according to Hindú notions, is the subject of most of their dramas.

The hero, who is generally a king, and already the husband of a wife
or wives (for a wife or two more or less is no encumbrance in Indian
plays), is suddenly smitten with the charms of a lovely woman,
sometimes a nymph, or, as in the case of [S']akoontalá, the daughter of
a nymph by a mortal father. The heroine is required to be equally
impressible, and the first tender glance from the hero's eye reaches
her heart. With true feminine delicacy, however, she locks the secret
of her passion in her own breast, and by her coyness and reserve keeps
her lover for a long period in the agonies of suspense. The hero,
being reduced to a proper state of desperation, is harassed by other
difficulties. Either the celestial nature of the nymph is in the way
of their union, or he doubts the legality of the match, or he fears
his own unworthiness, or he is hampered by the angry jealousy of a
previous wife. In short, doubts, obstacles, and delays make great
havoc of both hero and heroine. They give way to melancholy, indulge
in amorous rhapsodies, and become very emaciated. So far, it must be
confessed, the story is decidedly dull, and its chain, however, does
not commence until the Fourth Act, when the union of the heroine with
King Dushyanta, and her acceptance of the marriage-ring as a token of
recognition, are supposed to have taken place. Then follows the King's
departure and temporary desertion of his bride; the curse pronounced
on [S']akoontalá by the choleric Sage; the monarch's consequent loss of
memory; the bride's journey to the palace of her husband; the
mysterious disappearance of the marriage-token; the public repudiation
of [S']akoontalá; her miraculous assumption to closes, as it began, with
a prayer for national plenty and prosperity, addressed to the
favourite deity, and spoken by one of the principal personages of the
drama.