The Aucityavicāracarcā of Kṣemendra (ca. 990–1066), comprised of thirty-three verses, is a treatise on poetics which deals with the question of ‘propriety' (aucitya): what is an apt expression to be used by a poet. In his view, poetry must be written with ‘propriety', which is the soul (jīvita) of it. In the work Kṣemendra argues twenty-seven factors for which the propriety must be taken into account, explaining eight of the factors by quoting ten verses from the works of Rājaśekhara (ca. 9th c.–10th c.), who is known as a major poet that exerted a considerable influence on the former. The aim of the present paper is to consider how Kṣemendra examines the verses according to his theory on propriety.

The eight factors are: vākya ‘sentence', prabandhārtha ‘composition meaning', guṇa ‘quality', alaṃkāra ‘figure of speech', rasa ‘sentiment', kāraka ‘action-participant', deśa ‘place', and avasthā ‘circumstances'. With respect to the propriety pertinent to vākya and rasa, Kṣemendra admires Rājaśekhara, while for the propriety pertinent to the others, he criticizes him. Kṣemendra's critique shows that as Rājaśekhara attaches much importance to formal beauty, his poetry tends to lack in literary grace.