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Definition and Scope of Poetry
49 It may be noted that here ‘alamkāra' or 'adornment does not stand only for figures of speech such as upamā, or anuprāsa and the like, however these are not excluded either. For Kuntaka this adornment is 'vakrokti', 'a poet's charming expression', which can take any shape including that of a poetic figure also, and also that of vyañjanā. But the condition is that it should be an in-born quality. This is exactly what Anandavardhana had said about the figures of speech, when they seem to stick naturally in the description and therefore are not taken as external to poetry -
“na teșām bahirangatvam rasábhivyaktau” - (Dhv. Vịtti, II. 16). That a work of art is 'akhanda-buddhi-samāsvādya' i.e. something to be enjoyed as a whole undivided unit, is what Kuntaka means here. Actually by taking this holistic view of a poet's creation, Kuntaka has, as it were, disowned the system of 'ātmā' i.e. soul of poetry, śarīra i.e. body of poetry, and the adornment or 'alamkāra'. We may also observe that Anandavardhana also had accepted this view point of poetry being an indivisible, whole unit. Actually he has also talked about the so adornment separately only to cultivate the proper understanding of poetry. His words quoted as above, viz. 'na tesām bahirangatvam' bear out this fact. So, when Kuntaka suggests that poetry is always found with adornment - "salamkārasya kāvyatā", if some understand it as suggesting that, 'poetry is no poetry, if it is without upamā i.e. simile, etc. then this may be taken as pure innocence.
After this Kuntaka makes an effort to strike a definition of poetry. For him poetry is :
"sabdārthau sahitau
vakra-kavi-vyāpāra-śālini bandhe vyavasthitau, kāvyam;
tadvidā'hlāda-kāriņi ||” (V. J. I. 7). "Poetry is that word and sense together enshrined in a style revealing the artistic (lit, - 'out of the way) creativity of the poet on the one hand and giving artistic delight to a man of taste on the other."
(Trans. K. Kris. pp. 292, ibid) The first point to be noted is that in his definition of poetry, Kuntaka has called both 'word' and 'sense' taken together as poetry. He goes to observe in his vịtti on VJ. I. 7, that, “Poetry is nothing but word and sense in their unity. The denoter and the denoted' taken together constitute poetry. That they are two yet one is a welcome paradox.” (Trans. K. Kris., ibid) - "śabdārthau kāvyam, vācako vācyam ceti dvau sammilitau kāvyam. dvāvekam iti vicitraivoktih.” (Vrtti, on V.I. I. 7). We
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