Introduction (Theory of vakrokti)

Like many poeticians preceding and succeeding him, Kuntaka has cited several works of Sanskrit literature to demonstrate his theory of vakrokti. It is therefore necessary to analyse Kuntaka’s theory of vakrokti in order to appreciate the context in which such quotations are made, which will help us to fully appreciate his critical acumen. In this chapter, the various aspects of Kuntaka’s theory of vakrokti are examined to serve as a backlog for the analysis of his critical practice.

Poetics in India has been the medium used by the rhetoricians to express their appreciation and criticism of poetry. Systematic investigation of the essence of literature is one of the aims of poetics. In Sanskrit poetics, there have been many investigations on the essence of poetry. Accordingly, we can discern eight different schools of thought. They are 1. The Rasa school 2. The Alaṅkāra school, 3. The Guṇa school, 4. The Rīti school 5. The Vakrokti school 6. The Aucitya school 7. The Dhvani school and the 8. Anumāna school. They have discussed some of the modern problems of aesthetic like creative process, structure of poetry, literary genre and response to poetry. Their valuable contribution to eastern aesthetics is really appreciable.

Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra, a text on dramaturgy and poetics must be the source of inspiration for the later writers on poetics. Among the eight schools, the school of vakrokti is propounded by Kuntaka, a rhetorician of the latter half of the 10^thcentury C.E. Kuntaka’s concept of vakrokti attains a unique position in Sanskrit poetics, among the works written after the establishment of dhvani theory by Ānandavardhana through the Dhvanyāloka of 9^th century C.E. Kuntaka’s innovative and original thinking is said to be one of the main reasons for the prominence of vakrokti school.