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
133 (of 138)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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1013
by making it difficult for him to remember coherently. If
weakness it is, it is that of his age which revelled in the
complexity of the structure. And it was inherited by Dhana-
p膩la from a hoary tradition. As has been discussed in the
last chapter, it was one of the popular means of sustaining
the suspense in the narrative. The listener of Dhanap膩la's
days had sufficient time to think and remember the story be-
tween the sessions of public recitals or readings of the
work, as compared to modern reader who rushes through a no-
vel in a few hours with hardly any time to look back, much
less to recollect what he has already passed over! And the
universal value and appeal of this device of boxing stories
lies in the fact that it is resorted to by even a modern
novelists like Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights, for insta-
409 410 nce, as pointed out by Jonathan Rahan.
Some might find a lack of proportion, excesses in ver-
bosity, abstruseness and descriptive element as a short-AD
coming in Dhanap膩la. But that too was one of the special
characteristic of the genre of Sanskrit prose-romances. Even
then in view of the prevalent standards Dhanap膩la's excesses
are not so glaring like those of his celebrated predecessor
B膩峁嘺, whose fame he most coveted. Wealth of power is never
unrestrained with Dhanap膩la, and though his imagination en-
compasses both heaven and earth, it never runs riot, although
*09. Tech. Mod. Fict.,p.35.
410.7
