Lilatilakam

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.

Lilatilakam

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

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, Attoor Krishna Pisharody (A. Kṛṣṇa Piṣāraṭi) translated and published the entire treatise:^[3] in 1916, he edited the Sanskrit sutras with a Malayalam translation of the original Sanskrit commentary.^[4]

Contents

Lilatilakam (literally "diadem of poetry"^[5]) 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).^[6]

The text is written in Sanskrit language, in form of a series of verses with commentary; it also features examples of Manipravalam-language verses.^[6] The text is divided into eight parts called shilpam.^[3]