This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-15, Mar-Apr 1983)
Once upon a time there was a king named Dushyanta. One day, while he was hunting in the forest, he lost his way and came to an ashram of a rishi where he met a beautiful woman called Shakuntala. They felt very attracted to each other at first sight, and performed a gandharva vivah. In those days there was no law forbidding more than one marriage so people did not consider temporary sexual liaisons illegal. Therefore it was treated as a form of marriage rather than as a mere “affair.” After a few days, weeks or months, King Dushyanta returned to his kingdom and his home where he had to attend to important affairs of the state. Before he left, he promised Shakuntala that he would return and take her with him to his kingdom. He gave her his ring as a token of his promise.
However, when he got back to the important business of kingship, the brief sojourn with Shakuntala in the forest completely slipped from his mind, while Shakuntala silently pined and languished for him in the forest. One day while she was lost in thoughts of him. Durvasa rishi came to the ashram to ask for alms, but Shakuntala was so immersed in her love thoughts that she did not hear him. Durvasa felt so enraged by this insult that he cursed her, saying that the one she was pining for would not even remember her. This curse, like the famous biblical curse on Adam and Eve, continues to hold sway and afflict the lives of women everywhere in the world even today…