Tilakamanjari

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

Page 97

DHANAPĀLA AS A PROSE WRITER
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being, as it were, the rite of virtuosity, the accomplishment of the vow of knowledge, the accumulation of the purity, as it were of sanctity, the right to duty, as it were, of piety, the all bestowal of compassion and a director to the path of emancipation.'
The Vetāla Mahodara presented as a hideous looking stupendous figure sent only to suit the opportunity of Vindication of the king through an ordeal by Śrī, presents a typical figure wearing a crest wreath hanging up to the knees, wearing anklets of bones and eating a condiment of bones smacking of odium. He was actually a foil employed by the goddess to test the mettle of the king or else he was a Yakṣa a semi divine being and never a vampire. His role in the latter stages is equally haughty his pride born of the special grace of Śrī, his irate temper being manifest even at that stage when he checkmates the progress of Gandharvaka and throws him into the lake along with the aerial car only to find him get back with the form of a parrot. This unfolds his mysterious character of a tantric intolerant of others. His characteristic role in the caverns where Harivahana performed penance is equally of the same nature. He acts as the sentinel of the goddess guarding the cardinal point of her religious resorts.
Gandharavaka is just a tame boy acting as a courier carrying the portrait of Tilakamañjarī employed by Patralekha the consort of Cakrasena. He meets a mishap while performing that duty and transformed into parrot retains his memory and speech and not the form and sticks to his business of rescue work during the odd hours of Malayasundarī. His resuscitation through the divine scarf Niśītha brings him to human form again and he performs his duties there even in association with Citramaya by conducting the Hero and the side hero with their respective heroines. Cakrasena is the sire of Tilakamañjarī, a Vidyadhara king of Rathanupura Cakravāla, affectionate towards his daughter and respectful towards his wife.
Vicitravīrya is the sire of Gandharvadatta and maternal grand sire of Malayasundari, sire of Patralekha as well, staying at Vaijayanti, affectionate unto his grand daughter, always pining to meet his daughter Gandharvadattā lost in his royal cataclysm.
Kusumasekhara is the king of Kāñcī, sire of Malayasundari, consort of Gandharvadatta, who had the expanse of his cantonment extending up to the shores of the Southern ocean having his fame sojourning up to the Eastern and the Western corners. He has been depicted as a chivalrous king standing in the Van of battle to face the foe with expert war strategies but is
1. आचारमिव चारित्रस्य, प्रतिज्ञानिर्वाहमिव ज्ञानस्य, शुद्धिसंचयमिव शौचस्य, धर्माधिकारमिव धर्मस्य, सर्वस्वदायमिव दयायाः, मार्गदेशकमिवापवर्गस्य | Ibid vol. I p. 89. LL. 3-4.