Sakuntala

Sakuntala is one of the most pleasing female characters of Hindu mythology. She is mentioned as a water-nymph in the Yagurveda (see VEDA); she is the subject of a beautiful episode of the Mahabharata (q.v.), and is spoken of in the Puranas; but her name has become especially familiar in Europe through the celebrated drama of Kálidása (q.v.), which, introduced to us by Sir William Jones in 1789, became the starting-point of Sanskrit philology in Europe.