Lilatilakam

Lilatilakam

Original title	Līlā-tilakam
Language	Sanskrit
Subject	Grammar and poetics of Manipravalam
Publication place	India
Media type	Manuscript

Lilatilakam (IAST: Līlā-tilakam, "diadem of poetry") is a 14th-century Sanskrit-language treatise on the grammar and poetics of the Manipravalam language style, a blend of Sanskrit and early Malayalam used in the Kerala region of India.

Date and authorship

Lilatilakam is an anonymous work, generally dated to the late 14th century.[1] It is attested by two (possibly three) manuscripts and is not referenced by any other surviving pre-modern source.[2] In 1909, Appan Thampuran published a translation of the first part of Lilatilakam in the Malayalam magazine Mangalodhayam. Later, Atoor Krishnapisharadi translated and published the entire treatise.[3]

Contents

Lilatilakam (literally "diadem of poetry"[4]) calls itself the only disciplinary treatise (shastra) on Manipravalam, which it describes as the "union" of Sanskrit and Kerala-bhasha (the regional language spoken in Kerala).[5]

The text is written in Sanskrit language, in form of a series of verses with commentary; it also features examples of Manipravalam-language verses.[5] The text is divided into eight parts called shilpam.[3]

References

1. Eva Maria Wilden 2014, p. 347.
2. Rich Freeman 2003, p. 443.
3. E.S., Vishnu (March 2024). "Lilathilakavum Thadeshiyathayum" (PDF). keralamuseum.org. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
4. Rich Freeman 2003, p. 442.
5. Rich Freeman 2003, p. 448.

Bibliography

• Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
• Rich Freeman (2003). "The Literary Culture of Premodern Kerala". In Sheldon Pollock; Arvind Raghunathan (eds.). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22821-4.