Sakoontala, a story of thwarted love, is the most well known of Kaldasa’s three plays. The celebrated poet and dramatist also authored three works in verse.
The dramatis personae of the play are Dushyanta (King of India), Kanwa (chief of the hermitage, and foster-father of Sakoontala), Havya (the friend and companion to the King), Sakoontala (foster-child of the hermit Kanwa), Priyamvada and Anasuya (female attendants & companions of Sakoontala).
The story really begins in the fourth act - after successfully wooing Sakoontala, King Dushyanta departs for the royal court. He cannot take Sakoontala with him, as her father has not yet returned, but he leaves his royal signet as a token of their marriage.
Supposedly due to a curse by the sage Durvasas, the King suffers from a loss of memory and forgets all about Sakoontala. The days pass…
In the interim, Sakoontala is pregnant with the child of King Dushyant, and it is decided (by the inmates of the hermitage) to conduct Sakoontala to the presence of the King at his royal court. Unfortunately for Sakoontala, the royal signet – that is proof of their engagement – is lost while she is bathing in a pond. The King, who has not yet recovered his memory, fails to recognize her.
Meanwhile, the ring is discovered by a poor fisherman. As soon as he sets his eyes upon the ring, memory returns to the King in a flash. He is aghast at what he has done, and is unable to reconcile himself to the self-inflicted loss of his beloved.
One fine day, the King is taken to the hermitage of Kashyapa (another sage), where he sets his eyes on a precocious child. Unknown to him, the child is his own. As fate would have it, the King is proved to be the father of the child by means of a magical amulet in possession of the child. Sakoontala, who had taken refuge in this hermitage, is nearby; and the two lovers are happily re-united.
Though Kalidasa has drawn the outline of the plot from older sources (notably from the Mahabharata), the poetry is very much his own. Perhaps more to the point, Kalidasa’s emphasis is not on the history, but on the human angle – the story behind the story. And it is here that Kalidasa stands out among other Indian dramatists and playwrights. It has become somewhat of a cliché to refer to Kalidasa as the “Shakespeare of India”, but the epithet is well deserved nonetheless!