Anyokti Alankar
Quick answer: Anyokti alankar (aprastut prashansa) made clear: paribhasha, Bihari's famous example, identification rules and the exact difference from samasokti alankar.
Anyokti alankar, called aprastut prashansa in Sanskrit poetics, is the figure of speech in which the poet describes only an aprastut, an apparently unrelated subject such as a bee, a crow or a cloud, in order to convey the prastut, the real subject, which is never named. The word itself is a compound of anya, other, and ukti, speech: speaking about another. The bee on the page is not the point; the king, the miser or the faithless friend standing behind the bee is the point, and every listener knows it.
Few figures have done more practical work in Indian literary history. Court poets used anyokti to advise and even scold powerful patrons without risking their heads, moralists used it to correct readers without preaching at them, and satirists still use it wherever plain speech is unwise. On the exam side, it appears constantly in identification passages, usually paired with its mirror image, samasokti, so the two must be learned together.
The poem
नहिं पराग नहिं मधुर मधु, नहिं विकास इहि काल।
अली कली ही सौं बिंध्यौ, आगे कौन हवाल॥
Bihari, 'Bihari Satsai' (17th century)
The Paribhasha and Its Logic
Hindi textbooks define it: जहाँ अप्रस्तुत के वर्णन के द्वारा प्रस्तुत का बोध कराया जाए, वहाँ अन्योक्ति अलंकार होता है। The description belongs wholly to the unstated-yet-spoken subject, the bee or the cloud, while the intended subject stays off the page and is recovered by the reader through resemblance.
The Sanskrit name aprastut prashansa means, roughly, a statement about what is not at hand. The tradition insists on one condition: there must be a genuine correspondence between the described subject and the intended one, in behaviour, situation or cause and effect. A verse about a swan among crows only works as anyokti because the mapping, a refined soul among the coarse, holds at every point. If the mapping breaks anywhere, the figure breaks with it.
Bihari's Famous Example
The best-known anyokti in Hindi is a couplet from the Bihari Satsai, quoted below in one common textbook form; spellings vary slightly between editions. On the surface a bee is besotted with a bud that has, as yet, no pollen, no honey and no bloom. If this is his state now, the poet asks, what will become of him later?
Tradition says Bihari addressed the couplet to Mirza Raja Jai Singh of Amber, who had withdrawn from state affairs, absorbed in a young queen. The story may be polished legend rather than strict history, but it shows exactly how the figure earns its keep: the criticism lands, the king reportedly returned to his duties, and not one direct word was ever spoken. The bee and the bud took all the risk.
How to Build an Anyokti
Here is an original single-line example: सागर पर बरसा घन सारा, सूखी धरती देख न पाया। A cloud empties all its rain on the sea and never notices the thirsty earth. Nothing human is mentioned, yet the intended subject is unmistakable: a patron who showers favour on the already rich and overlooks the needy.
The construction has three moving parts. First, choose an aprastut whose natural behaviour matches the human situation point for point. Second, describe it vividly and only it; the moment you name the real target, the anyokti dies and you are left with ordinary comparison. Third, plant one or two words that quietly steer the reader, here सूखी and देख न पाया, words true of earth and equally true of the neglected. The reader completes the circuit, and readers enjoy completing circuits.
Anyokti, Samasokti and Their Neighbours
Confusion between these figures costs marks every year, so fix the directions of travel clearly.
The Anyokti Tradition in Hindi
Riti-era and later poets built free-standing anyokti couplets into a recognisable genre: verses aimed at misers, fair-weather friends, unappreciative patrons and proud men, all conducted through swans, crows, sandal trees, gardeners and clouds. Vrind's didactic couplets often work this way, and the swan-and-crow contrast became so standard that a single mention of a hans among kaag told readers exactly what social comment was coming.
The form has never gone out of use because its advantages never expire. Under censorship, anyokti is deniable. In moral teaching, it lets the listener judge the bee before realising the bee is himself, which is far more persuasive than accusation. Modern satire in Hindi newspapers and social verse still reaches for the same tool.
Identification Checklist for Exams
Run these checks when a passage looks like indirect speech about animals, plants or weather.
Writing Your Own
Choose the human situation first, then hunt for the creature or object whose ordinary life already enacts it. Precision matters more than novelty: a candle that consumes itself to give light is worn smooth, but a ceiling fan that cools everyone except itself is fresh and maps just as truly. Keep the verse short; anyokti loses pressure when it sprawls.
An anyokti is also a fine stress test of imagery and control, since the poem must mean more than it says without saying so. Contest judges reading for creativity and language notice that quality quickly, and Writory's monthly contest, open from the 1st to the 25th, is a low-stakes place to try one on real readers.
What poets can take from this
- Decide the human target first, then choose an aprastut whose natural behaviour matches it point for point.
- Never name the real subject; one direct word converts the anyokti into ordinary comparison.
- Plant one or two steering words that are literally true of the described subject and emotionally true of the hidden one.
- Keep it short; a couplet or quatrain holds the pressure that a long stanza leaks.
- Prefer fresh masks over inherited ones; the moth and flame are pre-read, the ceiling fan is not.
- In exams, name both the described aprastut and the implied prastut in your answer, and state the resemblance between them.
Try it yourself
Write a short anyokti, four to six lines, about a streetlight that burns all night over an empty road. Let the poem quietly be about someone whose care goes unnoticed, without ever mentioning a person.
Questions
What is the difference between anyokti and samasokti?
In anyokti the poet describes only the aprastut, the mask subject, and the real prastut is implied; the described subject is a pretext. In samasokti the poet describes the prastut itself, and an aprastut is suggested alongside through double-fitting words. Direction of description is the whole distinction.
Why is anyokti also called aprastut prashansa?
The Sanskrit name means a statement about what is not at hand. Since the figure works by praising, blaming or describing something other than the intended subject, the older rhetoricians named it for that indirection. Hindi criticism popularised the shorter name anyokti, speech about another.
Can a whole poem be an anyokti?
Yes. While exam passages are usually couplets, whole poems and even fables work as extended anyokti, keeping the mask on from first line to last. The rule stays the same at any length: the real subject never appears in the words.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated September 2026.
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