The figure of Sakuntala appears in many forms throughout South Asian literature, most famously in the Mahabharata and in Kalidisa's fourth-century Sanskrit play, Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection. In these two texts, Sakuntala undergoes a critical transformation, relinquishing her assertiveness and autonomy to become the quintessentially submissive woman, revealing much about the performance of Hindu femininity that would come to dominate South Asian culture. Through a careful analysis of sections from Sakuntala and their various iterations in different contexts, Romila Thapar explores the interactions between literature and history, culture and gender, that frame the development of this canonical figure, as well as a distinct conception of female identity.

Written by the greatest of the ancient Indian playwrights, this 5th-century work of Sanskrit drama offers a classic introduction to Indian theater and aesthetics. A king encounters a lovely maiden by chance, and the course of their passionate love sweeps the audience from a forest hermitage to a dazzling palace to ethereal celestial realms.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1922.

The legend of the exquisitely beautiful Shakuntala and the mighty king Dushyant is a thrilling love story from the epic Mahabharata, which the great ancient poet Kalidasa retold in his immortal play Abhijnanashakuntalam. The play was the first Indian drama to be translated into a Western language, by Sir William Jones in 1789. In the next 100 hundred years, there were at least 46 translations in twelve European languages. But translation by Arthur William Ryder (March 8, 1877 - March 21, 1938), a professor of Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley, is the best one, adapted in this book.