Essay name: Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala (study)
Author:
Shri N. M. Kansara
Affiliation: Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda / Department of Sanskrit Pali and Prakrit
This is an English study of the Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala, a Sanskrit poem written in the 11th century. Technically, the Tilaka-manjari is classified as a Gadyakavya (“prose-romance�). The author, Dhanapala was a court poet to the Paramara king Munja, who ruled the Kingdom of Malwa in ancient west-central India.
Chapter 6 - Summary of the Tilakamanjari
14 (of 87)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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172
THE KING'S ENCOUNTER WITH A VETĀLA (pp. 46-55):-
In the evening he offered the necklace to the
image-goddess during the course of his evening worship.
No sooner did the king put it at the feet of the image,
he heard a terrible laughter, which, however, could
not frighten the king. Looking for the source or it, he
saw, to the left of the image, an extremely black tall
terrible rigure of a Vetala, on whose thin bloodless.
legs the veins were clearly visible. In one of his
hands he held a big skull from which the blood dripped
on the temple pillars.Serpents residing along his head,
ears, nostrils and chest were his ornaments. his tk
tongue repeatedly licked the flesh from under his nose.
He was busy eating some part of the body of a Sudra
sadnaka. His eyes wre red like fire. He wore a garland
of human skulls and armlets of human bones. Between his
teeth clung a piece of half-chewed human bone.A lion-
-skin covered his body along his waist and downwards.
Having looked at him from top to toe, the king
inquired of the Vetāla the cause of his laughter.The
latter replied: 0 King! You have been worshipping
the Goddess-of-Prosprity for days together. But you have
neglected me, who am an important servavtx of hers.this
is quite contrary to the accepted usage. You should
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