Tilakamanjari

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

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TILAKAMANJARĪ OF DHANAPĀLA
Kusumasekhara and Gandharvadattā and the same ritual of Harivāhana and Tilakamañjarī by the hands of Cakrasena and Patralekhā, the subsequent demise of Meghavāhana and ere to that his object of crowning Harivāhana as king of the territories owned by himself, Harivahana's alliance of Kamalagupta and Samaraketu leading to a series of happy rejoicings for a long time provide a happy ending to this romance.
Apart from this the account of Samaraketu narrated by himself leading to his first meeting with Malayasundari after he had started off from Rangaśālā in the Simhalas through sea in company of Tāraka, a sailor youth, son of Vaisravana and Vasudattā and a consort of Priyadarśana daughter of Jalaketu, who had been made chief of the naval staff of Candraketu, sire, of Samaraketu, the lord of the Simhalas, the subsequent narrative recounted by Malayasundari likewise before Harivāhana, also describing her first meeting with Samaraketu, the act of messenger in love performed by Tāraka for the latter, the act of plunging into the ocean by Samaraketu, subsequent following into the ocean by Malayasundari, her rescue by an unknown agency, her bereavement in the house of her grandsire Vicitravīrya, reappearance of Samaraketu on the scene of strangulation by Malayasundarī after he had heard the doleful cries of Bandhusundarī, the story of Gandharvadattā's separation from her parents in childhood and her fostering care having been taken by the Kulapati in the Praśāntavaira hermitage, the prophecy about her reunion with her sire Vicitravīrya after the nuptial tie of her daughter Malayasundarī- all these facts go to make this prose treatise an interesting piece of literary enjoyment throwing all the time into a revelry of horripilation caused by suspense permeating each and every thread of the emboxed variety of tales. The nature of the emboxed tales throughout the whole romance resembles the nature of the emobxed tales in Kādambari and is most unlike the nature of the emboxed tales available in the Dasakumāracarita of Dandin wherein the entire galaxy of coruscating narrative diction entails a steady flow of incident following each other in a chain and not intertwined into one another like a jaggery of creepers.
Drs. A. B. Keith' and S. K. De.? have postulated that the story of Tilakamañjarī is a love episode of Samaraketu and Tilakamañjarī whereas Dr. V. Varadācāri says that it is a story of love between the princess Tilakā and prince Samaraketu. But a final reunion of Harivähana and Tilakamañjarī, Samaraketu and Malayasundarī clearly contradicts the views
1. HSL. p. 331.Ch.XV Oxford University, Press London, 1953. 2. Ibid., pp. 430-431. University of Calcutta, 1947 Chapter VI topic-5.