Calamity owing to her engrossed thoughts for her lover, Then again, in the course of poorva-rag Urvashi, a developed damsel, could afford to become beside herself and pull her down to her forced existence in the middle world as a meed for her having sown wild oats on a casual visit to the earthly regions. This can as well plausibly be said of Shakuntala who was meditating over her centre of love and fell a prey to Durvasas' curse. True, but the circumstances differ a good deal in the sense that Shakuntalā was a married wife, who had entirely given herself to Dushyanta and fallen into the misery of curse on account of Dushyanta's breach of promise to send a man to fetch her whom he had left behind on account of his dastardly feelings that could not permit him to face Kanva for fear of his wrath in whose penanceful hermitage he had the audacity in venturing to commit adultery with a young unmarried girl who was being brought up under the patria potestas of the Rishi. On account of this serious fault committed by him especially after having pledged himself as the Saviour of the oppressed (Ref. “कः पौरवे वसुमती शासति शासतरि दुर्विनीतानाम्) he could not dare await Kanva's return for taking home Shakuntalā, nor could he do so in sending a man to fetch her in assertion of the consequences of his action upon Kanva who was, later on constrained to remind the delinquent Dushyanta in his speech "अस्मान् साधु विचिन्त्य संयमधनान्" ...Act IV. So it becomes an established fact that malediction in Shakuntalam is due to the artifice of the poet which he was obliged to introduce for draping in a proper colour the prince-like failings of the hero. But one would get feel that no such artifice was necessary if Kalidasa did not suffer from a false conception that the hero should be painted as far as possible like a flawless angel. On the other hand the introduction of this malediction has lessened the effect of the drama, because it leads the audience to feel that forgetfulness on the part of the hero was inevitable. The feeling that the Universe is sound at the core in spite of the wrongs and cruelties that exist in it, would come only when we know the forgetfulness and the later remorse of Dushyanta were genuine. But the artifice of Kalidasa has rendered both of them artificial and therefore meaningless. The artist should lead on his characters to their destined ends by what seems a very natural development of their foibles. In the case of Dushyanta he is not a "स्वतन्त्र कर्ता" neither free to forget or to remember his own doings. We cannot hold him
