Essay name: Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala (study)
Author:
Shri N. M. Kansara
Affiliation: Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda / Department of Sanskrit Pali and Prakrit
This is an English study of the Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala, a Sanskrit poem written in the 11th century. Technically, the Tilaka-manjari is classified as a Gadyakavya (鈥減rose-romance鈥�). The author, Dhanapala was a court poet to the Paramara king Munja, who ruled the Kingdom of Malwa in ancient west-central India.
Chapter 10 - Geographical Data
2 (of 25)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
373
CHAPTER
TEN
E
1 In keeping with the intention of basing the
story of the TM on Jain canonical literature, Dhanap膩la
has naturally chosen the Jainistic geographical back-
ground for the plot. As has been noted by Shri J.C.Jain,
the Jain point of view of geography is governed by
two conditions, mythological and scientific. To the
first category belongs the fantastic geography of Jambu-
dvipa, which is divided into seven zones bounded by six
mountain ranges from which flow the fourteen great rivers.
But so far as the visible world is concerned these pri-
mitive geographers retained certain true observations
in their geographical descriptions. And the Jain texts
in general seem to be closer to the Puranic concept with
regard to their concept of the Dvipas, though there is a
difference in their nomenclatures. And Dhanap膩la, being
2 a Brahmin convert to Jainism, seems to be conversant with
both these traditions, which at times get mixed up in
his work.
1. LAIJC, p.245.
2. GF,p.32.
