No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Story of the Irascible Yakṣa and the King Who Nearly Beheaded Himself in Dhanapāla's Tilakamañjarī*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2012
Extract
The Tilakamañjarī, Dhanapāla's poem in prose (gadyakāvya) is one of the masterpieces of classical Sanskrit literature and deserves to be better known. What he says in one of the introductory verses about his contemporary audience is also true about the readers of our time: “People, smelling danger, turn away from prose which contains a forest of unbroken lines (i.e. compounds filling whole lines) and lots of descriptions, as they keep away from the many-coloured tiger which lives in the dense Daṇḍaka forest”. Although Dhanapāla shows more restraint in his descriptions and in the use of alliteration and long compounds than his illustrious predecessor Bāṇa, the extremely intricate plot of the Tilakamañjarī might discourage those who otherwise appreciate Sanskrit poetry. I am certain, however, that once a taste for gadyakāvya is acquired all these deterring factors turn into sources of delight.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2012
Footnotes
*
Studies in Fabulous Creatures II. The first in my series Studies on Fabulous Creatures, was published as: Csaba Dezső, “Encounters with Vetālas, Studies on Fabulous Creatures I”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. 63.4 (2010), pp. 391–426. The research behind this article was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA, project no. PD 78093).
References
Key Works Cited
Dezső, Csaba, “Encounters with Vetālas, Studies on Fabulous Creatures I”. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. 63.4, 2010. pp. 391–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, Emmanuel, Le discours royal. Inscriptions et monuments pallava (IV ème – IX ème siècles). Unpublished doctoral thesis. Université catholique de Louvain, (Louvain, 2009).Google Scholar
Gupta, Kanta (ed.), Sanskrit Śaiva Kāvyas, Vol. I: Haracaritacintāmaṇi & Bhikṣāṭana. ( Delhi, 2002).Google Scholar
Kansara, N. M. (ed.), Kavi Dhanapāla's Tilakamañjarī. A Sanskrit Prose Romance, with Śāntyācārya's Ṭippanaka and Jñānakalaśa's Tāḍipattra-ṭippaṇī. Vol. I. (Ahmedabad, 1991).Google Scholar
Schmid, Charlotte, “Mahābalipuram: La prospérité au double visage.” Journal Asiatique 239.2, 2005. pp. 459–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Upadhye, A. N. (ed.), Uddyotana-sūri's Kuvalayamālā (Unique Campū in Prākrit). Critically Edited from Rare Mss. Material for the First Time with an Introduction, Various Readings, Notes etc., and Ratnaprabha-sūri's Kuvalayamālā-kathā (A Stylistic Digest of the Above in Sanskrit). Critically Edited with Various Readings etc. Part I: Kuvalayamālā. Prākrit Text & Various Readings (Bombay, 1959).Google Scholar