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Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c25: XII Kuntala

Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c25

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English

XII Kuntala

v1.c25.1

Kuntala, also called Kuntaka¹, is better known in Alaṃkāra literature under the descriptive designation of the Vakrôkti-jīvita-kāra² from the peculiar name of his work *Vakrôkti-jīvita*, which itself is so called because of its central theory that the *vakrôkti* is the ‘soul’ or essence of poesy. A MS of this work, long supposed to be lost, has been discovered in Madras and is being edited by the present writer for the Calcutta Oriental Series.

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¹ by Mahimabhatta p. 58 and his commentator p. 16; Vidyādhara p. 51.

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² Ruyyaka, ed. Kāvyamālā p. 8, with Jayaratha (also pp. 12, 150 etc.) and Samudrabandha thereon (p. 4); Viśvanātha ed. Durgāprasāda p. 14; Kāmadhenu on Vāmana I. 1. 1, ed. Benares p. 6, etc.

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Kuntala’s date³ is fixed approximately by his quotation from the dramatist Rājaśekhara, on the one hand, and by Mahimabhatta’s citation of Kuntala and his work, on the other. As Mahimabhatta flourished, as we shall see, towards the end of the 11th century, we may place Kuntala between the middle of the 10th and the middle of the 11th. As this date falls in with the known dates of Abhinavagupta (whose latest date is 1015 A.D.), we may take Kuntala as a contemporary of this commentator on Ānandavardhana. Although Abhinava refers to various views about *vakrókti* held before his time, it is remarkable that he never alludes to the Vakrókti-jīvita-kāra, who, as his title *rājānaka* indicates, was probably a Kashmiri, and whose work, if written before Abhinava's time, ought to have been, from its nature and contents, important enough to be thus entirely ignored by a rival theorist.

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³ This question has been dealt with in detail in the introd. to my edition of the work, and is only briefly referred to here.

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The first two chapters of the work, which is being published, give a general outline of his main theory; but it is not known how many chapters his original treatise comprised. The fourth chapter in the MS, however, which breaks off without completing the work, may be presumed to have formed its natural conclusion, inasmuch as it deals with the last variety of *vakratā* enumerated by the author. The running prose *vṛtti*, accompanying the *kārikā-ślokas*, and forming an integral part of the work itself, appears to have been composed by Kuntala himself; for not only the commentator expressly identifies himself with the author, but the citations of later writers¹ indicate that the *kārikās* should be taken *en bloc* with the *vṛtti*. Besides quotations from Kālidāsa, Bhavabhūti, Anaṅgaharṣa (author of the *Tāpasa-vatsarāja*), Hālā, Bāṇa Māgha, Bhāravi, Bhallaṭa, Amaru, Mayūra, Śrīharṣa, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, Rājaśekhara, the author mentions by name Sarvasena, Mañjīra, Māyurāja (?), and the author of Udāttarāghava, and quotes from Bhāmaha, Rudraṭa and the Dhvanikāra (= Ānandavardhana). The work stands unique for its exposition of the theory of vakrókti, which is apparently developed on the lines indicated by Bhāmaha, as well as for its analysis of a poetic figure on its basis, which is implicitly accepted by all writers from Ruyyaka to Jaganātha¹.

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¹ comm. to *Vyakti-viveka* p. 16; *Kāmadhenu* on Vāmana p. 6.

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¹ See Jacobi, Ueber Begriff und Wesen der poetischen Figuren in GN 1908.

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Edition. by S. K. Dé, in the Calcutta Oriental Series, 1923 (first two unmeṣas only; the third and the fourth unmeṣas in preparation).

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MS. Madras Government Oriental MSS Library, as noticed in their Report of the Working of the Peripatetic Party, 1916-19.

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