true Kshatriya ever-ready to rescue the aggrieved. His Dushyanta and Agnimitra present no less a characteristic of his heroes, which will be discussed below in some detail. Their administration is very righteous and popular, and they are held in high esteem by their subjects. His kings attend regular Cabinet meetings and constitute the highest tribunal of Justice as well.
In their private life, they are very moral, though none is free from practising polygyny in actual life. In their pursuits of love, his heroes are very bold and not only they do not mind the displeasure of their senior consorts, but as their weakness for some one else invariably makes them too uxorious to withstand in any shape the curt admonitions they have to court their repeated reprimands or a casual vapulation or flogging as well. For example, his Agnimitra's subservience to his senior spouses Dharini and Irawati, one excelling the other in dominating over him, and a similar attitude of Pururaves towards Aushinary are a clear proof of the same. The poet, having felt later on the delicacy of this situation, sympathised better with his hero in Dushyanta whose sad plight on this account he has conveniently, with maturer experience, avoided in Shākuntalam in not bringing any one of his other consorts on the scene. In choice of their consorts, their taste is very chaste and seasoned and their affection to the heroine is both deep and substantial.
Technically, his Paruravas is a Dheerodatta or a gallant type of a hero, as much as his Dushyanta or Agnimitra is. Pururavas is a highly cultured type of gentleman and may be contrasted with Dushyanta, who, though seemingly august and dignified, betrays himself as a mean deserter when he denies having married Shakuntala fearing perhaps public scandal. Because as a picture of social influence then on the kings, the poets have well portrayed their thraldom to the sense of winning public encomium and to the charm of complacency in keeping their subjects pleased at any cost, the climax of which is seen in Bhavabhuti's Rama (Cf. "अथवा जानकीमपि आराधनाय लोकस्य त्यजतो नास्ति मे व्यथा") But Paruravas with all his gallantry is sly in his dealings, a shatha in his behaviour towards his mates other than his fiancee, though he is very respectful to the others (Vide Act II and Act V, P. 258).
अपराधी नामाहं प्रसीद रम्भोर विरम संरम्भात् ।
सेव्यो जनश्च कुपितः कथं नु दासो निरपराधः ॥ Page 94
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