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DHANAPĀLA AS A PROSE WRITER
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consisting in the descriptive and the narrative materials, characterisation, human psychology and above all the superb mode of sermonising for the sake of obviating sin and spreading health and fortune in the world.
A critical examination of the Literary aspects screened through Tilakamanjarī makes it very clear that Dhanapāla in writing his romance has conformed faithfully to the literary tendencies of the age which had an inclination towards the Heterodox cults such as Jainism reacting violently against the ritualistic performances, of the Vedic and Hindu cults which had started degenerating on account of their taking to the path of mass killing in the sacrifices as is evident from the Yaśastilaka Campū of Somadeva where in king Māridatta had taken a vow even to sacrifice a youthful pair of a boy and a girl. Trivikrama Bhatta's erudition meant to display a tendency to strain language by the employment of 'Bhangaśleşa' equally smacks of bad tastes leading the literary traditions towards a decadence unprecedented enough to mar the steady growth of literature. Dhanapāla felt it worthwhile to get out of that rut of pretentiousness and produced a writing that lit the lamp of classical Sanskrit prose to such an extent that the years to come could never foster the feeling of Sanskrit continuing to be the living language among the literaeurs. Dhanapāla's critical outlook in treating of the two love episodes intertwined within one another is remarkable in so far as he has created confusion even in the minds of literary stalwarts such as Dr. S.K. De and A.B. Keith and even V. Varadacari who failed to understand its theme properly and deemed it to be a romance depicting the love episode of Samaraketu and Tilakamañjari. (Tilakā by V.Varadācārī)
On the whole Dhanapāla has been pretty successful in inventing a theme and carrving it out to the furthest limits from the point of view of shedding off of the old complexes such as inability to produce something superior to Bāņa etc. and treating off of all the modes of literary styles of prose, descriptions, narration's and reflective moods of his characters some of whom though celestial or semi-celestial beings yet act and behave on the same plane as the mundane beings given to callow indelicacies and frivolous dicacities of the physical form. The vast and panoramic review of the Geographical spots amply illustrates his ubiquitous knowledge about the topography of India and establishes him to have been a great wandering soul that had observed very minutely every nook and corner of his Homeland.
