op hunting or eating meat.
             In Western drama foreshadowing is used to heighten suspense or to create a sense of doom threatening human happiness. In Sanskrit drama foreshadowing instead creates a sense of purpose, of inevitability, linked to the concept of karma. The wheel, symbol of the reign of the benevolent emperor Asoka, is pictured on the flag of modern India as a symbol of Hinduism. Fire is central to Hindu ritual. Originally animals were sacrificed and burned as in Judaism or ancient Greek practice, but fruits, flowers, incense, etc. are more commonly sacrificed today. The Himalayas have long been famed as the site of particularly devout mystics, giving rise to the Western stereotype of the guru on the mountain top.
             In the Western tradition, the suggestion of a love encounter in a hermitage would be considered blasphemous, but the king is not expected at his stage of life to be an ascetic; he is in the "householder" stage, appropriate for love and marriage. Note the preference for the natural over the cultivated, a common theme in much Western poetry as well. The fact that Anasuya says the vine
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