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Navaratri starts on October 16th. From L to R, the three forms of the Devi worshipped during the 9 days – Parvati/Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati – in differing attire. The three painting styles are Kalighat, Raja Ravi Varma and Kalamkari respectively. … Continue reading
July, 1957 issue of the China Pictorial (Ren Min Hua Bao) shows a still of China’s National Youth Theatre’s performance of dramatist Kalidasa’s Shakuntala to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the founding of the China-India Friendship Association. Shakuntala is played by Bai Shan.
Just a little more on Abhijnanasakuntalam, this time in a Chinese interpretation. This picture has Shakuntala in full dance costume perhaps because the scene is set in Dushyant’s court.
And last an interesting peek into the making of the dress of ancient heroines, including Shakuntala, in the Amar Chitra Katha comics.
No doubt a Shakuntala of the 21st century would again be quite different (though we can perhaps skip this soap opera version – and catch Shyam Benegal’s take here).
However Shakuntala is dressed, the epic endures. Now to give it a complete read because I am a little in love with Shakuntala & Dushyant 🙂
Shakuntala has also been filmed a fair bit. Surprisingly MS Subbulakshmi dispensed with a blouse in the Tamil movie Sakunthalai (directed by the American, Ellis R Dungan). Other film depictions like V Shantaram’s also discard the blouse. All employ a number of flower garlands but none of course use the bark of Kalidasa’s opus.
Sacontala says goodbye to Madhavi. Illustration for La Civilizacion by Don Pelegrin Casabo Y Pages (Mir, Tarradas, Comas, 1881-82).
Shakuntala first appeared in the West in a William Jones translation and its not surprising the German romantics loved the drama. Subsequently Theophile Gautier wrote a drama, there was a ballet and in this illustration she looks like something out of Greek myth.
Though the depiction of Shakuntala varies and very rarely does she wear bark, in most cases the artist retains a simplicity of clothing given Shakuntala’s forest beginnings. As in this watercolour by Kshitindranath Majumdar which hews to the usual representation of a strapless bodice, a lower garment and a draping cloth.
Kalipada Ghoshal retains the bark in his painting of Shakuntala. Though I am not entirely sure about Dushyanta’s attire.
How would an ancient Indian heroine dress?
Kalidasa writing Abhijnanasakuntalam in the 4th cent. AD gives Shakuntala, forest maiden turned queen, a dress of bark and later a dress of white loveliness when she goes to meet her lover, Dushyanta.
A few posts on the attire of the heroine of the romantic epic, Abhijnanasakuntalam (The Recognition of Shakuntala).
Vintage Indian Clothing 