Book Reviews : ROMILA THAPAR, Śakuntalā: Texts, Readings, Histories, Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999, pp. x + 272, Rs 400

Abstract

When it comes to the Abhijiianasakuntala, an almost eery unanimity prevails. Medieval Sanskrit commentators and poeticians declare unambiguously that among all plays (notakam), this work is the finest. Goethe, as is well known, upgraded the Sakuntala’s perfection to embrace everything that ’charms, bewitches, nourishes, and satisfies’ in the world, whether in heaven or on earth. A long series of European Romantics, Orientalists and Bengali modernists vied in inventing