Shakuntala’s Friends Share Her Joy at the News that She Shall Soon Depart for Dushyant’s Palace

After sage Kanva announced that Shakuntala shall be ceremoniously sent to Dushyant’s palace in Hastinapur as his bride, the women of the hermitage, particularly Shakuntala’s friends Priyamvada and Anasuya, are overjoyed at the good fortune of Shakuntala. Their joy however is mixed with a deep sorrow at her impending departure from the hermitage. Despite their sorrow, they attempt to make the departure of Shakuntala cheerful.

The artist depicts the scene with oblique view, taking us into a space that could have been lifted straight from any rustic village. Shakuntala’s little hut is surrounded by a variety of trees - broad thick-veined banana plantains jostle with trees with spiky leaves and palm-shaped leaves. Tiny birds sit perched upon their branches. Faint pink-rimmed slopes of the mountains encircle the hut, and beyond it rise a grove of trees stretching beyond the frame of the painting. Two lofty trees loom large in the foreground, their twisted branches enlivening the trees, their knotty and gnarled roots bared upon a ground peppered by small rocks. The same twisting agitating energy is also seen in the barren tree in front, its forked branches fan out eerily, an ominous sign to the unhappy events that Shakuntala will face shortly.

The artist depicts the scene as a poignant moment of joy tempered with sorrow. The women sit down to share the happiness and laughter amidst the heartache at the departure of a newly-wedded bride. Shakuntala is depicted as solemnly embracing a friend on the right, while Priyamvada, Shakuntala’s closest friend, gravely consoles a weeping friend, reminding her to forsake her tears at this moment of joy. Her companion heeds to Priyamvada’s advice and wipes the tears from her cheeks.

The rustic environs of the village setting are aptly indicated in the depiction of a mud-baked hut ringed with stone boulders that mark its boundary. Little details bring out the bucolic surroundings of the setting of the hermitage - a deer skin is rolled up upon the branch of a tree and an earthen pot hangs on the slump of a trunk. The artist also depicts the demeanour of the village women in the manner in which they sit squatting with their knees drawn to their torso on a plain grass mat.