Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c25.6

v1.c25.6

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.