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 16 - The Tilakamanjari as a Sanskrit novel
102 (of 138)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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(vii) CHARACTER AND 982 SUBMERGED
FORM :
It is a character of the novel that it is in a
constant process of invention: a particular type of story
gains currency, lasts for twenty-five or fifty years, then
fades. Over the same period new categories will have come
into the existence and each will probably have only a limi-
ted life-span. The history of the novel is littered with
the husk of such temporary forms. The eighteenth century pi-
caresque novel, the romance, the Victorian adventure story
i
and improving moral tale all these were appropriate to
conditions of their own time. Sooner or later they became
overworked, and for a time were dropped altogether as use-
ful structures. But the writers of every period have return-
ed to these apparently burnt-out types, adopting them for
an ironic or satiric purpose.
368 Though we cannot claim that Dhanapala "revived" the
form of narration developed by B膩峁嘺 in order to adopt it
for some satiric purpose, we are sure that he adopted it to
his own purpose of a subtly allegorical narrative. A subtle
point of view
subtle satirical/ for the for and structure of B膩峁嘺's
novels may possibly be found in the remarks where he calls
the Kath膩s based on a story from Gunadhya's B峁沨atkath膩 as
"veritable cloak sewed from rags" : 369 Moreover, a reference
368. Tech. Mod. Fict., p.122.
369. TM(N), Intro.vs.21.
