Tilakamanjari

SR No.: 022659
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Dhanpal, Sudarshankumar Sharma
Publisher: Parimal Publications
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 504
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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TILAKAMANJARĪ OF DHANAPĀLA
To conclude this chapter it will be quite befitting to quote Dr. Gupta here
"The peculiar conception of Kāvya which was regarded, more or less, as a piece of literary composition, romantic in matter and sentimental in character and above all strictly perfect in form and diction, affected its nature and scope as also its growth. The fact that the term Kāvya commanded a wide scope comprehending any literary piece of imagination whether it is in prose or verse results into the insalubrious tendency of developing similar art and style for the metrical and prose forms of literary composition. And as was natural, the art and style of metrical Kāvya invaded the sphere of prose with the result that the prose form was unduly marked with poetic stamp. In theory it may have been a wise step to discard the metre, an external factor, as a line of demarcation of poetry, but in practice it seriously hampered a natural development of prose as prose. Prose and poetry may be essentially one in spirit, but they are entirely different in rhythm, diction and technique and hence can never reconcile with each other, judged from modern measure-stick of literary criticism, Sanskrit prose Kāvya, wherein the elements of poetry and prose have been interwoven together in unnatural way, the former over-powering the latter, presents a strange type of literary form. The prose which may be regarded as such from modern standard the simple fluent and forceful prose, could never develop in Sanskrit under the circumstances described above."
C. PROSE ROMANCE OF DHANAPĀLA; ACT AND STYLE
1. CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLOT, ITS SOURCES AND THE INNOVATIONS INTRODUCED BY DHANAPALA
As already observed the romance of Dhanapāla falls within the fold of a 'Kathā' and unlike Dandin and like Subandhu and Bāņa, he has tried to utilize the traditional norm in descriptive as well as narrative moods most meticulously. Bāņa's description of Ujjayinī in the Kādambari Kathā provides a cue to the description of Ayodhyā to Dhanapāla in his Tilakamañjarī. Tārāpīda, the supreme sovereign of Ujjayinī having Vilāsavati for his chief queen, remained issueless for a long time after his marriage and it was after a propitiatory ritual performed by the queen that he got a son. Dhanapāla's Meghavāhana having Madirāvati for his consort suffered the same fate and it was only after propitiating Šrī in the manner of Puspabhūti of Harşacarita of Bāņa, that he begot a son. In Harşacarita it was
1. A critical study of Dandin and his works, p. 277, Chapter-II. Mehar Chand and
Lachhaman dass, Delhi