In the original story of Sakuntala, as told in the Mahabhratha, there is no ring. Sakuntala appears in Dushmanta's court with their son and requests Dushmanta to declare him the heir to his throne, as he had promised her, before their gandharva vivāham. Though Dushmanta very much remembers their encounter (and thus recognises legitimacy of the claim), he still pretends not to remember and asks her provocative, insulting questions in his court. But he is ' being cruel only to be kind '. For, this sets the dramatic stage for a fine articulation of her case by Sakuntala, which ends in the divine voice from the sky, declaring her to be true and for Dushmanta to accept her and their son. And then, Dushmanta tells his courtiers that he always knew but his word would have been insufficient proof to the court. We are of course, more aware of the storyline of KāLidāsa's play abhijñānasākuntalam, where the poet made significant departures. The elevation of the 'word/memory
Less a caterpillar, more a Bombyx Mori.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!
Maybe it has transformed!
ReplyDeleteThe butterfly spreads its newly found freedom and flies away.. :-)
Happppy Birthday, Prabhu. :-) :-)
Here's wishing you an awesome year ahead, and here's hoping that all your dreams come true! :-) Cheers!
Happy Birthday, Booyee!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Prabhu :)
ReplyDeleteMany happy returns Prabhu! Wishing you a great year ahead! :)
ReplyDeleteYennadhu nesmavey msp is 26 years old ? Arasey, please pass an immediate order to increase his age.
ReplyDeleteBNB (whose inferiority complex just increased by a couple of orders of magnitude)
Thank you compli.
ReplyDelete//Less a caterpillar, more a Bombyx Mori.//
You surely did mean to be kind than kind of be mean. I mean I know what you mean :-)
Thank you Divya. Kind of the words of the wise.
//Happy Birthday, Booyee!!!//
ReplyDeleteThank you aNNAthE !
Thank you o-n-c and Padma :-)
Thank you BNB.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the nightblind GM in Chinnathambi, to whom a greater degree of virtue is attributed than is the case :-)
Belated vAzthukkaL-NE! :-D
ReplyDelete//You surely did mean to be kind than kind of be mean. I mean I know what you mean :-) //
ROTFL!
Thank You Venki
ReplyDelete//A caterpillar
ReplyDeletethis deep in autumn
still not a butterfly//
and I can relate it to spirituality. I guess something is wrong with me, I wear blue glasses and everything looks blue.
Deep words. thanks.
Nothing wrong SP :-)
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty spiritual. Much as one is advised not to go into the metaphors in Haikus, we all continue to search for metaphors which heighten how we can better relate to the poems.