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 17 - Bana and Dhanapala—A study in contrast
19 (of 22)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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1037
Bāṇa's flair for long compounds at times extending over
more than one line, coupled with his propensity for puns,
makes his works too mush ornate for the general audience ev-
en of the tenth century. Of course it is true that Bāṇa's
age was one of profound all-round scholarship; even then one
cannot deny that "Bāṇa uses his known gifts of imagination
and word-painting like a prodigal spendthrift, using them
at places without much propriety or proportion, only to dis-
play their riotous plenty.
�
36 Dhanapala too is fond of displaying his craftsmanship
in fresh imageries and exquisite word-pictures, but his sen-
se of a novelist, of a skillful narrator, always mindful of
sustaining the suspense in the story and interest in the
audience, never allows himself to commit such excesses. When
occasions demand, he too xi successfully brings into play
his mastery of Sanskrit language and his power of aptly a
arraying incessantly long-winded compounds, as for instance,
in the description of equally thickly-grown and hazardous
forest of Vindhya, or in that of the boundless expanse of
roaring waves of an unfathomable ocean. Dhanapāla never
loses his sense of proportion or propriety. He generally pre-
fers to use words of common occurance in their most familiar
grammatical forms, so much so that one rarely comes across
36. BHLL,p.103.
