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 (“prose-romance�). 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
115 (of 138)
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995
in his Kādambari, and equally sparingly in, but most signi-
ficantly and mostly in the beginning of each of his chapters
of, the Harṣacaritam. Dhanapala has revived Subandhu's con-
vention in maintaining in general the ratio of the number
of verses in relation to the prose of his n narrative.
Apart from fifty-three introductory verses, he has
interspersed his prose narrative with as many as forty-seven
verses in not less than sixteen metres, some of them in the
Prakrit ones, as can be seen from Appendix D.
Dhanapāla is the first author of Sanskrit prose-zaman
TEX -romance to utilize Prakrit metres like Mātrā and Pa-
ddhaḍikā for composing Sanskrit verses, which comprise the
prayers addressed to Jain Tirthankaras; this was pointed
out by Dr, H.C.Bhajani long back. This is in keeping with
the Jainistic aspect of the subject of the prayer. It is
noteworthy, in passing,
382 Dahan abanga in find that Bhoja has quoted only three
verses, and Hemacandra one less, from Dhanapāla's TM, which
his
17 fact testify to their high regard for poetic genius.ng
Dhanapāla utilizes the medium of verse with a defini-
viz.,
te purpose in view, to express concentrated emotions:�
Sometimes his verses sum up a running description or a mo-
ing situation, as in the verses beginning with '
स्फु� देता
[sphura detā
] etc.,(p.16,6ff.), or in 'æðÌÏÛT
f foot
etc.,
(23,1ff.), or in faufa faza farart
विभावरॶ
- [屹ī
- ] etc., (28,19) ;
382.cf.MIA Miscellany, Bharatiya Vidya,Ekaxan April, 1945.
