose birth rites have been duly performed by us?
King: Sir, my family’s continuance depends on him! (holds the child by hand)
Kashypa: That is true. You may be assured that he is the future emperor of the world. See,
Crossing the seas in his smooth and straight moving car,
He will conquer unopposed the seven continenents of the Earth.
Called here Sarvadamana, because he tamed all creatures with his strength,
He will later get the name Bharatha, the protector of the world.
[The name Bharat for India is supposed to come from this King Bharata]
King : All this wii come to him brought up and educated by you, there is no doubt.
Adithi : Holy One, let Kanva be informed in detail the fulfilment of his daughter’s wishes. Menaka, the fond mother, ia already here in attendaance.
Shakunthala: She is expressing my own wish.
Kashyapa; All this he will directly know because of the power of his penance.
King : That is why the sage is not too angry with me.
Kashyapa; Still I should enquire about his wishes, HI! Who is there?
Disciple : (entering) Here I am!
Kashyapa : Galava, Go through the sky to Sage Kanva, and tell from me the happy news. That Shakunthala and her son have been accepted by Dushyantha, who freed from the curse has recovered his memory.
Disciple: Your orders, sir. (exit)
Kashyapa : Dear boy, you, with your wife and son, may get in the chariot of your friend, Indra, and leave for your kingdom.
King : As you command, Sir.
Kashyapa : Also,
May Indra give plenty of rain to your subjects,
And may you with many sacrifices please him well.
Thus hundreds of aeons, may you both pass in mutual help,
Laudable in that it is a blessing for both the worlds.
King: Holy saint, I will try my utmost for the good of all.
Kashyapa : Son, what more shall I do for ypu?
King: What more can I wish! If you still want to do me favour, let it be this.
( now the final valedictory prayer)
May the king act for people’s good,
May the words of scholars have due respect.
And may the self-born Siva, with his all-pervading Power,
Put an end to my cycle of birth and rebirth.
(all exit)
[END OF SEVENTH ACT]
SO IS COMPLETE THE PLAY CALLED SHAKUNTHALAM.
(enter the king in a chariot moving through the sky, and Matali)
King: Matali, I feel as if I have not been of any help to Indra, when I consider the special reception accorded to me by him.
Matali: My dear sir, I think both of you are equally dissatisfied.
You think what you did for him is nothing,
Compared to the honours he bestowed.
In wonder at your valourous deeds,
He thinks the same of his reception’s worth.
King; Matali, don’t say so. The send off he gave me was beyond one’a fondest expectations. In front of all the Devas, he made me sit on his throne along with him and
Looking at Jayanta standing near
With an inward plea, he smiled,
And tied round my neck the celestial flower garland,
Bearing marks of sandal paste rubbed off his chest.
Matali : What is it you don’t deserve from the Lord of Heaven! See.
Two have rooted out the Asura thorns
From peace-loving Indra’s heavenly world:
Now, your smooth-jointed sharp arrows,
And the Man-Lion’s nails in the ancient past.
King: Even here it is Indra’s greatness that is praise-worthy.
That employees succeed in enterprises great,
You know, is the result of the respect the master gives.
Would Dawn be able to annihilate the darkness of night,
If the Sun had not placed him in fore front?
Matali : This becomes you. (after driving some distance) Dear sir, observe the glory of your fame, established on the Heaven’s surface.
With the colours left from the Heaven’s beauties’ make-up,
These Devas, on the cloth-like leaves of the Kalpaka vines,
Write, after deep thought for material fit for song,
The story of your life.
King: Matali, the other day, in my eagerness for the fight against Asuras, I did not pay attention to the way to Heaven. In which Wind-God’s sphere are we now?
Matali: This, they say, is the region called Parivaha, purified
By the second of the three steps Vishnu took.
It is what supports the Ganges flowing in the sky,
And what rotates the stars with their apportioned rays.
King, That is why my soul with its internal and external senses are freshened up. (looking at the chariot wheel) We seem now to have come down to the region of clouds.
Matali : How do you know?
King: Your chariot, with the wheel-rims wet from spray,
Indicates its passage over the rain-filled clouds,
And by the Chataka-birds darting through the spokes,
And by the horses with the lightning flashes lit.
Matali: Soon you would be in your own country.
King : AS we descend, the world of mortals looks wonderful!
The land seems to slide from top of mountains rising up,
Trees, with bared trunks, abandons the covering of their leaves,
Rivers, shrunk with no water seen, expand and come in full view,
Look, as if thrown up by somebody, Earth is being brought to me.
Matali: Well observed. (looking with admiration) Ha! how lovely and beautiful is the Earth!
King: Matali, which is this mountain, immersed in the seas, on the eastern as well as the western side, and oozing liquid gold, that comes to view like a bank of evening clouds?
Matali : Dear sir, it is the Hemakoota mountain, the abode of Kimpurushas, the holiest place for fruition of penance. See,
Kashyapa the progenitor of all creation,
Father of Devas as well as Asuras,
Born of Marici, the son of the self-born Brahma,
Performs penance here, along with his wife.
King : In that case, good fortune should not be passed by; I would like to go, after pay ing respect to him.
Matali : Very good decision.
(they descend)
King: (in admiration) The wheel rims do not make any noise,
No dust is seen to be raised by it,
Because you hold it from touching ground.
Your chariot, though landed, does not seems so.
Matali : This much alone is the difference between you and Indra, the performer of a hundred sacrifices.
King, Matali, in which place is Kashyapa’s ashram?
Matali: (indicating with his hand)
There, where like a fixed stump, stands an ascetic, facing the disc of the Sun,
His body half buried in anthill, with chest on which snake skins stick,
Neck, in a loop of dry creeper shoots, tightly bound,
And a shock of matted hair, filled with bird nests, over the shoulders spread.
King: Let me bow before this performer of terrible penances.
Matali : ( pulling the reins) Your Majesty, we have now entered Kashyapa’s ashram, where the Mandaara trees of Heaven are nursed by Aditi herself.
King : This is indeed a haven of peace, much more than Heaven. I feel as if immersed in a pool of nectar.
Matali; (bringing the chariot to a halt) : You may get down, sir.
King: (getting down): Matali, what about you now?
Matali: I have anchored the chariot. I shall also get down. (doing so) Here, my Lord. (after going around) See the the penance groves of the ascetics.
King: Am I not looking in wonder!
They live on air, in a forest of divine trees which provide all one wants, Perform their ablutions in water brown from the pollen of golden lotus plants,
Meditate on gem bearing rocks, abstain in the presence of damsels divine,
What others do penance for, there they their penances perform!
Matali : High soaring indeed are the aspirations of the great. (walking further, into the sky) Hullo, VriddhaShakalya, what is His Holiness Kashyapa doing now? What, “asked by Aditi about a devoted wife’s duties, he is expounding it to her and other wives of the sages.”
King: (listening) O! we must wait for proper time to visit the sages.
Matali :(looking at the king) : You may stand under this Ashoka tree: I shall just look for an opportunity to inform the saint.
King : AS you think proper.
Matali : Sir, let me go. (exit)
King: (indicating an omen) ; I have no hope at all of getting what I want,
Why in vain are you throbbing, my arm? A good fortune once spurned
Is hard indeed to get back again.
(in the green room) : I say, don’t be naughty. What to do, he is gone back to his nature!
King (listening): This is is no place for bad conduct. Who is it being reprimanded? (looking in the direction of sound, in wonder) : Aha! Who is this boy, with more than a boy’s strength, closely followed by two women ascetics?
He, in order to play with him,
Pulls, ruffling its mane,
By force a lion cub,
Which has only half finished sucking milk,
(then enters a boy, doing as described by the women ascetics)
Boy: Lion, open your mouth; Let me count your teeth.
First : Naughty boy, why do you trouble these animals which are no different to us from our own children? Haha! Daily grows yourfool-hardiness! No wonder, you are named Sarvadamana, the tamer of all, by the Rishis.
King: How is it, that my mind is attracted to this boy, as if he were my own son. Surely childlessness makes me sentimental.
Second: Look, this lioness will attack you, if you don’t leave alone its baby child.
Boy : (smiling) Aha! Mighty afraid I am! (thrusts lower lip)
King: This boy seems to me a seed of some mighty Power,
Like fire,in the state of spark, waiting for fuel, to blaze!
First: My dear, leave this baby lion. I’ll give another thing to play with.
Boy: Where? Give. (extends his arm)
King : How! He has the signs of an emperor of the world!
His hand, extended to receive the tempting thing,
Shines with web-connected fingers, like a single lotus,
Of which the petal gaps are unseen,
Blown open by reddening rays of early morning light.
Second: See, Suvrata, it is not possible to stop him by merely talking. You go . In my cottage there is a painted clay peacock, belonging to the boy Markandeya. Give it to him.
First : Right!
Boy: I want to play only with him.
King: How I yearn for this spoiled boy.!
Lucky are they who hold their sons as they nestle in their laps,
Watch them exposing their budding teeth as they without reason laugh,
Uttering words of indistinct sounds with a pretty charm its own,
And get dirty from the dust sticking on their limbs.
Woman : Yes, he does’t listen to me. (looking backwards) Hi! Is there any of the hermitage boys around? (seeing the king) Gracious sir, Just come here. Free this small lion from the clutches of this boy, who is troubling it with his child’s play.
King : (approaching with a smile) Look, you sage’s son,
Why do you behave in this unbecoming way for ashram life,
Setting at nought the restraint taught from birth,
And spoil the happiness one gets from animals’ love,
Like a cobra child does to the sandal tree?
Woman: Sir, he is not really a sage’s son.
King: His looks and actions show that. Because I saw him in these surroundings, I thought otherwise. (doing as requested, and feeling the boy’s touch, to kimself)
By the touch of a boy, scion of somebody else’s house,
A feeling of pleasure spreads through my limbs;
How much joy will that lucky man have in his heart,
From whose loins he is actually sprung!
Woman; (observing both) Wonder, wonder!
King : Madam, like what!
Woman: I am surprised because you look so much like him. And also that he did not resist you, though a stranger.
King: (fondling the boy) If he is not a hermit’s son, then which is his family?
Woman: The race of Pooru.
King : (to himself) How! He is of the same race as me! That is why this lady thinks he resembles me. There is of course this final duty for the members of Pooru’s race:
They after first enjoying stay in palaces of delights,
While protecting the earth,
Dwell later at the foot of trees,
Devoted to ascetic vows alone.
King: (aloud) But this is no place where mortals can come by themselves.
Woman: What you say, sir, is absolutely true. But his mother, being related to Apsaras, gave birth to him in this ashram of Kashyapa, the father of gods.
King (to kimself) Ha! This is another ground of hope for me. (aloud) Then which saintly king’s wife was the lady?
Woman: Who wants to mention the name of that person who abandoned his lawful wife?
King : ( to himself) This story seems to point to myself. Shall I ask the name of the boy’s mother? Or it is not decent to talk about other people’s wives.
First woman (entering with the clay peacock) Sarvadamana, see the beauty of the bird!
Boy : ( looking up)Where is my mother?
[ Here an explanation is called for. What the woman said was, “Shakunthalavanyam”. The word can be split to Shakuntha, meanig bird, and lavanya, meaning beauty, OR Shakunthalaa and vaNya (which is probably prakrit for varna). Anyhow the boy, catching the first few syllables, jumps to the conclusion that she was talking of Shakunthala, his mother.]
Both the women: The boy, so attached to his mother, is deceived by similarity to the name
Second woman: She told you, “ see the beauty of this clay peacock”.
King: What! Is his mother’s name also Shakunthala? Ofcourse there can be similarities of name. Wll this mere talk of a name, end in more misery for me, like a mirage!
Boy: Mummy, I like this pretty peacock! (takes the toy)
First: (seeing that and alarmed) I don’t see the amulet on his wrist.
King : Don’t , don’t worry. It is , I think, fallen while playing with the lion cub. (and tries to pick it up)
Both : Please don’t hold it. --He has already done it.
King: Why did you forbid me?
First : Hear, Your Majesty. This is a herb, called Aparajitha, given during his birth-time rites by His Holiness, Kashyapa. No one other than his parents is to take it up if it falls on the ground.
King: What if he takes?
First: It will turn into a serpent and bite.
King: Have you ladies seen this in person any time?
Both : Several times!
King: (joyfully, to himself) How is it, I can hardly congratulate myself even when my desire is fulfilled! (hugs the boy)
Second: Come, Suvrata. We will tell this news to Shakunthala.
(both exit)
Boy: Leave me. Let me go to mother.
King: My son, along with me, you can greet your mother.
Boy: My father is Dushyantha, not you!
King: (smiling) Even this denial convinces me.
(then enters Shakunthala,with a single braid of hair)
Shakunthala: Even when I heard that Sarvadamana’s amulet retained its form at the time it should have changed, I had no hope of good fortune. Or it is possible to happen as Sanumati said.
King: Oh! This is she, Shakunthala!
Clad in soiled clothes, with only a braid of hair,
Emaciated in face from observance of abstinent rites,
She, pure in heart, practises a dedicated life of vows
Because of separation, alas, from the very cruel me.
Shakunthala: (seeing the king pale with remorse) He does not look like my husband at all. Then who can it be who defiles my son, protected by the amulet, by touching him?
Boy: (approaching mother) :Mummy, this stranger calls me son and embraces me.
King: My dear, even the cruelty I did to you has ended happily now that I see you have recognized me.
Shakunthala: (to herself) Quiet, quiet, my heart. Fate has at last given up hostility and taken pity on me. This is surely my husband.
King: Dear, Luckily now you stand in front of me, who at last is freed
From mental stupour by remembrance of the past,
Like Rohini, at the eclipse end
Reunited with the Moon.
Shakunthala: Hail,my husband! (stops half-said, choked with tears)
King: Pretty one, Even though your wish for my success
Is blocked by tears, I have indeed won,
Since I could see your face once again,
lips without any make-up glowing red.
Boy : mummy, who is he?
Shakunthala: Child, ask your Fortunes!
King: (falling at the feet of Shakunthala)
Let all grief at my rejection disappear from your heart;
There was some great derangement in my mind at that time.
Such behaviour at the good is common when stupidity is very great,
A blind man shakes off even a garland, taking it for a snake.
Shakunthala: Get up , husband. Surely some past deeds of mine, which went against morality, came to fruition in those days; Otherwise why should a compassionate man like you turn agaist me!
( king gets up)
Shakunthala: How then did you remember this ill-fated person?
King: I will tell you, after pulling out this thorn of sadness in my heart.
The tear drop troubling your lower lip
Which in my folly I ignored once.
Let me now wipe it clinging on your curv’d eye-lash
And get over the sorrow of remorse, my dear.
(and does so)
Shakunthala: (seeing the ring with his name) This is that ring!
King: When I got the ring I got my memory back.
Shakunthala: It behaved badly, by not being available at the time for convicing you.
King: In that case, let the vine acquire the blossom, as a sign of the union with Spring.
Shakunthala: Still I don’t trust it. Better you wear it yourself.
Matali: (entering) Happily, Your Highness is united with your wife and able to meet your son.
King: All my wishes have borne the sweetest of fruits. Matali, is not Lord Indra aware of all this development?
Matali : (smiling) What is not known to the Gods! Please come, sir, the great sage Kashyapa is ready to meet you.
King: Hold the boy. I would like to meet the sage, along with you.
Shakunthala: I feel shy to go before these eders with you.
King: But it has be done at such happy times. Come, come.
(so they go around)
(And then enters Kashyapa, seated with Adithi)
Kashyapa: Adithi,
This is the lord of all earth, called Dushyanta,
Always in the front of your son’s battle field.
By his bow is accomplished all that is to be done,
Indra’s thunder-bolt is only an ornamental piece.
Adithi: One can guess his prowess from the appearance
Matali: Dear sir, these parents of Gods are looking at you, with eyes that betoken their love for you. Please approach.
King: Matali: These two form a couple,
Who sages say is the cause of the Power that is split in twelve,
Who gave birth to the Lord of all three worlds, chief sharer of sacrifice,
And in whom the supreme Person, above the Self-born, took birth,
And who, after Daksha and Marichi, are one remove from Creator himself.
Matali: Yes, of course.
King (approaching) Dushyantha, at the service of Indra, bows humbly before both of you
Kashyapa: Ckild, live long. Protect the earth.
Adithi: Child, be you unrivalled.
Shakunthala: Along with my boy, I worship at your feet.
Kashypa: Child, Your husbsnd is equal to Indra,
Son is like Jayantha, Indra’s son,
No other blessing is fit for you:
Be you like Shachi, Indra’s wife.
Adithi: My child, Be honoured by your husband. And may this boy live long and be the joy of both the families. Do sit.
(all sit facing the sage)
Kashyapa: (pointing at each of them)
Virtuous Shakunthala here,
This good child, and you,
Faith, Wealth and Good Fortune,
All three have happily come together.
King: Holy One, what is this: first fulfilment, then seeing? Unprecedented is your blessing. For
First comes flower, then the fruit,
First clouds form, then it rains,
This is the order of cause and effect,
But before your blessings prosperity comes!
Matali : This is how the primeval gods bless.
King: Great sage, I have done a great offence to reverend Kanva, your kinsman, by repudiating, from failure of memory, this your servant when she was brought by her relatives to me, some time after I had married her by Gandharva rites. Later, on seeing the ring, I recollected that I had married her. All this looks so strange to me.
Kashyapa : Don’t think you have done anything wrong. And forgetfulness is hardly possible in you. Listen.
King : I am all attention.
Kashyapa: When Menaka came to Adithi with Shakunthala, who was clearly in some confusion after her bath in the Apsarstheerttha, then itself I undrestood from contemplation that this innocent dutiful wife was repudiated by you, because of the curse of Durvasas, and not anything else, and that this curse will cease at the sight of the ring.
King : (showing relief) Then I am not guilty of this shameful conduct.
Shakunthala: (to herself) Luckily, my husband did not reject for no reason. But I don’t remember that I was cursed. Or in my absent-mindedness due to separation, I did not know that this curse was on me. That mstt be why my friends told me that I should show the ring to my husband.
Kashyapa: My child, you have got what you wished for. You should not bear any grudge against him who is your partner in the duties of life
You were affected by curse; you are now mistress over your husband,
Who, then cruel from memoryy loss, Is freed of that spell.
Beauty never shows in a mirror that is clouded by dust,
But when it is cleaned, is there for all to see.
King: It is as you say, holy sir.
Kashyapa: Won’t you be proud of your son from Shakunthala, whose birth rites have been duly performed by us?
King: Sir, my family’s continuance depends on him! (holds the child by hand)
Kashypa: That is true. You may be assured that he is the future emperor of the world. See,
Crossing the seas in his smooth and straight moving car,
He will conquer unopposed the seven continenents of the Earth.
Called here Sarvadamana, because he tamed all creatures with his strength,
He will later get the name Bharatha, the protector of the world.
[The name Bharat for India is supposed to come from this King Bharata]
King : All this wii come to him brought up and educated by you, there is no doubt.
Adithi : Holy One, let Kanva be informed in detail the fulfilment of his daughter’s wishes. Menaka, the fond mother, ia already here in attendaance.
Shakunthala: She is expressing my own wish.
Kashyapa; All this he will directly know because of the power of his penance.
King : That is why the sage is not too angry with me.
Kashyapa; Still I should enquire about his wishes, HI! Who is there?
Disciple : (entering) Here I am!
Kashyapa : Galava, Go through the sky to Sage Kanva, and tell from me the happy news. That Shakunthala and her son have been accepted by Dushyantha, who freed from the curse has recovered his memory.
Disciple: Your orders, sir. (exit)
Kashyapa : Dear boy, you, with your wife and son, may get in the chariot of your friend, Indra, and leave for your kingdom.
King : As you command, Sir.
Kashyapa : Also,
May Indra give plenty of rain to your subjects,
And may you with many sacrifices please him well.
Thus hundreds of aeons, may you both pass in mutual help,
Laudable in that it is a blessing for both the worlds.
King: Holy saint, I will try my utmost for the good of all.
Kashyapa : Son, what more shall I do for ypu?
King: What more can I wish! If you still want to do me favour, let it be this.
( now the final valedictory prayer)
May the king act for people’s good,
May the words of scholars have due respect.
And may the self-born Siva, with his all-pervading Power,
Put an end to my cycle of birth and rebirth.
(all exit)
[END OF SEVENTH ACT]
SO IS COMPLETE THE PLAY CALLED SHAKUNTHALAM.
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