Tilakamanjari

Author(s): Dhanpal, Sudarshankumar Sharma
Publisher: Parimal Publications

Page 29

DHANAPĀLA AS A PROSE WRITER
charm of the didactic motive intended behind its composition. Style is very forceful, expressions short and sentences brimming with short and pithy sayings, the method of enboxed tales terms this thesaurus of narratives a storehouse of ākhyāyikās in the manner of Dasakumārcarita of Dandin. The prose in inscriptions tends to a natural and close approach towards the literary prose in point of style and language. The hitherto defunct though known by casual references, the contemporary prose romances might have had an impact on these inscriptions.
'स्फुटलघुमधुरचित्रकान्तशब्दसमयोदासलंकृतगद्यपद्य(काव्य)विधानप्रवीणेन''
i.e. clarity, raciness, attractiveness, variety and aptness of expressions which have been characterised as the virtues of a good prose and metrical Kāvya in line with
'उत्कृष्टकविगद्यमिव विविधवर्णश्रेणिप्रतिपाद्यमानानेकाभिनवार्थसंचयम्।"
Bāņa's assertion easily confirms the view that by 150 A.D. the ornate prose style had a firm basis to stand upon by having many more works preceding them but unfortunately lost.
The Allahabad stone pillar insc. of Samudragupta is next best specimen of long compounded ornate prose Kāvya. Compared with the Ginnar insc. of Rudradāmā, it is highly refined and the expressions are used in the same manner as in the later romances. Lines 17 to 31 are connected by a singly independent verb, subdivided by long compounded adjectival sentences forming the chief requisites of Samudragupta as a conqueror, a warrior, a patron of letters, an administrator and a poet cum artist. Madhuban and Banskhera copper plate grants of king Harşavardhana and the Maliya copper plate grant of Valabhi King Dharasena easily stand eponymous with the style of Dandin, Subandhu and Bāņa.
Prose in Dramas of Bhāsa interspersed along with the verses is simple, racy, vigorous, flowing and couched in the simplest standard of figurative delineation, compounds hardly exceeding the mark of six or seven syllables. Upamās, Utpreksās, rūpakas, along with a stray example of Virodhābhāsa (Avimāraka I) P. 112. (26-2) Bhāsanitaka Cakan, C.R. Devdhar oriental book Agency Puna-1, 1962.
'(अथ कश्चिद् दर्शनीयोऽप्यविस्मितस्तरुणोऽप्यनहंकारः शूरोऽपि दाक्षिण्यवान् सुकुमारोऽपि बलवान्)'
are easily suited to the system of dialoguing in drama. Sūdraka follows the same trend. Throughout his Mșcchakațikaṁ he displays a tendency to compose longer paragraphs which contain very short and racy expressions
1. Girnar Insc. of Rudradāman. - Choukhamba S.S. Office Varanasi, 1962. 2. Kād. p. 273 L.2 Caukhamba Series. Edition. (Purvabhāga)