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
21 (of 138)
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the poet in him. And the beginning of the story of god Jva-
lanaprabha about the E to descend from heaven naturally
culminates into the last birth of him as Hariv膩hana, his
attainment of the emperorship of the Vidyadharas, and conse-
quent line-clear for his journey towards Final Emancipation.
The episodes, likewise, are quite pursuasive and not
simply pasted on to the story. The birth of Harivahana, his
love at first sight on seeing the portrait of Tilakama帽jar墨,
than the latter's aversion to males, the miserable life of
the pair of Samaraketu and Malayasundari, the flying elepha-
nt, the attempts at suicide by various characters, the cur-
sed parrot, the attainment of Vidyadharahood and emperorship
of the Vidyadharas by Harivahana, the identity og Gandharva-
datta and all such episodes are so tightly woven in the tex-
ture of the narrative that even if one of them is dropped
the story would lose its logical frame and effect. And ra-
tional explanation of things mysterious is one of the chara-
cteristic peculiarities of Dhanap膩la.
IV:CHARACTERIZATION
45 As has been clearly pointed out by Kobald Knight,
in order to make a reader believe the characters to be real,
live human beings, it is essential that all characters shou-
ld be endowed with seperate and distinct individualities, as
men and women are in actual life. Characterization is not
45. Gui.Fict.Wr., pp.97鈥�101.
