Dushyanta

Dushyanta (Sanskrit: दुष्यन्त, IAST: Duṣyanta), also referred to as Duhshanta (Sanskrit: दुःषन्त, IAST: Duhṣanta), is a king featured in Hindu literature and mythology. He belongs to the Paurava line of the legendary Lunar dynasty. According to the epic Mahabharata, he is the eldest son of King Ilina and inherits Hastinapura. During a hunting expedition he encounters Shakuntala, the foster daughter of the sage Kanva. Struck by her beauty, he persuades her to enter into a Gandharva marriage. After consummating the union in her hermitage, Dushyanta leaves, promising to bring her to Hastinapura, but fails to do so. When Shakuntala later appears before him in his court with their six-year-old son Bharata, Dushyanta, though he recognises her, pretends not to know her. Fearing public ridicule and doubts about the legitimacy of the heir, he insults her until a celestial voice compels him to accept them. He then accepts Shakuntala as his queen and crowns Bharata as his heir. In Kalidasa's play, Abhijnanashakuntalam (c. 300 CE), Dushyanta's story is reworked as a classical nayaka (hero). The Mahabharata’s depiction of a king who knowingly rejects his wife and son is altered by the introduction of Dushyanta's signet ring and the sage Durvasa's curse: when Shakuntala, lost in thoughts of Dushyanta, fails to greet the sage, he decrees that her beloved will forget her until shown a token of their union. Having left her with his signet ring, Dushyanta genuinely loses all memory of the marriage; his later repudiation of the pregnant Shakuntala at court therefore stems from the curse rather than deliberate deceit. Recovery of the ring restores his memory, plunges him into remorse, and leads to eventual reunion with Shakuntala and their son, allowing the dramatist to present him as a noble, dutiful and emotionally refined hero consistent with classical ideals..