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
98 (of 138)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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Dhanapāla has made profuse use of the contingent, and
later on revealed the causal behind it : The following few
specimens would suffice to confirm this point :
359 (a) The surprise night-attack by Samaraketu' which
apparently looks accidental having no connection whatsoever
with the current story of Meghavāhana and Harivāhana is found
a later on to be causally connected with Malayasundari̇'s
love for Samaraketu who resorts to that out-of-the-way mea-
sure in order to uphold the honour of both her father and
himself and win her on the strength of his own character
rather than elope with her and betry the trust put by her
360 and his own father in him.
361 (b) The strange music from the unknown island which
attracts the attention of, and impells, Samaraketu to trace
the source of it looks quite contingent but we later on know
that it was the music of the festival of the Holy-Bath Cere-
mony of Lord Maŋ Mahāvīra. 362
(c) The sudden appearance of a parrot on the scene in
363.
reply to the invocation of Kamalagupta looks strangely
accidental and mysterious at the point; but the mystery turns
into a natural causal consequence when we find that the parr-
364 ot was none else but Gandharvaka himself, cursed by Mahodara,
and that he carried the message in keeping with his promise
365 to Harivahana.
·
359. TM(N),pp.83-94./360.ibid., p.326./361.ibid., p.141.
362. ibid., p.269. /363.ibid., pp.194-195./364.ibid., pp.381-
365. ibid.,p.173(1-2); 384(7-11).
384.
