Shakuntala (play)

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The Recognition of Sakuntala
)
Śakuntalā Looking Back to Glimpse Duṣyanta, scene from Shakuntala painted by Raja Ravi Varma.

Abhijñānaśākuntalam (

Sanskrit play by the ancient Indian poet Kālidāsa, dramatizing the story of Śakuntalā told in the epic Mahābhārata and regarded as best of Kālidāsa's works.[1] Its exact date is uncertain, but Kālidāsa is often placed in the 4th century CE.[2]

Origin of Kālidāsa's play

See also:
Sanskrit drama

Plots similar to the play appear in earlier texts. There is a story mentioned in the Mahābhārata. A story of similar plot appear in the Buddhist Jātaka tales as well. In the Mahābhārata the story appears as a precursor to the Pāṇḍava and Kaūrava lineages. In the story King Duṣyanta and Śakuntalā meet in the forest and get estranged and ultimately reunited. Their son Bharata is said to have laid the foundation of the dynasty that ultimately led to Kaūravas and Pāṇḍavas.[3][4][5][6]

Title

Manuscripts differ on what its exact title is. Usual variants are Abhijñānaśakuntalā, Abhijñānaśākuntala, Abhijñānaśakuntalam and Abhijñānaśākuntalam.[7] The Sanskrit title means pertaining to the recognition of Śakuntalā, so a literal translation could be Of Śakuntalā who is recognized. The title is sometimes translated as The token-for-recognition of Śakuntalā or The Sign of Śakuntalā.[citation needed] Titles of the play in published translations include Sacontalá or The Fatal Ring and Śakoontalá or The Lost Ring.[8][9]

Synopsis

See also: Shakuntala
Crying of Shakuntala

The protagonist is

Viśvāmitra and the apsara Menakā. Abandoned at birth by her parents, Śakuntalā is reared in the secluded hermitage of the sage Kaṇva
, and grows up a comely but innocent maiden.

While Kaṇva and the other elders of the hermitage are away on a pilgrimage,

sacrificial fire
and asks him to join them. They then spot the hermitage of Sage Kaṇva and decide to pay the hermits a visit. However the king decides to go to this penance grove dressed up as a commoner. He also stops the chariot farther away to not disturb the hermits. The moment he enters the hermitage and spots Śakuntalā, he is captivated by her, courts her in royal style, and marries her. Soon, he has to leave to take care of affairs in the capital. The king gives her a ring which, as it turns out, will eventually have to be presented to him when she appears in his court to claim her place as queen.

One day, the anger-prone sage

signet ring
that he gave her.

She later travels to meet him, and has to cross a river. The ring is lost when it slips off her hand as she dips it in the water playfully. On arrival the king is unable to recognize the person he married and therefore refuses to acknowledge her. Śakuntala is abandoned by her companions who declare that she should remain with her husband. They then return to the hermitage.

Fortunately, the ring is discovered by a fisherman in the belly of a fish, and presents it in the king's court. Duṣyanta realizes his mistake - too late. The newly wise Duṣyanta is asked to defeat an army of

Asuras, and is rewarded by Indra
with a journey through heaven. After returning to Earth years later, Duṣyanta finds Śakuntala and their son by chance, and recognizes them.

In other versions, especially the one found in the '

Pāṇḍavas, who fought the epic war of the Mahābhārata. It is after this Bharata that India was given the name "Bhāratavarsha", the 'Land of Bharata'.[10]

Reception

By the 18th century, Western poets were beginning to get acquainted with works of Indian literature and philosophy.[citation needed] Shakuntala was the first Indian drama to be translated into a Western language, by Sir William Jones in 1789. In the next 100 years, there were at least 46 translations in twelve European languages.[11]

Sanskrit literature

See also: Sanskrit literature

Introduction in the West

Further information: List of Sanskrit plays in English translation
Indian plaque depicting the myth of Shakuntala, found in the treasury of Ai-Khanoum, Bactria, 2nd century BCE.[12]

Sacontalá or The Fatal Ring, Sir William Jones' translation of Kālidāsa's play, was first published in Calcutta, followed by European republications in 1790, 1792 and 1796.

Goethe's epigram goes like this:[17]

Wilt thou the blossoms of spring and the fruits that are later in season,
Wilt thou have charms and delights, wilt thou have strength and support,
Wilt thou with one short word encompass the earth and the heaven,
All is said if I name only, [Shakuntala], thee.

Education in British India

Shakuntala was disapproved of as a text for school and college students in the British Raj in the 19th century, as popular Indian literature was deemed, in the words of Charles Trevelyan, to be "marked with the greatest immorality and impurity", and Indian students were thought by colonial administrators to be insufficiently morally and intellectually advanced to read the Indian texts that were taught and praised in Britain.[18]

Unfinished opera projects

See also: Sakuntala (opera)

When Leopold Schefer became a student of Antonio Salieri in September 1816, he had been working on an opera about Shakuntala for at least a decade, a project which he did however never complete.[19] Franz Schubert, who had been a student of Salieri until at least December of the same year, started composing his Sakuntala opera, D 701, in October 1820.[19][20] Johann Philipp Neumann based the libretto for this opera on Kālidāsa's play, which he probably knew through one or more of the three German translations that had been published by that time.[21] Schubert abandoned the work in April 1821 at the latest.[19] A short extract of the unfinished score was published in 1829.[21] Also Václav Tomášek left an incomplete Sakuntala opera.[22]

New adaptations and editions

Kālidāsa's Śakuntalā was the model for the libretto of Karl von Perfall [de]'s first opera, which premièred in 1853.[23] In 1853 Monier Monier-Williams published the Sanskrit text of the play.[24] Two years later he published an English translation of the play, under the title: Śakoontalá or The Lost Ring.[9] A ballet version of Kālidāsa's play, Sacountalâ, on a libretto by Théophile Gautier and with music by Ernest Reyer, was first performed in Paris in 1858.[22][25] A plot summary of the play was printed in the score edition of Karl Goldmark's Overture to Sakuntala, Op. 13 (1865).[22] Sigismund Bachrich composed a Sakuntala ballet in 1884.[22] Felix Weingartner's opera Sakuntala, with a libretto based on Kālidāsa's play, premièred the same year.[26] Also Philipp Scharwenka's Sakuntala, a choral work on a text by Carl Wittkowsky, was published in 1884.[27]

Bengali translations:[relevant?]

Tamil translations include:[relevant?]

  • Abigna Sakuntalam (1938) by
    Mahavidwan R.Raghava Iyengar
    . Translated in sandam style.

Felix Woyrsch's incidental music for Kālidāsa's play, composed around 1886, is lost.[28] Ignacy Jan Paderewski would have composed a Shakuntala opera, on a libretto by Catulle Mendès, in the first decade of the 20th century: the work is however no longer listed as extant in overviews of the composer's or librettist's oeuvre.[29][30][31][32] Arthur W. Ryder published a new English translation of Shakuntala in 1912.[33] Two years later he collaborated to an English performance version of the play.[34]

Alfano's opera

Main article: Sakùntala

Italian Franco Alfano composed an opera, named La leggenda di Sakùntala (The legend of Sakùntala) in its first version (1921) and simply Sakùntala in its second version (1952).[35]

Further developments

Chinese translation:[relevant?]

Fritz Racek's completion of Schubert's Sakontala was performed in Vienna in 1971.[21] Another completion of the opera, by Karl Aage Rasmussen, was published in 2005[36] and recorded in 2006.[20] A scenic performance of this version was premièred in 2010.[citation needed]

Norwegian electronic musician Amethystium wrote a song called "Garden of Sakuntala" which can be found on the CD Aphelion.[citation needed][relevant?] According to Philip Lutgendorf, the narrative of the movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili[when?] recapitulates the story of Shakuntala.[37][relevant?]

In

Māni Mādhava Chākyār has choreographed a Koodiyattam production of The Recognition of Sakuntala.[38][failed verification
]

A production directed by Tarek Iskander was mounted for a run at London's Union Theatre in January and February 2009.[citation needed] The play is also appearing on a Toronto stage for the first time as part of the Harbourfront World Stage program.[failed verification] An adaptation by the Magis Theatre Company [1][failed verification] featuring the music of Indian-American composer Rudresh Mahanthappa had its premiere at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York February 11–28, 2010.[citation needed]

Film adaptations

It is one of the few

1966 by Kamalakara Kameshwara Rao, and 2022 by Gunasekhar.[39][40] A television film, titled Shakuntalam, was an adaptation of the play by Indian theatre director Vijaya Mehta.[41]

Star One in 2009.[43] Shaakuntalam is a 2023 Pan India film from Telugu language based on the play.[44]

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-1438108735
    .
  2. ^ Sheldon Pollock (ed., 2003) Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, p.79
  3. ISBN 978-81-8475-388-2
    . Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  4. ISBN 978-0-393-24645-2
    . Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  5. ^ Automation, Bhaskar (2019-06-13). "महाभारत की शकुंतला और कालिदास के अभिज्ञान शाकुंतलम का किया चित्रण". Dainik Bhaskar (in Hindi). Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  6. ISBN 978-0-8147-8815-8
    . Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  7. ^ Stephan Hillyer Levitt (2005), "Why Are Sanskrit Play Titles Strange?" (PDF), Indologica Taurinensia: 195–232, archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22
  8. ^ a b Jones 1789.
  9. ^ a b Monier-Williams 1855.
  10. ^ Apte, Vaman Shivaram (1959). "भरतः". Revised and enlarged edition of Prin. V. S. Apte's The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary. Poona: Prasad Prakashan.
  11. complete review
    website.
  12. ^ Rapin, Claude (1992). La Trésorerie du palais hellénistique d'Aï Khanoum. L'Apogée et la chute du royaume grec de Bactriane, Fouilles d'Aï Khanoum VIII, Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan XXXIII (PDF). Paris: De Boccard. p. Plaque 87 (reconstruction). also Reconstruction by Claude Rapin
  13. ^ a b c Evison 1998, pp. 132–135.
  14. ^ Jones 1791.
  15. ^ Jones 1803.
  16. ^ Figueira 1991, pp. 19–20.
  17. ^ Mueller, Max A History Of Ancient Sanskrit Literature
  18. ^ Viswanathan, Gauri (1989). Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. Oxford University Press. pp. 5–6.
  19. ^ a b c Manuela Jahrmärker and Thomas Aigner (editors), Franz Schubert (composer) and Johann Philipp Neumann (librettist). Sacontala (NSE Series II Vol. 15). Bärenreiter, 2008, p. IX
  20. ^ a b Margarida Mota-Bull. Sakontala (8 june 2008) at www.musicweb-international.com
  21. ^
    ISBN 9783761805718, pp. 411–413
  22. ^ a b c d Boston Symphony Orchestra Twenty-Third Season, 1903–1904: Programme – pp. 125–128
  23. ^ Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 104 (Thursday 14 April 1853): p. 1662
  24. ^ Monier-Williams 1853.
  25. ^ Gautier 1858.
  26. ^ Hubbard, William Lines (1908). Operas, Vol. 2 in: The American History and Encyclopedia of Music. Irving Squire, p. 418
  27. ^ § "Works without Opus Number" of List of works by Philipp Scharwenka at IMSLP website
  28. ^ Felix Woyrsch – Werke at Pfohl-Woyrsch-Gesellschaft website
  29. ^ Riemann, Hugo (editor). Musik-Lexikon [wikisource:de], 7th edition. Leipzig: Hesse, 1909, p. 1037
  30. IMSLP
    website
  31. ^ Małgorzata Perkowska. "List of Works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski" in Polish Music Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter 2001
  32. ^ Catulle Mendès at www.artlyriquefr.fr
  33. ^ Ryder 1912.
  34. ^ Holme & Ryder 1914.
  35. ^ Background to the opera from The Opera Critic on theoperacritic.com. Retrieved 8 May 2013
  36. ^ Sakontala (score) at Edition Wilhelm Hansen website
  37. ^ Ram Teri Ganga Maili Archived 2011-12-28 at the Wayback Machine at Notes on Indian popular cinema by Philip Lutgendorf
  38. ISBN 81-86365-78-8
  39. ISBN 978-1-134-06255-3
    .
  40. ^ "In pics: Samantha's stunning stills from the sets of 'Shakuntalam'". The News Minute. 2021-03-16. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  41. ISBN 978-0-948911-40-8
    .
  42. ^ "Bharat Ek Khoj | Episode-18 | Kālidāsa, Part—I". Prasar Bharati Archives.
  43. Telegraph India
    .
  44. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 2023-02-20.

References

Sanskrit Wikisource has original text related to this article:
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External links
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