Acharya Kuntaka was a famous poetician and literary theorist from Kashmir. He regards vakrokti as the essential feature of poetry and the hallmark of all creative literature. He is the author of Vakroktijivitam and founder of Vakrokti School.

1. Vakroktijivitam
- Acharya Kuntaka

2. Indian Poetics
 The word Indian Poetics is used in the context of Sanskrit
Poetics.
 Poetics is mainly concerned with the effects of poetry in the
mind of the man of literary taste and examine certain
mental states.
The merits of a poetical work is determined by this ‘science
of poetics’ on the basis of these mental states.
 In Indian context, the literary criticism can be said to have
began from 2nd century with Bharata Muni and the last
acharya is said to be Pandit Jagannath in 17th century A.D.
 Bharata Muni is regarded as the pioneer of all Literary
theories.

3. Indian Aesthetics
 Aesthetics is study of philosophy of the
beautiful, taste and fine arts.
 It is originated from Greek form ‘aiesthetikos’
which means the sense-perception as a source of
knowledge.
 Baumgarten was the first scholar who used the
term ‘aesthetics’ in Europe. (1735)
 He defined aesthetics “as the science of how
things are known via senses.”

4. Schools of Poetics
 The Alamkara School
The Riti School
 The Dhwani School
 The Vakrokti School
The Guna/Dosa School
 The Auchitya School
 The Rasa School

5. Major Schools, Thinkers and Texts
School Thinkers and Texts
Rasa Bharata Muni – Natyashastra
Dhanika Dhananjaya – Dasarupaka
Alankara Bhama – Kavyalamkara
Dandin – Kavyadarshan
Udbhata – Kavyalamkarasarasamgraha
Rudhrata - Kavyalamkara
Riti Vamana – Kavyalamkara Sutra
Dhwani Anandavardhana – Dhavanyalok
Abhinavgupta – Abhinavbharti
Mahimabhatta - Vyaktivivek
Vakrokti Kuntaka – Vakroktijivitam
Guna-Dosa Dandin – Kavyadarshan
Bhamaha – Kavyalamkara
Auchitya Kshemendra - Auchityavicharcharcha

6. The Vakrokti School
 Kuntaka, the author of the Vakroktijivitam, was
the founder of this school.
 Acharya Kuntaka was a famous poetician and
literary theorist from Kashmir.
 He lived between 950 to 1050 A.D. He was a
contemporary of Dhananjay and Rajshekhara.
 He took the concept of Vakrokti from his
predecessors like Bhamaha and Dandin.
 He regards vakrokti as the essential feature of
poetry and the hallmark of all creative literature.

7. The word ‘Vakrokti’ is a
combination of two words :
• It means Oblique, crooked or indirect.
Vakra
• It means poetic expression or speech.
Ukti

8. According to Kuntaka, definition of poetry is- “Whatever
appeals to a man of test are good poetry and whatever not
is not poetry”. Vakrokti for Kuntaka is a synonym for the
principle of beauty underlying all kinds of poetic language.
 He says Vakrokti consists in the delightful use of word
and meaning. He formulates two categories :
Word and
Meaning
Word and Poetic
Meaning

9. Salient features of Kuntaka’s
theory-
o Obliquity is the essential factor in poetry.
o It is striking mode of speech.
o It depends on the individual power of the poet.
o It creates great delight.
o It is different from Speech.
o Kavya becomes lively in association with vakrokti.
o It is indirect way of expression.
o Vakrokti is obliquity that arises out of poetic function.
o It is also recognized as the embellishment (alamkriti)
of the word and its meaning.
o Vakrokti and poetry are associated with each other and
are inseparable.

10. • Vakrokti is called as ‘kavivyaparavakratva’ or
‘Vakrakavivyapara’. It is also regonised as the alamkriti,
i.e., embellishment of sabda and artha, the physical
constituents of a kavya.
• In this theory, Kuntaka wants to convey that a certain
strikingness of expression is essence of poetry.
• Kuntaka believes that the beautiful and miraculous in the
poetry is the consequence of Vakrokti. According to
Kuntaka- “Vakrokti is the source of beauty in Kavya which
is quite opposite to the description of a thing as it is”.
• According to Bhamaha- “Vakrokti as a mode of expression
because it is the fundamental principle of figurative
expression”.

11. • Dandin defines, “Vakrokti as a poetic figure accept
svabhavokti”.
• Vamana considered, “Vakrokti as a special poetic figure
based on lakshana”.
• Rudrata calls, “Vakrokti is a particular figures of speech”.
• Kuntaka’s Concept of Vakrokti: Vakrokti is a mode of
expression in poetry, which underlies and forms of all
poetic figures. Therefore, Dandin uses the term Vakrokti
as a almost co-extensive with the generic term
“Alamkara”.

12. Chapterisation
• It is the introductory part and provides
the definition of vakrokti.Chapter 1
• It deals with three varieties of vakrokti.
The Phonetic, Lexical and Grammatical.Chapter 2
• It deals with Sentential Obliquity.Chapter 3
• It deals with Contextual (Episodic) and
Compositional Obliquity.Chapter 4

13. Vakrokti manifests at six levels:
The Phonetic Level (Varnavinyasa Vakrata)
The Lexical Level (Padapurvardha Vakrata)
The Grammatical Level (Pratyaya Vakrata)
The Sentential Level (Vakyavakrata)
The Contextual Level (Prakaranavakrata/
Arthavakrata)
The Compositional Level (Prabandha vakrata)

14. The Phonetic Obliquity
 It encompasses alliteration, rhyme, and all other subtle
effects of sound in poetry. Kuntaka recognises
onomatopoeic effects.
 For Example:
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’.
Love Laughs at Locksmiths.
Break,Break,Break,
On thy cold gray stones,O Sea!

15. The Lexical Obliquity
 It includes stylistic choice in vocabulary, metaphor, power of
adjectives and veiled expressions. The words add strangeness
and freshness.
 There are five different heads under lexical obliquity –
Obliquity of
Usage
Obliquity of
Synonym
Obliquity of
Adjective
Obliquity of
Gender
Obliquity of
Verb

16. The Grammatical Obliquity
 It involves the use of suffixes, especially those
indicating numbers, person, and case forms. It also
includes delineation of inanimate objects as animate
and personification of objects—instead of saying
‘tense’—‘make my seated heart knock at my ribs.’
Obliquity
of Number

17. The Sentential Obliquity
• It is the permeating presence that enters all other
elements. The effect is akin to a painter’s stroke that
shines out distinctively from the beauty of the material
used. Most of the figures of speech are instances of it.
• Kuntaka divided this obliquity into two types: Natural
and Imposed.
• He also talks about the inanimate and animate objects as
the subject of poetry.

18. The Contextual Obliquity
 It is also called as Episodic Obliquity as it deals with
the factors which contribute to the strikingness of
the context. It deals with episodes in plot with unity,
originality and gunas.
 It is concerned with the state of talented poet.
The talented writer creates emotional states in the
episodes of his composition. Thus, it covers emotional
states, secondary episodes, device os play within play,
episodic relationship and particular events.
For Example, Abhigyan Shakuntalam.

19. The Compositional Obliquity
• This includes adaptation of a story from a
well-known source with new twists added to it,
with a new emotional significance, deletion of
unnecessary episodes, the development of even
minor incidents into events of far reaching
consequences and strikingness.
• Kuntaka regards a literary composition as an
allegory which conveys some profound moral
message and this moral content is also regarded
as a compositional figurativeness.

20. Thank You
• Presented By: Muskan Solanki
• Class: MA (Department of English)
• Semester: III
• Paper: Indian Literary Theory
• Submitted to: Dr. Naveen K. Mehta
Associate Professor and Head
Department of English
Sanchi University of Buddhist-Indic
Studies, Barla, (M.P.)