Javblanc
20th December 2022, 12:04
As far back as between 400 BCE and 200 CE, in one of the two major Sanskrit epics of Ancient India (the Mahabharata) there is one of the earliest written references to the concept of ‘twin flames’: the story of Shakuntala. Its most famous adaptation is the play by the ancient Indian poet Kalidasa.
Shakuntala is the young daughter of a hermit and a nymph. She lives with her father in a cabin in the woods. One day, Dushyanta, the king of India, happens to walk through these woods and falls madly in love with her. This love at first sight is mutual. Although in the beginning they are both afraid of not being loved back, soon they confess their love for each other and get married in secret. But Duyshanta is the king and, as such, he has obligations that call for his return to the court. Before leaving, he gives his signet ring to Shakuntala, as a proof of their marriage and his swift return. Shakuntala loses the ring: it falls in a lake during her ablutions. Months go by without her having any news of her husband. Finally, she decides to set off in search of him. She shows up at the palace. The king does not recognise her, denies they are married, and she does not have the ring to prove it. Suddenly, a great wind rises and sweeps Shakuntala off into Heaven. Duyshanta stays on Earth, immersed in thoughts, trying in vain to remember. Because it’s not that he rejects the wedding, he just does not remember it: “With a hermit–wife I had no part,/ All memories evade me;/And yet my sad and stricken heart/Would more than half persuade me.” One day, some soldiers find the royal ring on a fisherman. They accuse him of stealing it and take him to the palace. He claims he found the ring in a fish’s innards. And this is where the sight of the ring brings the king out of his state of forgetfulness. He immediately remembers having given it to Shakuntala as a sign of their secret marriage and curses himself for not having remembered sooner.
The king despairs, he neglects his obligations; all he can think of is Shakuntala and their secret wedding. From Heaven, she shares his despair, powerless to do anything about it, unable to understand as well “that such powerful love would need a symbol to be remembered”. What does Duyshanta do, then? He paints a portrait of his lost wife, based on his newfound memory. His counsellors think he has gone mad, for he spends all his free time with the painting, talking to it as if it were the real Shakuntala. Thus arrives at the palace a messenger from the gods. (You know, in ancient literature gods are participant characters in human dramas.) They ask Duyshanta for a favour: they ask him to fight the demons that are threatening peace in Paradise. Skilled in the use of the bow, Duyshanta provides that service and, as a reward, they make his eagerly awaited re–encounter with his secret wife possible. They also clear up the mystery of his memory loss, the reason why “such powerful love would need a symbol to be remembered”. It was, they tell him, the effect of a curse: only upon seeing the ring would it break.
Shakuntala is the young daughter of a hermit and a nymph. She lives with her father in a cabin in the woods. One day, Dushyanta, the king of India, happens to walk through these woods and falls madly in love with her. This love at first sight is mutual. Although in the beginning they are both afraid of not being loved back, soon they confess their love for each other and get married in secret. But Duyshanta is the king and, as such, he has obligations that call for his return to the court. Before leaving, he gives his signet ring to Shakuntala, as a proof of their marriage and his swift return. Shakuntala loses the ring: it falls in a lake during her ablutions. Months go by without her having any news of her husband. Finally, she decides to set off in search of him. She shows up at the palace. The king does not recognise her, denies they are married, and she does not have the ring to prove it. Suddenly, a great wind rises and sweeps Shakuntala off into Heaven. Duyshanta stays on Earth, immersed in thoughts, trying in vain to remember. Because it’s not that he rejects the wedding, he just does not remember it: “With a hermit–wife I had no part,/ All memories evade me;/And yet my sad and stricken heart/Would more than half persuade me.” One day, some soldiers find the royal ring on a fisherman. They accuse him of stealing it and take him to the palace. He claims he found the ring in a fish’s innards. And this is where the sight of the ring brings the king out of his state of forgetfulness. He immediately remembers having given it to Shakuntala as a sign of their secret marriage and curses himself for not having remembered sooner.
The king despairs, he neglects his obligations; all he can think of is Shakuntala and their secret wedding. From Heaven, she shares his despair, powerless to do anything about it, unable to understand as well “that such powerful love would need a symbol to be remembered”. What does Duyshanta do, then? He paints a portrait of his lost wife, based on his newfound memory. His counsellors think he has gone mad, for he spends all his free time with the painting, talking to it as if it were the real Shakuntala. Thus arrives at the palace a messenger from the gods. (You know, in ancient literature gods are participant characters in human dramas.) They ask Duyshanta for a favour: they ask him to fight the demons that are threatening peace in Paradise. Skilled in the use of the bow, Duyshanta provides that service and, as a reward, they make his eagerly awaited re–encounter with his secret wife possible. They also clear up the mystery of his memory loss, the reason why “such powerful love would need a symbol to be remembered”. It was, they tell him, the effect of a curse: only upon seeing the ring would it break.