Kuntaka (Sanskrit: कुन्तक) was a Sanskrit poetician and literary theorist of who is remembered for his work Vakroktijīvitam in which he postulates the Vakrokti Siddhānta or theory of Oblique Expression, which he considers as the hallmark of all creative literature.
[2] Vakrokti, emanating from the creative faculty of the poet endows poetic language with strikingness[Vaicitrya] and causes aesthetic delight to the reader.
The conscious choices made by the poet in the language is a fertile field of investigation in his approach.
It is the considered view of Kuntaka that poetic language always deviates from hackeneyed expressions by its imaginative turns.
Kuntaka avers that the stamp of originality of a great author will be present even in the title of the work of art.