Kalidasa, the classical Sanskrit poet, is often referred to as the Shakespeare of India. While it offends a certain passionate section of Indians who insist on using the title the other way around (calling Shakespeare the Kalidasa of England), it also tempts one to make a comparison between the two great poets.
Rabindranath Tagore did exactly that in his essay titled Shakuntala, where he compared Kalidasa’s Shakuntala with Shakespeare’s Tempest. What is worth noticing in this comparison is how the idea of romantic love was conceived in the times of the two poets. It’s also interesting to see how these ideas have travelled over time, and reached us through art and popular culture. Let’s explore it, a bit more.
Shakuntala and The Tempest
On the surface, Shakuntala and Tempest appear quite similar. The love between Miranda living in seclusion and Prince Ferdinand is very much like the love between Shakuntala brought up in a hermitage and King Dushmanta. There is love-at-first-sight in both the cases, followed by long periods of suffering. There is also a resemblance of the places of incidents. In one is a secluded island surrounded by the sea, and in the other, is a secluded hermitage in a forest. However, some interesting psychological differences start to emerge when you take a closer look at the key characters.
The two worldviews
The first obvious difference is in the way the two women connect with the external world, which shapes their idea of love. Shakuntala, although lives in a hermitage, understands what it means to connect with one’s surroundings. She is fully absorbed in the forest, in the natural friendliness of birds and animals.
The idea of romantic love is just one of the many things in Shakuntala’s life, it’s not the only thing. We find in her the image of nature which is outwardly quiet and serene, but its great power always acts on the inside. This subtlety adds another dimension to the way she expresses her love. She does not say a lot many things directly. In fact she chooses to remain silent a lot of times. It’s in the smallest of things, the awkward gestures and pauses, the signs and postures, the actions and inactions that you could sense what exactly she is feeling. She won’t say it, but you will know.
Miranda, on the other hand, lives on a lonely mountain splashed by sea-waves, but she does not have any kinship with nature. If she is displaced from the place where she has spent all her life, it won’t get affected. There has never been a meaningful connection. The two worlds — the human and the nature — live apart. And if, at all, they come close, they would walk past each other, like strangers that are happy being strangers.
It’s natural for Miranda to seek an escape — and romantic love offers her that escape. The loneliness that she carries is unbearable, and consequently, the desire and passion, that much higher. The pronouncements of her love are loud, the expressions are clearer.
This notion of romantic love — as told by Shakespeare — is prevalent in the world that we live in. It does not mean that it’s better, it does not even mean that we should accept it, it’s just how the world has come to be.
Kalampedia 
