Studies In Sanskrit Sahitya Shastra

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

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Studies in
Vidyānätha27 follows Ruyyaka in describing käkuvakrokti as a figure of sense (arthālamkāra).
Viśvanātha, like Mammața describes kāku-vakrokti as a śabdálamkāra, 23 speaks of ārthi vyañjanā due to the speciality of kāku29 and of kūkvākşipta as a variety of gunibhūtavyangya 30 It is interesting, however, to note that the verse which Mammaţa cites as an example of käkuvakrokti is quoted by Visvanātha to illustrate ārthi vyañjanā. Kanesi defends Viśvanātha thus :
"There (in Kāyyaprakāśa IX) we have to understand that the heroine said that "he won't come' and that her friend interprets it as 'would he not come ?'.. In the verse as interpreted by Visvanātha in the text, the heroine utters the verse with the apparent meaning that he won't come, but by a change of voice she suggests herself the idea that he would surely come.” • Appaya32 Dikșita goes back to Ruyyaka in treating käkuvakrokti as an arthalamkāra.
These different views of different rhetoricians about the precise nature of kāku are, no doubt, contradictory and confusing. It is but proper to try to understand their possible reasoning behind these conflicting views. Kāku is a peculiar dhvani and dhvani is sabda. Possibly for this reason Rudraţı might have called käkuvakroti a figure of word or sound. Resorting to the test of śabda-pariviti-saha and Sabdapariviti-asaha, it is easily found that kākuvakrokti falls under arthālamkāras. Like some alamkāras such as samāsokti, paryāyokta. etc. kākuvak rokti, too constitutes gunibhūtavyangya, as it reveals a suggested meaning over and above the expressed one-and. this suggested meaning is very often secondary. In some cases where suggestion by kāku appears after the expressed meaning has been duly comprehended we have dhvani-kavya.
The illustrations cited for explaining the nature of kāku are all metrical. This should not mislead one into believing that kākus can be found in verse only. With a view to removing any such wrong notion Sridhara33 observes in the course of his commentary on Kāvya-prakāśa IX.I that this alamkāra can be found in both prose and poetry.
ayam alamkāramārgakramah padyavad gadye api drastavyaḥ31
27 Prataparudrayasobhūsaņa (p. 411). 23 Saityadarpaņa X. 9. 29 Sahitya darpana II. 16-17. 30 Sahityadarapaņa IV, 13. 31 Kane :-Sahityadarpaņa (Notes p. 84). 32 Kuvalayananda (Nirnaya Sagaj edition pp. 157-76). 33 The Kävyaprakāśa of Mammata (with the commentary of Sridhara Calcutta, (p. 291). 34 Sridhara quotes this definition in his commentary on Kävyaprakāśa (p. 52). The editor mentions
there (N. S. XVI) as its source. But this source is incorrect.