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Appointment with Kalidasa
her. Yet, the information is indirect, received on trust; Sakuntalā has not been able to see thiogs for herself, with her own eyes. As if to remove this artistic lacuna in his dramatic design Kalidāsa builds the re-union with special touches. Kālidāsa shows Duşyanta, the emperor of the acean-bounded earth, a personal friend of the Gods, an incomparable hero who has just achieved an uncommon victory and has been specially honoured by Indra, falling at the feet of Sakuntalā and begging her pardon. Duşyanta had not knowingly or deliberately rejected Śakuntalā; in fact, he was not personally responsible for her repudiation; the dramatic design makes it abundantly clear. And yet Dusyanta is pained by the agony he inflicted unconsciously on his beloved wife; he wipes the tear with his own fingers from the eye of overwhelmed sakuntalā and asks for her forgiveness once again 52. I think it is a scene of which the gods would be proud. That the husband should beg ore's pardon with a repentent and full heart, and wipe one's tears with his own hand, is a moment of such great happiness in a woman's life that she would be prepared to suffer any amount of agony, even stand on the threshold of death, to capture it. What does a woman want in her life except the deep and abiding love of her husband, which nothing can change and which sufferings can only intensify ? It is a triumph of Kālidāsa's art that he captured this rare moment and left it for all times.
The re-union of the loving husband and wife after a long agonising separation is in a sense heavenly, though not in the sense that the first union is physical, on animal level, and badly needing a sublimation, as a class of critics have assumed. Separation, whatever its cause may be, is a test of mutual love; it intensifies love; it brings about a better and deeper understanding between the husband and wife or the two lovers, and the understanding binds them closer together, in an abiding bond of affection. The closeness they feel for each other is not limited to the physical pleasure, though it will continue in the nature of things as long as the couple is healthy and their bodies respond; but it now gets the wider basis and perspective of the total life. They become real partners in life sharing joys and sorrows and achieve a unique unity of hearts.
Let us not make the mistake of imagining that in this wider and broad-based understanding the physical pleasure evaporates into nothingness and the couple lead the life of spiritual candidates. What happens is that the love ripens into profound and total affection.53 Bhavabhūti's Rāma, who has been fortunate to have achieved the unique oneness of love with Sitā, experiences a physical thrill at the casual touch of Sitā and his body tingles with the horripilation of joy. And Sītā assures him that there is nothing surprising about it; it only proves that his love has remained steady and constant.54 Overcome with the ecstasy of love Rāma offers his arm as a pillow to the sleepy Sītā and she clings to him closely and goes to sleep on his arm,55 The significance of love between man and woman and the agony of separation they are prepared to endure is, thus, the enlargement of the horizon of mutual understanding, in which the intensity of love and its unchangeable constancy are fully tested.
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