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. It is attested by two (possibly three) manuscripts and is not referenced by any other surviving pre-modern source. In 1909, Appan Thampuran published a translation of the first part of
Lilatilakam in the Malayalam magazine
Mangalodhayam. Later, Attoor Krishna Pisharody (A. Kṛṣṇa Piṣāraṭi) translated and published the entire treatise:
in 1916, he edited the Sanskrit sutras with a Malayalam translation of the original Sanskrit commentary.
Contents
Lilatilakam (literally "diadem of poetry") 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).
The text is written in Sanskrit language, in form of a series of verses with commentary; it also features examples of Manipravalam-language verses. The text is divided into eight parts called shilpam.
Bibliography
