1. PRAKRUTI B BHATT
12
SEM 2
2013
VAKROTI,RITI,AUCITYA
LITERARY THEOREY AND CRITICISM

2. VAKROKTI

3. TYPES OF VAKROKTI
1) VARNAVINYASA : (The phonetic level) – Shabdalankaras and
lavanya-guna;
2) PADPURVARDDHA : (The lexical level) – Suggestive use of linguistic
elements and gunas;
3) PADAPARARDDHA : (The grammatical level) – Suggestive use of
affixes, etc., and gunas;
4) VAKYA : (The sentential level) – Figures of sense and gunas;
5) PRAKARANA : (The contextual level) – Episode in plot with unity
and originality and gunas;
6) PRABANDHA : (The compositional level) – whole plot (well-knit and
original) and gunas;

4. EXAMPLE :
The famous play MUDRARAKSHASA BY VISHAKHADATTA
embodies a very striking vakrokti or evasive speech by Shiva, when one
fine morning he comes home with Ganga on his head to the utter
concentration of Parvati. He is caught on the wrong foot by the jealous
wife, and Shiva manages to escape unsullied only by his artful and
dodging replies:
o PARVATI : Who is this blessed damsel on your crest?
o SHIVA : Shashikala (the crescent of the moon, or a lady’s name).
o PARVATI : oh, is that the name of the lady?
o SHIVA : surely! How is it you have forgotten her name, though so
o PARVATI : My query is about the lady and not the moon.
o SHIVA : Let then Vijaya, the lady-in attendance, reply and not the
moon.

5. aUCITYa
• KSEMENDRA made aucitya the central element of literariness.
• In verses 8-10 of his book (Aucityavicaracarca), Ksemendra
enumerates the areas, locations or sites of literary compositions
where the concept of Aucitya is pertinent:
1) Pada (phrase),
2) Vakya (sentence),
3) Prabandhartha (meaning in whole composition),
4) Guna (excellences, qualities),
5) Alamkara (poetic figure),
6) Rasa (state of being),

6. 7) Karaka (case-ending), 19) Sattva (inherent self)
8) Kriya (verb), 20) Abhipraya (motive)
9) Linga (gender or marking), 21) Svabhava (nature)
10) Vacana (number), 22) Sara samgraha (essential properties)
11) Visesana (qualification), 23) Pratibha (innate ability)
12) Upasarga (prefix), 24) Avastha (condition)
13) Nipat (redundancies), 25) Vicara (thought)
14) Kala (time, tense), 26) Nama (name)
15) Desa (country), 27) Asirvada (blessings)
16) Kula (family),
17) Vrata (custom),
18) Tattva (truth),

7. RITI
The “RITI” school of poetics is represented fully by its chief exponent VAMAN.
RITI correlate with: (1) themes,
(2) effect,
(3) sentiment
BhARATA has all the three in mind in his discussion of vrttis : (1) kaisiki,
(2) bharti,
(3) sattavati,
(4) arbhatti

8. ThANK YOU
SOURCES:-
“ENCYCLOPAEDIC DICTIONARY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE”