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TILAKAMANJARĪ OF DHANAPĀLA
His romance is certainly a fiction based on the covert allusions to the lives of his patrons. As postulated by some such scholars as N.M. Kansara, Tilakamañjarī was most probably his daughter and he perhaps by idealising her has idealised the fair and square dealings in the demeanour and deeds of his patron who might have had an eye of affection towards her. Or it may be so that aspiring a relation with the royal sage he might have anticipated a theme and characterised it in the mode of an immortal reminiscence. His Meghavāhana might have been Muñja or Sindhurāja whom he has characterised so elegantly as well as vivaciously. His Harivāhana appears to be a peer to Bhoja as established by me in my Paper entitled 'Historical Data in the Tilakamañjarī of Dhanapāla’.99 His Candraketu and Samaraketu refer to Rāja rāja and Rājendra Cola, the Cola monarchs who had a sway over Ceylon (Simhala) during the days of Dhanapāla. Viewing a matrimonial tie through his personal knowledge he might have fabricated the theme.
Apart from the theme he has woven on the analogy of Bāņa's Kādambarī also taking cue from Guņādhya and secondarily from Kathā Saritsāgara he has thoroughly justified his claim to be ranked a master-artist from the point of view of literary equipments. He has fostered the cause of the four-fold aims of human existence and the theory of Karman, that of the origin and growth of orders of society and stages of life. He had a humanistic approach to life and upheld the doctrine of virtuosity and piety to the exclusion of depravity and levity that deserved to be faced and counteracted. His descriptive and narrative materials, his dialogues all go to establish him a successful poet and a literary artist who could view life from very close quarters. His descriptions of nature amply establish his task for romanticism. His romantic characters of Harivāhana and Samaraketu are his true personal prototypes. The dark side of things observed in life has also been depicted but no severing of efforts through frustration born of pessimism is shown.
'सततमचलप्रकृतिना हि पुरुषेण भवितव्यम्'
(TM Vol. III, p. 81, L-11) i.e. A man should always possess a nonchalant disposition' is what seems to be the bedrock of his philosophy. Harivāhana, Samaraketu, Malayasundarī and Bandhusundari are the true epitomes of this factual trait of disposition. His reflective moods are equally true to his calibre and personal leanings. His idioms and illustrations equally testify his skill in the wisdom of the world and practical way of life.
Apart from the Literary norm Dhanapāla has kept his tempo of supremacy in depicting lofty cultural heritages of the Age. His vast and figurative illustrations regarding the Geographical topography amply
