Dr. Chandrakanta Verma e Meghna Prakash

Dr. Chandrakanta Verma e Meghna Prakash
Literatarot
II - Papessa/High Priestess
The Recognition of Shakuntala (Kalidasa)

Dr Chandrakanta Verma is an entrepreneur, has been a teacher of Sanskrit and Hindi, and the owner of a recruitment firm. She has herself in the past acted in the play Shakuntala playing the lead character of the heroine. She is a poet and an artist with a great intuition and a love for Tarot. Meghna Prakash is a young entrepreneur and a Tarot researcher and reader for many years.
Kalidasa's famous play, generally considered his masterpiece, is the Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Shakuntala) which tells the story of king, Dushyanta, who falls in love while out on a hunting expedition with the lovely young ascetic Shakuntala. Shakuntala is the daughter of the head sage, Kanva (who is away at the time). In fact, she is only the adopted daughter, and is actually the daughter of a royal sage and a celestial nymph who is described as under:

KING: Her bark-dress conceals the splendid orbs
Of her breasts, and reveals not their beauty
And brilliance; it seems that a sallow leaf
Has barely imprisoned a bud in the morning.
Yet her bark-garment, howsoever restrictive,
Radiates with its own brightness, as an ornament does.
Even hidden in the duckweed, the lotus glows,
And dusky scars in the face of the moon
Only heighten its radiance; thus, Shakuntala's
Beauty is only revealed by what her bark
Conceals: her dress makes her far more attractive,
For, indeed, beauty lies in concealing beauty
 ......Even though she keeps her words hidden
Beneath her silences, she lends her ears
To whatever I say. And even though
She keeps her eyes downcast, she watches me
Only when I watch her not!

 The king wants to marry Shakuntala, but she is worried that the proposed rushed and secret marriage wouldn't be appropriate so he offers her a ring and promises to send for Shakuntala later. Still enraptured, Shakuntala neglects her duties and is cursed by the angry sage Durvasas: the king won't remember who she is -- at least until he sees the ring of recollection. When Shakuntala arrives at the king's court -- and doesn't get quite the welcome she expected. It should all be easy enough to clear up, even Shakuntala realises: "this ring will revive your memory and remove your doubt". But, alas -- there's no ring on her finger ! It must have fallen off .....
       Shakuntala has other evidence, describing their meetings, but that isn't enough to convince the cursed king, and he continues to worry:

       Since it's unclear whether I'm deluded
       or she is speaking falsely --
       should I risk abandoning a wife
       or being tainted by another man's ?

       

Finally a fisherman finds the missing royal ring of recollection, and the king remembers and sets off to regain her.
 
The card shows Shakuntala encircled symbolically in a ring which hides her truth and reveals it ultimately. The card tells us that we have several secrets hidden within us that through our patience and faith will shine out and create a positive outcome if we choose to believe.