Kalidasa's Shakuntala:Dramatis Personae
KING DUSKYANTA.
BHARATA, nicknamed All-tamer, his son.
MADHAVYA, a clown, his companion.
His charioteer.
RAIVATAKA, a door-keeper.
BHADRASENA, a general.
KARABHAKA, a servant.
PARVATAYANA, a chamberlain.
SOMARATA, a chaplain.
KANVA, hermit-father.
SHARNGARAVA, one of his pupils.
SHARADVATA, one of his pupils.
HARITA, one of his pupils.
DURVASAS, an irascible sage.
The chief of police.
SUCHAKA, policeman.
JANUKA, policeman.
A fisherman.
SHAKUNTALA, foster-child of Kanva.
ANUSUYA and PRIYAMVADA, her friends.
GAUTAMI, hermit-mother.
KASHYAPA, father of the gods.
ADITI, mother of the gods.
MATALI, charioteer of heaven's king.
GALAVA, a pupil in heaven.
MISHRAKESHI, a heavenly nymph.
Stage-director and actress (in the Prologue), hermits and hermit-women, two court poets, palace attendants, invisible fairies.
The first four acts pass in Kanva's forest hermitage; acts five and six in the king's palace; act seven on a heavenly mountain. The time is perhaps seven years.
From: Kalidasa, Translations of Shakuntala and other Works. Translated by Arthur W. Ryder. London: J. M. Dent, 1912, 2.