King Dushyanta Disclosing to Madhavya his Feelings of Love For Shakuntala

Having returned from the hermitage, where King Dushyant had chanced upon the exquisitely beautiful Shakuntala, the foster daughter of the pious sage Kanva, Dushyant is struck with love.
After the court of the King at his encampment has been dismissed for the day, Dushyant reveals his feelings to his confidante, Madhava.

Here Dushyant stations himself not as a king, but meets Madhava almost as an equal, as a friend and reveals his love for Shakuntala, eloquently describing her beauty and wondering whether his love for her is reciprocated. Dushyant solicits Madhavya’s advice to find a pretext to enter the hermitage and meet Shakuntala again.

In the text of the play, Madhavya plays the role of the Vidhushaka, a character in the Indian dramaturgy that brings comic relief to the play. As a close friend and confidante of the ‘hero’ of the play, Madhavya through his witticisms provides a humorous counterpoint to the lovelorn king, his close equation and status with the king make him the only one among his courtiers who can jest and caricature Dushyant’s romantic intentions.

The artist articulates the relation of Dushyant and Madhavya with alacrity. Under a canopy, the artist demarcates the personal and the political as two clear spaces with the two carpeted areas. On the left - the space of the political is visually articulated by an empty throne, near which stand two attendants of the king. Dushyant has relinquished his regal duties, leaving his throne to seat himself on the carpet on the right, his thoughts of Shakuntala uppermost in his mind. The two attendants are not privileged to encroach upon the personal space of the king, on the left, which he shares only with his close friend Madhavya. The pining king is shown seated on a carpet leaning on a bolster, his drooping shoulders and stance suggesting his deep passion for Shakuntala and the fear of rejection that he is engulfed by. Such poses are typically reserved for lovelorn characters in Indian painting, and embody the portrayal of a lover languishing in viraha (grief due to separation from the lover).

Despite the fact that Madhavya shares the personal space with the king which no other courtier or attendant is privileged to share, Madhavya is pointedly shown as seated outside the carpet of the king - a fact that marks out his non-royal status, as well as his inferior status to the king.

Outside the royal enclosure, one of the men asks the door-keeper to go to the king’s court to seek the king’s permission for granting an audience to the two ascetics.