Sanskrit Reading Group: The Recognition of Sakuntala

Kalidasa’s AbhijnanaSakuntalam,“The Recognition of Sakuntala,” is a play in seven acts of prose lines and poetic couplets about a young woman who meets a man, falls in love, and then loses him until, miraculously, he remembers her and, eventually, they are reunited. Nataka (dramatic structure) merges with kavya (poetical forms) into generically-layered idiom—hunt, nature, hermitage, wedding, court, genealogy—weaving the narrative and descriptive script together into an aesthetic thoroughly grounded in human emotions. Kalidasa expands the traditional tale—an epic etiology of king Bharata—by elaborating the Gandharva, or self-chosen, marriage of Bharata’s parents: a royal warrior and a supernatural being meet in a garden, exchange promises, and gift a signet ring, which, when lost, also dissolves the king’s memories of Sakuntala. Reading Kalidasa’s “high art” rendition of AbhijnanaSakuntala further unlocks many other options: hundreds of translations of AbhijnanaSakuntala subsequently appeared across South and Southeast Asia, and across Europe, in various dramatized performances.

In this course we will read and recite, with the aim of translating, Acts One and Two of Kalidasa’s AbhijnanaSakuntalam. Studying the syntax, generic semantics, literary figures, and word play, we will consider the script as mythological narrative, dramatic poetry, and as performance art. Our focus will be the introductory themes of Sakuntala’s intimate alignment with flora and fauna, her extraordinary birth, and the king’s entry into the hermitage and its encoded practices.

Course Schedule

Friday, 11:00am-1:00pm ET
June 05 — July 24, 2026
6 sessions over 7 weeks
Class will not meet Friday, July 3rd.

$335.00

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