Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.49

v2.c85.49

From these and other instances which we need not multiply here, the influence of the Alaṃkāra school on Ruyyaka will be obvious; but it will be also obvious that the views of the older school never receive unqualified acceptance from him. His following of ancient opinions, a trait which he shares with Mammaṭa and Viśvanātha in their following of Vāmana and the *rasa*-writers respectively, should be explained as an earnest attempt on his part to reconcile the views of later theorists with those of the earlier, of which he was a professed admirer. It is this impulse probably which made him take up the *Vakroktijīvita-kāra’s* conception of a poetic figure, and apply it to his own detailed analysis of individual figures, as this part of Poetics was not sufficiently dealt with in the *Dhvanyāloka*. It can not be said¹⁶, however, that Ruyyaka was a follower of the *Vakroktijīvita-kāra*, for Ruyyaka himself declares his own adherence to the *dhvani*-theory; and, in spite of his borrowing from Udbhaṭa and Kuntala, he cannot by any means be directly affiliated with the Alaṃkāra school.