Ratnākara: Difference between revisions

The ''Vakroktipañcāśikā'', possibly Ratnākara's only other preserved work, contains fifty verses of dialogue between Śiva and [[Pārvatī]], employing the device of ''vakrokti'' ("verbal distortion");{{sfnm|Smith|1985|1p=22|Pasedach|2011|2p=2–3|Pasedach|2017|3p=8}} Yigal Bronner and Lawrence McCrea argue that Ratnākara may have invented this poetic device.<ref>{{harvnb|Bronner|McCrea|2001|p=439–440}}: "It seems evident, then, that ''vakrokti'' suddenly gained prominence through Ratnākara's work. Indeed, it is worth entertaining the possibility that Ratnākara is not only the most celebrated ''vakrokti''-poet, but also the inventor of the device. The date of both putatively earlier examples is open to question. True, it is widely accepted that the Avantivarman named as a patron in some manuscripts of Viśākhadatta's play – whose benedictory distortive-talk verse was quoted above – is a late sixth-century king of Kanauj. Nevertheless, the fact that vakrokti first gains notice precisely at the court of the far more famous Avantivarman of Kashmir could indicate that he, in fact, is the patron named in the ''Mudrārākṣasa''. And, as already noted, the ascription of the above septet to Mayura derives only from the late anthology ''Subhāṣitāvali''; such ascriptions are often unreliable. To summarize, while the data are inconclusive, it is at least possible that Ratnākara was the first to compose ''vakrokti'' verse and also the one who gave the device its name."</ref> Vallabhadeva has commented upon the work. An edition of the ''Vakroktipañcāśikā'', by Durgaprasad and Parab, including Vallabhadeva's commentary, was published in Number 1 of the Kāvyamālā Anthology series in 1886.{{sfnm|Pasedach|2011|1p=2|Pasedach|2017|2p=8}}