chief of the hermits, where some anchorites request him not to kill the
deer. The king feels thirsty and was seeking water when he saw certain
maidens of the hermits watering the favourite plants. One of them, an
exquisitely beautiful and bashful maiden, named Sakuntala, received him.
She was the daughter of the celestial nymph Menaka by the celebrated
sage Viswamitra and foster-child of the hermit Kanwa. She is smitten
with love at the first sight of the king, standing confused at the
change of her own feeling. The love at first sight which the king
conceives for her is of too deep a nature to be momentary. Struck by her
beauty he exclaims:--

"Her lip is ruddy as an opening bud; her graceful arms resemble tender
shoots; attractive as the bloom upon the tree, the glow of youth is
spread on all her limbs."

Seizing an opportunity of addressing her, he soon feels that it is
impossible for him to return to his capital. His limbs move forward,
while his heart flies back, like a silken standard borne against the
breeze. He seeks for opportunities for seeing her. With the thought
about her haunting him by day and night, he finds no rest, and no
pleasure even in his favourite recreation--sporting. Mathavya, the
jester, friend and companion of the king, however, breaks the dull
monotony of his anxious time. The opportunity which the king seeks
offers itself. The hermits send an embassy to the king asking him to
come over to the hermitage to guard their sacrifices. As he was making
preparations for departure to the hermitage, Karavaka, a messenger from
the queen-mother, arrives asking his presence at the city of Hastinapur.

He is at first at a loss to extricate himself from this difficulty but a
thought strikes him and he acts upon it. He sends the jester as his