In the text, it is mentioned that the royal hero and the courtiers speak Sanskrit, but the women and people in a lower caste speak in Prakrits which were regional and often thought to be unrefined which makes me think about all the gender roles that were in the area of India. It is surprising to me that even if a woman is in a high caste, they do not speak in Sanskrit so they are basically categorized as someone who is in a lower caste. It is mentioned on lines 328- 331 that having a daughter is to marry her off and repay the loan that he was given, which also shows us how women were treated in society. It is also interesting to see how people lived in India in the fifth century because the word “hermitage” is mentioned in the text a lot and it tells us that extended families are appreciated in Indian culture, as well as the appreciation of Hinduism. On lines 305- 308, it says “your husband will entrust him with the burdens of the kingdom and will return with you to the calm of this hermitage” Where it’s custom for Hindu kings and people in a higher caste to go into the forest to concentrate on a more spiritual life. So even if one is at a high caste system, being spiritual is something that all must do in order to follow their religion.
2 thoughts on “Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection Part 1”
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I found everything that you are talking about very interesting as well. However, I was intrigued that the king would even consider marrying a woman from such a lower caste level. However it definitely does say something that women need to speak the language of a lower caste and be subservient to her husband.
This is a good depiction of how women have been slaves to gender roles throughout all of time, across all cultures. We’ve seen this in many different texts, such as Medea also. It seems that throughout history, there has been a major patriarchal theme.