A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s2.79

v3.c35.s2.79

A little later than Ānandavardhana, Kuntaka wrote his Vakroktijīvita¹ (first half of the 10th century A.D.). [Perhaps he was a contemporary of Abhinavagupta]². By him crooked speech (vakrokti), i. e., figurative speech depending upon witty turnings, is considered to be the soul of poetry. He teaches that "it is to the inventive genius exerted in the work of a poet (kavikarman) that we owe the presence of vakrokti in any poem, and this work can be classed according as he exhibits it in regard to the letters, to the base or terminations of words, to the sentence, to the particular topic or to the treatise as whole"³.