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 8 - The Plot and the Motifs
26 (of 57)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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for the initial military advantage it affords to the
forces of Samaraketu who is about to overpower Vajr膩yu-
dha, and this situation necessitates the use of the magic
ring, which was meant to be used on such occasions. This
incident gives turn to the straight course of the narra-
tive of Meghavahana and serves to introduce Samaraketu,
the hero of the bye-plot. Our curiosity about the source
of this night attack does not end it until we know
the fact that Samaraketu was the lover of Malayasundari,
whose father was forced to offer her in marriage to
Vajrayudha as a price for buying military settlement. It
was in order to save the honour of both his beloved and
her father and, ultimately, to win her honourably from
him on the strength of pure merit, that Samaraketu chose
to take this unusual course, inspite of his ministers'
advice to the contrary. The night-attack, thus serves,
on the one hand, to favourably dispose Malayasundar墨's
parents to Samaraketu, and, on the other hand, to separa-
te the lovers after a very brief, though highly cherished,
union in the palace-garden af at Ka帽ci.
(8) THE NAVAL EXPEDITION :-
i This expedition, though intended to bring the
restive feudatories round, is poetically meant to provide
the requisite opportunity to Samaraketu to reach the
