Ring episode in Abhijnanasakuntalam

Kalidasa's play Abhijnanasakuntalam illustrates the love story between the heroine Shakuntala with the king Dushyanta. The king falls in love with the beautiful maiden while visiting the hermitage of sage Kanva while a hunting expedition in the forest. Both of them marry in the hermitage with dual agreement. After the marriage, the king returns back to his kingdom to take care of his court. Before living, he gives her a gold wedding ring with his name carved on it. This ring has a very important role in the story.

A few days later, sage Durvasa comes to the hermitage and knocks on Shakuntala's door. However, Shakuntala, who is lost in the thoughts of Dushyanta fails to notice him. The angry sage feeling insulted instantly incurs a curse against her, saying that the person whose thoughts were ruling her mind would completely forget about her. As a result King Dushyanta completely loses every bit of memory about his wife Shakuntala. At the requests of her friends Priyamvada and Anasuya to take back the curse, he tells that he couldn't reverse the curse but could modify it. He then tells that, if Dushyanta is shown an ornament, which is a token of their love, the curse would cease and he will remember everything again.

Months pass by, but Dushyanta does not come back to the hermitage to take Shakuntala. Worried Kanva insists Shakuntala to visit him in his palace since she is now pregnant with his son. Shakuntala starts off her journey along with Gautami and a few other companions to Dushyanta's kingdom. In midst of the journey, she rests for a while and plunges herself in a pool of water, where her ring accidentally slips off her finger into the deep water. Unknown about this mishap, she continues with her journey. When Shakuntala reaches the king's court and describes the entire episode of their marriage, he refuses to recognize her and insults her in various ways. When he fails to remember her even after several attempts, Shakuntala decides to show him the ring that was given by Dushyanta as a token of their love. However, she then realizes that the ring has slipped off her finger when she dipped in the river on their way to the king's court. Devastated, Shakuntala weeps, cursing her fate. The king insults Shakuntala furthermore when she is unable to present the ring.

Shakuntala tries to narrate about different events from their first meeting, giving her last chance to save her entity. But all her attempts go in vain as the king fails to remember her. The companions of Shakuntala decide to return back to the forest, leaving Shakuntala alone in the place. Feeling pity, the high priest of the king's court offers shelter to Shakuntala until the child is born. He says that if Shakuntala gives birth to a son bearing all the marks of sovereignty, she could be accepted as the wife of Dushyanta. But Shakuntala, who does not want to be pitied prays to the God asking them to take her back with them. Magically a white light appears and pulls her up towards the sky.

A few days later, the royal guards catch a fisherman who had found a gold ring inside the belly of a fish. When the ring is shown to the king, his memory starts to resolve back in pieces. This is the same ring that the king had once given to Shakuntala as a token of their love. When the ring slipped off her finger into the river, a fish swallowed it, which is found by a fisherman. When the curse lifts off, the king gets back his memory, and he is completely devastated with guilt and shame. He feels guilty for mistrusting Shakuntala and immediately wants to apologize to her. Later, he is called by lord Indra to fight demons in heaven.

While returning back, he stops by the hermitage of sage Marica, where he notices a small child playing with a lion cub. He is surprised to see the qualities of the child, and later finds out that the child is his own son Bharat. There he meets Shakuntala and breaks down the moment he gets her glimpse, and begs for her forgiveness. Shakuntala, whose love is very pure for the king forgives him and they move back to the kingdom.