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
54 (of 57)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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respective heroines at the end of the novel.
(23) PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSES :-
The poet has put put but one philosophical discourse
in the mouth of Maharsi, who is none else but the same
Vidyadhara Muni who appeared at the outset of the novel.
This discourse presents in a nutshell the sum and substance
of the moral foundation on which Dhanap膩la has raised his
literary edifice. There is nothing which can be called
specifically Jainistic about the discourse. Any Brahmani-
cal or Buddhistic saint would have uttered these very
thoughts without any harm to their doctrines, since the
Law of Karma is universally accepted by all these systems
of philosophical thought. The strange ways of Destiny are,
thus, held responsible in the whole novel for all the acci-
dents and vicissitudes of the characters. The discourse
is, thus, the heart of the novel and the epicentre shaping
the various turns and twists in the story and moulding
the plot accordingly.
There are other minor reflections also which,
however, echo the same thoughts. All of them have been
noticed and culled in the Appendix E.
(24) PENANCE :-
Meghavahana's worship of the goddess 艣r墨 involves
the penance of both the king and the queen as a result of
