Between the Raj and Raja: Taking Śakuntalā on Tour in Colonial India. Issue 1 (May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kulkarni, Kedar A.
• Is Part Of: Nineteenth century theatre and film. Volume 44:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 92
• Page End: 116
• Publication Date: 2017-05
• Subjects: Shakuntala -- world literature -- Indian drama -- performance -- colonialism; Performing arts -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Performing arts -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Performing arts -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Theater -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Theater and society -- Periodicals; Drama -- History and criticism -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Silent films -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 306.48409034
• DOI: 10.1177/1748372717737487
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1748-3727

Abstract

This article is about the performative effects of the Abhijñānaśākuntalam, more popularly known as Shakuntala, in western India during the nineteenth century.Noting the play's importance for various oriental discourses and romanticisms across Europe, this article instead charts the play's interpolation of various historical tropes and social issues that become legible through the play's broader theatrical and performative contexts within India. Issues such as a feeling of social fragmentation, the disintegration of Princely (Kingly) power in colonial India, and tense relations between Brahmans and Princes became legible through this play, its performances, and its circulation. Far from the imaginative abstraction that it may have been for its occidental audiences, Shakuntala, in India, easily became resonant with and reproduced various local concerns, making them legible and felt through performance.