Understanding Women’s Subordination and Patriarchal Practices in the Context of Kālidāsa’s Śakuntalā: An Analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the position of women in the social structure of the time and the issues of discrimination against women within the patriarchal social system of the Indian subcontinent, as portrayed in the play “Abhijñāna Śākuntalam”. In these subcontinental societies, women have “traditionally” been considered subordinate to men, where women always had to be under the authority or control of one or multiple men. Men or husbands had the right to exercise a disproportionate power over women or their wives. Kālidāsa’s play Abhijñāna Śākuntalam gives a detailed picture of the status of women in the subcontinental patriarchal society of India at that period. The author has represented the women through the portrayal of the titular character Śakuntalā. The text represents the Vedic period and the social system of that time, where social attitudes are reflected in the journey of our protagonist character. In that social system, the rules and regulations of society were in the hands of men and governed by patriarchy. Women were like puppets tied with strings, controlled by men. In this structure, men had been at the top of power, i.e. the superior ones. Even when the author chooses Śakuntalā to be the protagonist, as we will see throughout this discussion, she remains firmly in a place of inferiority, where her position is never accorded equal power to that of King Duṣyanta. The men are shown as superior in every stratum even in the greatest of Sanskrit plays. Mainly this is a study of contemplating the role of society in creating the distinctions in the status of women and men.

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 70(2), December 2025, pp. 215-227