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Shakuntala look back at her love Dushyanthan

Back Ground : Shakunthala, daughter of Menaka grew up in the ashram of Maharishi Kanvar. King Dhushyanth, who came hunting, found her beauty alluring, fell in love with her. Shakuntala reciprocated his feelings and they married in the Gaandharva style. The Maharishi was away then and the king spent a few days with Shakunthala and left for his kingdom. Before leaving her, he presented her with a ring as a token of their relationship and promised to return soon. But who is aware of the inscrutable ways of fate? Shakunthala did not realise that their happiness was transient when she bid farewell to the king.

One day, when she was preoccupied with thoughts about Dhushyanth, she forgot to notice the arrival of sage Durvasa to their ashram . The sage, well-known for his temper, was infuriated by her preoccupied state and cursed that the King would forget her. Shakunthala's friends, realising her folly, requested the sage to forgive her. The sage told them that the king would remember her if she showed the token of their love - the ring.

Maharishi Kanvar, meanwhile, returned to the ashram and came to know about Shakunthala's wedding in the Gandharva style. Shakunthala had also conceived by then. As the king had not returned as he had promised, the sage made arrangements to send Shakunthala with proper escort to see the king. When Shakunthala, on way to see the king, took bath in a river, the ring slipped and fell into the river. When she reached the palace, she found to her dismay that the king had forgotten her because of Durvasar's curse.

The curse had obliterated all memories of her in his mind and she had no ring to remind him of their wedding and so he refused to accept her. Seeing her daughter filled with anguish, Menaka took her to sage Kashyap's ashram and left her in his care.

By this time, the ring, which had been swallowed by a fish, was caught by a fisherman. He noticed the ring with the royal insignia and took it to the palace. As soon as the king saw the ring, there was a resurgence of memory about his lady love and he started pining for her.

Meanwhile, Shakunthala gave birth to a son in the ashram and named him Sarvathamanan. King Dhushyanth, who on request from Indra, had engaged himself in a battle against the Asuras, visited the sage Kashyap's ashram on his return. He was ecstatic to see Shakunthala and his son, and took them back with him to his palace. Sarvathamanan later on ruled the kingdom as the popular emperor Bharatha.
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