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 (鈥減rose-romance鈥�). The author, Dhanapala was a court poet to the Paramara king Munja, who ruled the Kingdom of Malwa in ancient west-central India.
Chapter 7 - The Katha form of literature
17 (of 30)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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the prose-romances, the Akhy膩yik膩,
the Akhy膩yik膩,
being partly auto-
biographical and partly of the nature of a chronicle
and hence without any complexity of the plot, necessa-
rily required divisions into units for recitation, and
the poet provided for them at the end of a particular
topic of the narrative. The Sanskrit fiction
Katha -,
-
on the other hand, was a complex affair and the plot
was laid in such a way as to sustain the suspense of the
audience by unexpected turns of events in the narrative,
which did not necessiate such formal divisions, though
in actual practice the poet or the reciter must be reci-
ting aloud only a portion of it in a day. And there was
no harm in putting these units up as respites (ucchv膩sas):
But the fashion of the day compelled them to keep the
units undecided and informal and left the reciters and
the audience to stop where and when they were tired or
continue when they were interested too much to halt
abruptly.
The peculiar form of Sanskrit fiction was thus
partly accidental, partly a matter of fashion and wholly
a logical consequence of its being a piece to be listened
to. We know nothing of the Carumati of Vararuci, nor of
the Sudraka-kath膩 of K膩lid膩sa's predecessors R膩mila and
Somila, nor of the prose composition of Bha峁弓膩ra
