The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Shakuntala
filled with pity, takes a form with one
hundred eyes, because of which one of
her epithets is Shatakshi (“hundred
eyes”). From each eye comes a stream
of tears, and when these fall to the
earth, plants begin to grow again.
Further, when her tears do not reach
some places, she puts forth vegetables
(Shak) from her own body to nourish
the creatures of the earth. Her final
action is to kill the demon Durgam,
reasserting the Goddess as a strong
and protective figure. Although there
is little information on Shakumbhari
Devi in English, there are further references
to her in David R. Kinsley, Hindu
Goddesses, 1986. See also pitha.
Shakuni
In the Mahabharata, the later of the
two great Hindu epics, the maternal
uncle of Duryodhana, the epic’s
antagonist. Shakuni’s most famous
episode in the Mahabharata is as a
player in the game of dice against
Yudhishthira, the eldest of the five
Pandava brothers who are the epic’s
protagonists. The epic describes
Shakuni as the world’s best dice player,
whereas Yudhishthira is enthusiastic
but completely unskilled. As
Yudhishthira begins to lose, he keeps
betting bigger and bigger stakes in an
effort to win back what he has lost.
After losing his family’s kingdom and
all their possessions, Yudhishthira
wagers himself and his brothers, and
after losing this bet, he wagers and
loses their common wife, Draupadi.
As a result, Draupadi is paraded
through the assembly hall by
Shakuni’s nephews, Duryodhana and
Duhshasana, her clothes stained
with her menstrual blood, sharpening
the already strong enmities between
these two groups. Shocked at such
treatment, Duryodhana’s father, King
Dhrtarashtra, gives the Pandavas
back their freedom. Then, because of a
loss in a subsequent game of dice, the
Pandavas agree to go into exile for
twelve years and live incognito for the
thirteenth, with the condition that, if
they are discovered in the thirteenth
year, the cycle will begin anew. In the
ensuing Mahabharata war Shakuni
fights on the side of his nephew and is
eventually killed by the fourth
Pandava brother, Sahadeva.
Shakuntala
A figure in Hindu mythology and the
protagonist in the drama Abhijnanashakuntala
written by the poet
Kalidasa. Shakuntala is the daughter
of the apsara Menaka and the sage
Vishvamitra, conceived when Menaka
is sent to seduce Vishvamitra in an
attempt to reduce his spiritual powers.
Shakuntala is raised at the ashram of
the sage Kanva, where she grows into a
beautiful young woman. One day she
attracts the eye of King Dushyanta,
who has been hunting in the forest,
and they are married by the gandharva
form of marriage (consensual sexual
intercourse), conceiving their son
Bharata. Shakuntala’s happiness,
however, is short-lived. As she is thinking
one day about Dushyanta, who has
traveled back to his capital without
her, she fails to notice the arrival of the
sage Durvasas. In his anger at being
ignored, Durvasas lays a curse that her
beloved will completely forget her.
Shakuntala, horrified, manages to
convince Durvasas to modify the
curse: Dushyanta will remember
everything, as soon as Shakuntala
shows him proof of their union.
Shakuntala has Dushyanta’s signet
ring as proof, but she loses it on her
way to see Dushyanta. Dushyanta (as
expected) denies that he has ever met
Shakuntala, and she eventually ends
up working as one of the palace cooks.
Her salvation comes unexpectedly,
when she finds the missing ring in the
belly of a fish she is preparing for the
king’s dinner. When she shows him the
ring, Dushyanta immediately recognizes
Shakuntala and acknowledges
her as his wife, and the couple live
happily ever after.
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