[1] In Kāvyādarśa, Daṇḍin argued that a poem's beauty derived from its use of rhetorical devices – of which he distinguished thirty-six types.
He was the main proponent of gunaprasthana, the view that poetry needed qualities or virtues such as shleshha (punning), prasaada (favour), samataa (sameness), maadhurya (beauty), arthavyakti (interpretation), and ojah (vigour).
Poetry consisted in the presence of one of these qualities or a combination of them.
The Kavyadarsha was in ancient times translated into Kannada, Sinhala, Pali, Tamil and Tibetan, and perhaps even influenced Chinese regulated verse.
It was widely quoted by premodern scholars of Sanskrit, including Appayya Dīkṣita (1520–1592); it was included almost in its entirety in the poetic treatises by King Bhoja of Dhār (r.