Kālidāsa’s Writing a Romantic History: Aesthetic Love in the Story of Śakuntalā

Kālidāsa tells a story from the Mahābhārata that arguably had a further reach than the original verses. He rewrites the story of Bharata’s birth from Śakuntalā and Duḥṣanta in his drama, Abhijñānaśākuntalam. This paper will examine how Kālidāsa represents the love between these two characters though an analysis of the drama’s aesthetic features in the first act. Kālidāsa’s protagonists, accompanied by a cast of characters, develop a shy romance that is largely communicated through glances, thoughts to themselves, and hushed jokes amongst friends. He departs in many ways from the Mahābhārata’s story, most notably making the King and Śakuntalā into characters that are more amenable to his audience’s contemporary sensibilities. Kālidāsa thereby dramatically transforms, by virtue of his retelling, the social imagination of history through his literary work.