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 11 - Social Data
60 (of 91)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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456
activities at the royal palace of King Meghav膩hana, Dha-
nap膩la has drawn quite a vivid and realistic picture of
the ways and means adopted by the relatives of the king a
and by his queens and other inmates of the royal harem
in their anxiety to explore the expedients for securing
a male issue for the king.
312 Here is a brief account of them all:
(i) Urged by the relatives of the king, some astrolo-
gers calculated the horoscope;
(ii) Others put forth the questions, the answers to
which involved counting of fingers beginning with the
thumb (angu峁ａ弓hak膩di-prasna);
(ii) Still othe astrologers resorted to the mystic
procedure regarding the 'Kar峁嘺-pik膩cik膩', a goblin suppo-
sed to whisper in the ear of her devotee the answer to
his query;
(iv) And some predicted about the princesses fully
guaranteed to bear a male child.
(v) The courtiers and other people directed the Brah-
mins to wor_ship, on behalf of them, particular deities
famed in the Puranic stories to have granted the boon of
a male child to childless kings in the past.
312. TM(N), pp.64-65.
