Kuntaka’s evaluation of Sanskrit literature
by Nikitha. M | 2018 | 72,578 words
This page relates ‘(a): Phonetic figurativeness or varnvinyasa-vakrata’ of the study on the evaluation of Sanskrit literature with special reference to Kuntaka and his Vakroktijivitam from the 10th century CE. This study reveals the relevance of Sanskrit poetics in the present time and also affirms that English poetry bears striking features like six figurativeness taught by Kuntaka in his Vakroktijivita, in which he propounds the vakrokti school of Sanskrit literary criticism.
3.8 (a): Phonetic figurativeness or varṇvinyāsa-vakratā
[Full title: A brief sketch of the contents of Vakroktijīvita, (8): Six divisions of Vakratā, (a): Phonetic figurativeness or varṇvinyāsa-vakratā]
In the first unmeṣa, Kuntaka has given a brief description of six vakratās like1. Phonetic figurativeness (Varṇavinyāsa-vakratā) 2.Lexical figurativeness (Padapūrvārdhavakratā) 3.Grammatical figurativeness (Pratyayavakratā) 4. Sentential figurativeness (Vākyavakratā) 5.Contextual figurativeness (Prakaraṇavakratā) 6.Compositional figurativeness (Prabandhavakratā) and has given a detailed description in the following chapters. This division of Kuntaka is really a gradual progress from simple to complex that is from phoneme to a complete text itself. The first one starts with the use of phonemes, the smallest unit of language and the group of phonemes makes the second variety. In the third variety the words comprises some grammatical influences and in the fourth vakratā the combination of words make a sentence. The fifth division named contextual figurativeness is a combination of sentence and in the last variety the groups of context make a composition i.e. prabandha.
The second chapter starts with the detailed description of phonetic figurativeness. Different types of arrangements or repetitions of consonants in a particular method create this vakratā. Kuntaka mentions several types of phonetic figurativeness. One is based on the repetition of one, two or more syllables at short intervals. Other varieties are repetition of conjunctions with nasals, repetition of the words like ‘t’, ‘l’, ‘n’, and also the repetition of consonants with the sound ‘r’.
One example to showing the repetition of one, two or more syllables as follows:-
bhagnailāvallarīkāstaralitakatalīstambatāmbūlajambū-jambīrāstālatālīsaralataralatā lāsikā yasya jahruḥ /
olahelāviśakalanajaḍāḥ kulakaccheṣu sindhoḥ senāsīmantinīnāmanavarataratābhyāsatāntīm samīrāḥ //[1]
Here the consonant ‘l’ in the first and third line and ‘s’ in the fourth line and also the syllables ‘tāla-tālī’ in the second line, ‘rata-rata’ in the fourth line, ‘tamba-tāmba’ , ‘jamba-jamba’ in the first and second line, ‘ralata-ralata’ in the second line show the repetition of one, two or more syllables respectively.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
ibid,p.75