Exploring ‘Shanderella’ through the glass slipper and abhijanashakuntalam

Abstract

The present paper intends to explore the origins of the two renowned texts, the supernatural fairytale of Cinderella and the traditional drama of Shakuntala. Fairy tales are fabricated stories about superficial, magical and imaginary beings or lands where as Dramas intend to portray a character or to tell a story usually  involving conflicts and emotions through action and a series of dialogues. Both of my chosen texts are originated from Mythology as the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story was recorded by a Greek Historian in the late first century and Kalidasa’s Abhijanashakuntala though, is a Sanskrit text, since most of the traces of Sanskrit language have been originated from Greek Mythology, so that permits us to claim Shakuntala’s origination from Greek Mythology as well. Further, we will explore the origination of both the characters, Cinderella and Shakuntala and how can one conduct a comparative study between the two.