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102
Appointment with Kalidasa
for losing her mind at the first anguish of a separation and for thinking of her own husband at the neglect of a guest ? The entire situation is handled by Kālidasa with delicate suggestions, yet they are so eloquent that it is a wonder how any critic could miss them. Particularly worthy of note is the character of Durvāsas that Kálidāsa has created with a few deft touches. Durvāsas is an dgantuka; he came to the bermitage suddenly, unexpectedly, and without invitation. He is by nature sulabhakopa, easily provoked to uncontrollable anger without proper reason ; he is parkrtivakra, crooked and twisted by temperament, and would refuse to listen to any plea however respectfully submitted by any ope27. If neglecting a guest were an offence, Sakuntalā committed it unknowingly ; it was the first ever offence in her life ; and innocent as she is, she did not realise the terrible consequences the power of an offended ascetic could impose upon her for a non-deliberate, unintentional neglect. Considering the total circumstances should not the sage show mercy to Sakuntalā, a girl who is like a daughter to him, and pardon her 118 Who could burn with his anger a daughter-like girl for an unconscious seglect, except, of course, Durvāsas ? It is the nature of fire to burn anything that comes into its close contact 19 ; it is the nature of an irascible sage like Durvāsas, puffed with the power of his penance, to pronounce any curse that comes to lips and refuse to take it back even when it is shown to be unjust. Else, who would pour boiling water on a delicate Navamälikā creeper 20 or subject an innocent girl like Sakuntala to the dire consequences of an unmerited curse ? A careful reading of the statements and epithets used by Kālidasa in this situation (which I have paraphrased in my analysis), with their possible sugges. tions, will lead any one to believe, like the companions of Sakuntala, that the poor Sakuntalā has been an unjust victim, by a stroke of misfortune, of the anger of an unreasonable, obstinate and egotistical sage. The words of the poet and the poetical suggestions that flow from them reveal this intent. There is no ground, therefore, in Kālidāsa's text to take the curse as a punishment for earthly or physical love, and suffering as a remedy for its sublimation.
It is obvious that Kalidasa believes in previous existence. There was something unfoward in the fate of Śakuntalā. Kālidāsa has dropped an artistic hint of the 'unfavourable fate (pratikāla duiva) of Sakuntalā at the beginning of his play.21 According to the religious philosophy of the Hindus, a person's fate is determined by the deeds done in previous life (pürva-janma); what he does in the present existence will determine his next birth. In other words, the suffering of Sakuntalā is a result of something that happened in her former birth. It is this abstract notion of fate to which Kälidāsa gives a material shape in his art design by the curse of Durvāsas.22 That is also why he keeps this dramatic, thrilling and shocking incident 'behind the curtain'; because the curse is not a material happening determined by cause and effect of the moment ; it is a symbol of fate, the link of which goes back to previous birth. Sakuntala's father Karva tried to smoothen the consequences of the untoward fate by underta. ing a pilgrimage to Somatirtha. A father's unselfish love for his daughter may soften the attack of fate ; it has no power to change it. So, Sakuntala
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