INTRODUCTION :
According to Mahabharata, Shakunthala is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of the great king Bharata. Poet Kalidasa has also written a text on the life history of Mata Shakunthala.
Rishi Kanva found her in the forest as a baby, and he took her to his ashram and looked after her in a proper manner.
Once King Dushyanta saw the beautiful Shakuntala and both of them were fell in love with each other and got married as per Gandharva marriage system. Dushyanta gave his personal royal ring to Shakuntala and invited her to his palace.
Shakuntala dreamt about her husband and due to that once when Sage Durvasa visited to Sage Kanva’s ashram, she didn’t attended to him properly. Due to her act, the rishi cursed Shakuntala, saying that the person she was dreaming of would forget about her altogether. After getting the proper explanation from Sakunthala, the rishi slightly changed his curse saying that the person who had forgotten Shakuntala would remember her again when she show to him the ring which he gave it to her.
Shakuntala, after some time went on searching for Dushyanta with the ring. But while doing some personal activities, the ring slipped off from her finger and she didn’t know about it at that time.
After arriving at the palace of the king, due to the curse of rishi durvasa, her husband did not recognize her. With great grief in her mind she returned to the ashram of rishi kanva with her son. Her son Bharata was brave and strong enough to open the mouth of the tigers and lions and to count their teeth.
Meanwhile, a fisherman found the royal ring in the belly of a fish and he took the ring to the palace. On seeing his ring, Dushyanta got the memories of Shakunthala in his mind. He immediately went to rishi kanva’s ashram, and took his wife Shakunthala and his son Bharatha to his palace and crowned his wife shakunthala as the queen and his son Bharata as the prince for his region.
IMPORTANCE
Mata Shakunthala is a pious and a noble lady who took care of her husband and son in a proper manner. She acted as a dutiful wife for her husband and he gave proper suggestions to Dushyanta to rule his kingdom in a proper manner. All the people were pleased by her act, and greatly respected her for showing great kindness on them.
After living for many years, the royal couple went to the abode of Lord Indra, Swarka Loka, and it is believed that they are still living in the heaven with the blessings of Lord Indra.
Let us worship the great royal couple and be blessed.
“OM SREE DUSYANTHA MAHARAJAVE NAMAHA”
“OM MATA SHAKUNTHALA DEVIYE NAMAHA”
“OM SREE BHARATA RAJAVE NAMAHA”
SENT BY
R.HARISHANKAR
