Abhijñānashākuntala.

Abhijñānashākuntala or Abhijñānaśākuntalam  is a well-known Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa, dramatizing the story of Shakuntala told in the epic Mahabharata. It is considered to be the best of Kālidāsa's works. 

The Sanskrit title means "pertaining to token-recognized-Śākuntalā", so a literal translation could be Of Śākuntalā who is recognized by a token. 

the play elaborates upon an episode mentioned in the Mahabharata. The protagonist is Shakuntala, daughter of the sage Vishwamitra and the apsara Menaka. Abandoned at birth by her parents, Shakuntala is reared in the secluded, sylvan hermitage of the sage Kanva, and grows up a comely but innocent maiden.

Dushyanta is the son of Ilina and Rathantara. Dushyanta is said to have ruled, either directly or through his governors, from Gandhara present day Kandahar in Afghanistan. 

Dushyant meets Shakuntala, who is a daughter of Vishvamitra and Menaka, while on an excursion from his kingdom. While Kanva and the other elders of the hermitage are away on a pilgrimage, Dushyanta, king of Hastinapura, comes hunting in the forest and chances upon the hermitage. He is captivated by Shakuntala, courts her in royal style, He and Shakuntala have a gandharva marriage there. He then has to leave to take care of affairs in the capital. Having to leave after some time, Dushyant gives Shakuntala a royal ring as a sign of their love, promising her that he will come to her.

But when Dushyant becomes king, he becomes too absorbed for many years in affairs of state. Shakuntala waits and despairs. One day, sage Durvasa visits the hermitage, when Shakuntala is lost in her fantasies in her love for Dushyant, forgets to serve him food. In a fit of anger, sage Durvasa curses her, saying that the person she is thinking about will forget her. A shocked Shakuntala begs for forgiveness and the sage, after recollecting his calm, assures her that the person will remember her again when she shows some proof of their acquaintance.

So, Shakuntala sets off to the capital, Hastinapur, to remind Dushyant of their past love. She travels to meet him, and has to cross a river. The ring is lost when it slips off her hand when she dips her hand in the water playfully. An accident occurs by which a fish consumes the royal ring, leaving Shakuntala with no formidable proof. On arrival the king refuses to acknowledge her, by the curse. Shakuntala is abandoned by her companions, who return to the hermitage.

Dushyanta does not recollect Shakuntala, Fortunately, the ring is discovered by a fisherman in the belly of a fish,and brings it to the court. and Dushyanta realises his mistake -  Dushyanta weds Shakuntala, who becomes his queen and mother of his son, Bharata.

================================================================================

In Hindu mythology, Bharata is a legendary emperor and the founder of the Bhārata dynasty, and thus an ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata. According to the Mahābhārata (Adi Parva), Bharata was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala and thus a descendant of the Lunar Dynasty of the Kshatriya Varna. In his childhood, Bharata was known by the name "Sarvadamana" meaning "the subduer of all". The dwellers at Sage Kanva's asylum called him by this name because, even in the age of six, he was able to seize and restrain wild animals.

Story of Bharata

An Apsara or nymph called Menaka had come down to Earth from Heaven at the behest of Indra, to distract the great sage Vishvamitra from his deep penance. She succeeded and bore a child, by him. Vishwamitra, angered by the loss of the virtue gained through his many hard years of strict asceticism, distanced himself from the child and mother to return to his work. Realizing that she could not leave the child with him, and having to return to the Heavenly realms, the nymph left the newborn baby on the banks of the Malini River flowing in the Shivalik mountain ranges Himalayas. The child was found by a Rishi or Sage called Kanva surrounded and protected by birds (Shakunton in Sanskrit), and so she was named "Shakuntala".

Shakuntala was brought up by Sage Kanva in his hermitage. King Dushyanta encountered Shakuntala while travelling through the forest with his army. Pursuing a male deer wounded by his arrow into the hermitage, he saw Shakuntala nursing the deer, her pet, and fell in love with her. He profusely begged her forgiveness for harming the deer and Dushyanta married Shakuntala there in the hermitage. King Dushyanta left hermitage after some time due to unrest in the capital city. At the time of leaving, he gave her a ring as a memory of their time spent together and promised her to come back later.

Time passed on and the King Dushyanta never came back. So, Shakuntala reached King's palace with her son. During the journey, she lost the ring while crossing a river. Arriving at King's court, Shakuntala was hurt and surprised when her husband did not recognize her, nor recollected anything about her. as a result of sage Durvasa curses. Since she lost the ring, she didn't have any proof as well. A few days later, a fisherman found that ring inside a fish and presented it before the king. After a long course of time, the King accepted her as his wife. Because King supported his child after hearing the speech of Celestial Messenger, that Shakuntala's son came to be called Bharata ("the cherished", "the supported").In due course, Shakuntala gave birth to a child. The Sage Kanwa named him as Sarvadamana. Surrounded only by wild animals, Sarvadamana grew to be a strong child and made a sport of opening the mouths of tigers and lions and counting their teeth.

He ruled virtuously and earned great fame and was known by the titles of "Chakravarti" (emperor) and "Sarvabhauma" 

He performed many sacrifices and Sage Kanva was the chief priest at those sacrifices. Bharata had a son named Bhúmanyu. The Mahabharata, in the Adi Parvan, tells two different stories about Bhúmanyu's birth. The first story says that Bharata married Sunanda the daughter of Sarvasena, the King of Kasi Kingdom, and begot upon her the son named Bhumanyu. According to the second story, Bhúmanyu was born out of a great sacrifice that Bharata performed for the sage Bharadwaja. Bhumanyu was married to Pushkarni and had a son named Suhotra who become the next emperor.

Bharata lineage

Emperor Bharata gave his name to the dynasty of which he was the founder. It was in the Bharata's dynasty that, later, the Pandavas of epic Mahabharata were born.

================================================================================