Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c25.4

v1.c25.4

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.