Book cover illustrated with scenes from Kalidasa’s Shakuntala

The painted manuscript cover is uniquely important. It belonged to a pair of medieval Indian book covers devoted to illustrating scenes from the most famous dramatic romance in Indian literature, Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. While the love story of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala is ancient—a version of it already appeared in the Mahabharata (compiled up to the 4th century CE)—it was given its most celebrated rendering by the fifth-century playwright Kalidasa in his Sanskrit drama Shakuntala. The painted cover illustrates moments described in Acts 1, 2 and 3 of this play, presented in two scenes, framed by plantain trees, with slender creepers entwining each tree and creating lyrical arches framing the lover’s bower. On the left, King Dushyanta and Shakuntala are seen seated together in repose, sharing a flowered cushion. Their hands touch, perhaps at the moment of the king gifting Shakuntala a love token, his signet ring. The creepers encircling each of the trees serve as a poetic allusion to the lovers’ embrace. To the right King Dushyanta is seen seated on a stone couch overlooking a lake or river alive with fish and lotus blooms, the very spot where he has first set eyes upon the beautiful Shakuntala. Dushyanta sits at ease with a hand raised to his chin in deep reflection, accompanied by his court clown, Madhavya, who reproaches his king for turning the “ascetics’ grove into a pleasure garden.”