Abhijnanasakuntalam - Short Answer Type Questions and Answers (2 Marks)

Abhijnanasakuntalam by Kalidasa (S.A.Q – Marks 2)

1. What does the image of ‘tusker rampage’ (Act - I) suggest?

Answer: The tusker rampage in Act I suggests the onset of uncontrolled passion in King Duhsanta. His subduing the tusker, similarly, is indicative of his attempt and ability to control the passion that occupied his heart on viewing Sakuntala. This may also suggest that Duhsanta himself is the ‘tusker’, who through his very intrusion has disturbed the peace of the hermitage, ushering in a string of events that are unlikely to its inherent tranquility.  

2. What is ‘benediction’?

Answer: Benediction is the formulaic beginning of the play as found in Classical Sanskrit plays. This was included to invoke the blessing of the patron god praying for the successful completion of the play, the concept being that the deity would keep a watchful eye on the evil powers that would attempt to otherwise stall the play in its progress. Formally, the benediction was outside the corpus of the play, and many Sanskrit playwrights had had the actors penning them. But Kalidasa was an exception. He wrote the benediction himself, most of them devoted to the deity of Ashtamurti Shiva, his ishta, and Abhijnanasakuntalam has one of the most beautiful benedictions in the entire corpus of Sanskrit literature.

3. Who found the finger ring and where?

Answer: The ring is found in the stomach of a fish and is found by two fishermen Januka and Suchaka while fishing. They found it to bear the sing of the king and sold it to a dhivara for money, which was how the police got a whiff of it and arrested the washer-man for stealing a royal ring. 

4. Who was Gautami?

Answer: Gautami was the ashrama mata. She was the wife of Kulapati rishi Kanva, a kind and benevolent mother figure whose magnanimity encompassed and graced the entire ashram amidst the woods in love and compassion. She makes only a brief appearance in the play, ass Sakuntala prepares and grooms herself as she plans to leave for Duhsanta’s court to restore his money which was reportedly clouded.

5. What are names of the two male attendants who accompany Sakuntala to Duhsanta’s court?

Answer: Saradvata and Sarngarava are the two male attendants who accompany Sakuntala to Duhsanta’s court.

6. Why did Durvasa curse Sakuntala?

Answer: The curse of Durvasa occurs in the fourth act of the play, Abhijnanasakuntalam. Sakuntala, lost the remembrance of Duhsanta, her husband through a spontaneous Gandharva marriage who has departed from his kingdom, forgets to greet the sage Durvasa with the honour and property due of a guest of his high standing, when he arrives at Kanva’s hermitage. This enrages Durvasa, who accuses Sakuntala of negligence of duties or dharma of hospitality.

7. What is Kanva’s advice to Sakuntala when she moves towards Duhsana’s court?

Answer: While going to Duhsanta’s court, Kanva adcises Sakuntala to be respectful to the elders and serve them, to be a friend to the other wives of Duhsanta, and not to go against husband even if he mistreats her. He further advises her to be generous to her husband’s relatives, and never to be proud of her fortune and position.

8. Who were the parents of Sakuntala?

Answer: The parents of Sakuntala were Menaka, an apsara or dancer of the cosmic orders and the sage Vishwamitra.

9. In what was Sakuntala, the baby girl, found and who found her?

Answer: Sakuntala was found by the sage Kanva in his hermitage. She was protected from the animals and the elements of nature by a bird sakunta, a vulture presumably. That accounts for her being named ‘sakuntala’ –as one who was protected by the sakunta.

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