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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Sanskrit poetician and literary theorist}}<br />
'''Kuntaka''' ({{langx|sa|कुन्तक}}) was a Sanskrit poetician and literary theorist of who is remembered for his work ''Vakroktijīvitam'' in which he postulates the Vakrokti Siddhānta or theory of Oblique Expression, which he considers as the hallmark of all creative literature. He lived roughly 950–1050,<ref name=datta/> between [[Anandavardhana]] in the ninth century and [[Abhinavagupta]] in the tenth century and was a rough contemporary of Dhananjaya and [[Rajashekhara (Sanskrit poet)|Rajasekhara]].<ref name=devy/><br />
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==His theory==<br />
Vakrokti, emanating from the creative faculty of the [[poet]] endows poetic language with strikingness[Vaicitrya] and causes aesthetic delight to the reader. Etymologically, the word Vakrokti consists of two components - 'vakra' and 'ukti'. The first component means 'crooked, indirect or unique' and the second means 'poetic expression or speech'.<br />
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==Types of Vakrokti==<br />
It is manifested at six levels in language, viz. the phonetic level, [varṇavinyāsa], the lexical level [padapūrvārddha], the grammatical level [padaparārddha], the sentential level [vākya], the contextual level [prakaraṇa] and finally the compositional level [prabandha]. Kuntaka anticipates much of the modern stylistic approach to literature and his [[stylistics (field of study)|stylistics]] encompasses imaginative language at the micro and macro levels. The conscious choices made by the poet in the language is a fertile field of investigation in his approach. It is the considered view of Kuntaka that poetic language always deviates from hackeneyed expressions by its imaginative turns. Kuntaka avers that the stamp of originality of a great author will be present even in the title of the work of art.<br />
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==Notes==<br />
<references><br />
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<ref name=devy>{{citation | year=2002 | title = Indian literary criticism: theory and interpretation | editor=G. N. Devy | publisher=Orient Blackswan | isbn=978-81-250-2022-6 | page=46 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbGyZN1I4E0C&pg=PA46}}</ref><br />
<ref name=datta>{{citation | year=2006 | title = The Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature (Volume One (A To Devo), Volume 1 | author1=Amaresh Datta | editor1=Amaresh Datta | publisher=Sahitya Akademi | isbn=978-81-260-1803-1 | page=270 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObFCT5_taSgC&dq=kuntaka&pg=PA270}}</ref><br />
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</references><br />
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==References==<br />
* {{citation | year=1971 | title = History of Sanskrit poetics | author1=Pāṇḍuraṅga Vāmana Kāṇe | edition=4 | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. | isbn=978-81-208-0274-2 | page=225 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLiCSTFOGnMC&dq=kuntaka&pg=PA225}}<br />
* {{citation | title=The Vakrokti-jīvita of Kuntaka, critically edited with variants, introd., and English translation | author=K. Krishnamoorthy | year=1977 | publisher=Karnatak University | place=Dharwad | pages=1–596 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMURAAAAMAAJ}}<br />
* {{citation | title=Kuntaka's Vakrokti and literary criticism: a critical estimate of Kuntakas Vakrokti theory of criticism in Sanskrit poetics | author=Shikaripura Krishnamurthy | year=1994 | publisher=Mangalore University | place=Mangalore | pages=1–149}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{citation | year=2007 | chapter=''Midnight's Children'' in the Light of ''Vakrokti'' | author=Ajai Sharma | title = New perspectives on indian english writing | editor1=Malti Agrawal | publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors | isbn=978-81-269-0689-5 | page=198 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zt7OOLEqo7AC&dq=kuntaka&pg=PA198}}<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101110061647/http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/1_sanskr/5_poetry/1_alam/kunvjivu.htm Kuntaka's Vakroktijivika with Kuntaka's own commentary] at [[GRETIL]]<br />
* [http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/DigitalBook/V/Vkrokttijivitamkuntank.pdf Kuntaka's Vakroktijivika with Kuntaka's own commentary] (Sanskrit text in Devanagari)<br />
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[[Category:Indian male poets]]<br />
[[Category:Sanskrit poets]]<br />
[[Category:10th-century Indian poets]]<br />
[[Category:11th-century Indian poets]]</div>Janamkatha