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 13 - Religious and Philosophical data
43 (of 52)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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the Jain texts. They were essentially spirits of the air
and were described as travelling in their excellent aero-
planes. They are represented as devotees of Jain religi-
on and frequently we meet them bound for pilgrimage to
the Nandi虈svaradvipa or the A峁ａ弓膩pada mountain. They are
also represented as wicked beings carrying off the maidens
during the time of their wedding. The home of the Vijj膩ha-
177 ras was chiefly the mountain Veya岣峝ha (i.e. Vait膩dhya).
According to the Jain notion, Tirthankaras are su-
perior to gods in as much as a Tirthankara is approaching
salvation whereas whereas a god is merely a heavenly being
subject to births and deaths. This relative position is
made more more conspicuous in the Jain sculptures where
the main figures of the Tirthankaras are shown as being
worshipped or served by some surrounding gods, goddesses
178 and other heavenly beings as only their subordinates.
Many of the Brahmanic divinities were silently assimilated
into the Jain pantheon, since the long-standing traditions
and well-established images of these gods and goddesses like
Ga峁噀艣a, 艣r墨, Kubera, Indra, and etc., in the Brahmanism
179 directly appealed to the Jains. They had a certain mass
appeal which was but indispensable for propagation of the
faith.
177. LAIJC,pp.234-235.
178. JI,p.18.
179. ibid.,p.20.
