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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Ādi

Śakuntalā

Classical

Dushyanta (Dushmanta in the translation I read) is introduced as the founder of the Paurava line, a young king so strong and well trained that his rule is remembered as an age without crime, famine or disease. Hunting one day, he killed many animals, grew exhausted with hunger and thirst, and with one follower came across a beautiful forest full of hermitages by the river Malini. He left his army at the edge, took his minister and priest to the hermitage of the sage Kanwa, and then went in alone. No one answered his call, but a young woman dressed as an ascetic's daughter came out, offered him a seat, water for his feet and a respectful greeting, and asked what she could do. This was Shakuntala. Her father, she said, was out gathering fruit.

Dushyanta was struck by her. When she called herself Kanwa's daughter he pointed out that Kanwa was a lifelong celibate, so how? She answered by telling the story she had been told: Indra, fearing the powers of the sage Vishwamitra, sent the nymph Menaka to distract him. Menaka was afraid, but agreed once Indra promised protection, and asked the wind to blow away her garments and the god of love to help. Shakuntala was the child of that meeting, left behind when she was a baby.

Dushyanta proposed marriage in the Gandharva way, by mutual consent without family ritual, and offered her wealth and his whole kingdom. She said her father should give her away and asked him to wait. He argued that a person may choose a spouse and listed the forms of marriage. She agreed on one condition: her son would be his heir. He accepted, they married, and he promised to send an escort to bring her to his capital. On the road home he worried about Kanwa's reaction. Kanwa came back, saw what had happened by his own insight, and told her that the union did no harm to her, that the Gandharva marriage is held best for warriors, and that her son would be mighty and rule the seas. She asked a boon for the Paurava kings: that they always be virtuous and never lose their thrones.

Her son grew so strong that by six he tied lions, tigers and elephants to trees, and the hermits called him Sarvadamana, the subduer of all. Then Kanwa told his disciples to take mother and child to Hastinapura. She presented the boy and asked the king to keep his promise.

Dushyanta said he did not remember her. He called her a cheat in an ascetic's clothes. Shakuntala did not shrink. She told him that the witness inside every person sees what has been done, that a wife and a son are what a household stands on, and that she was born of Menaka and Vishwamitra. He mocked her parentage and the boy's size, and called her lewd. She answered that he saw other people's faults but not his own, that truth is worth more than anything else, and that she would go if he would not own the boy.

As she turned to leave, an unseen voice spoke. The son, it said, is the father's own self and the mother only the vessel, so cherish him, and the boy's name is Bharata, the cherished. Dushyanta then said he had known all along that the boy was his, but a public acknowledgement needed proof. He embraced his son, forgave her sharp words, honoured her with gifts and installed the boy as heir. Bharata went on to conquer the kingdoms of the earth and perform great sacrifices with Kanwa as chief priest, and the dynasty takes his name. In this telling nothing is forgotten by accident.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

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