My engagement with Śakuntalā started in an engagementfunction where, for the first time, I heard that aman gives a ring to his bride as a token ofcommitment and that this is a tradition from thetime of Kālidāsa or even earlier. I was a teenagerthen. This was a narration by an elderly man. Thisis also indicative of the attempts of our elders inmaking things relevant to the younger folk. Sincethen, I have heard that story narrated a hundred andodd times in different ways. I have narrated thisstory myself at least a half of those times. ButKālidāsa's Śakuntalāis not just a story, though it has a grippingstoryline as well. The incident shared above is anindication of a method ofreading/interpreting/understanding Śakuntalā. There are, onthe one hand, so many commentaries, essays and bookswritten and, on the other, translations (includingSanskrit translation for the Prākrit dialogue),adaptations, representations and inspired poems,stories, dance performances, plays and even filmsabout the play. While the former are results of anintellectual approach, the latter emerge from acreative approach. But in all these, the reading andunderstanding of Śakuntalā is inevitably coloured byone's own understanding and method of presentation.The beauty of Śakuntalā is that she accepts all thesereadings and yet stands beyond any one of thesescholarly and creative interpretations. It is myendeavour to see how Kālidāsa has not just inspiredso many readings but has also stood over and aboveall such attempts of understanding.

My continued engagement with Kālidāsa's Śakuntalā has remained intwo ways: one in the classroom and the other intheatre. In the first method, the entire play hasbeen taught several times. In theatre, the first,fourth and fifth acts have been brought on the stagemany a time, while I have witnessed stageproductions of the play in its entirety a number oftimes. While teaching a text in the classroom takesanywhere from 60 to 100 hours, staging the play andcommunicating all interpretations have to be carriedout in the range of 2.5 to 10 hours.