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Vyangya Sense can be of three different types : Vastudhvani, Alamkāradhvani and Rasadhvani, and these have their sub-types. In all of these cases, the Dhvani sense is quite distinct from the Expressed sense. Of these three varieties of Dhvani, the Vastudhvani and the Alaskāradhvani can be conveyed through the expressive power of a word, but the last and the most important third variety, viz., Rasadhvani can never be expressed as it is always and invariably auggested. Abhinavagupta divides Dhvani into Laukika and Alaukika and subsumes Vastudhvani and Alamkāradhvani under the Laukikadhvani, but regards the Rasadhvani, the best type of Dhvani, to be a class by itself and calls it Alaukika. This last is only possible in a poetical expression - Kavyävyāpāraikagocara and is never expressed but always enjoyed aesthetically through a proper representation of the aesthetic stimulii. This is the extraordinary type of Dhvani, indeed the real Dhvani or Dhvani par excellence. This is the considered opinion of Abhinavagupta, one of the greatest aestheticians and critics. Here he lays down the divisions of Dhvani and shows their mutual difference in a nutshell. The Term 'Dhvani' Explained
As for the term Dhvani, Abhinava explains that it is applicable to śabda, Artha and Vyāpāra, both, severally and collectively. When it is applied to a Kāvya it is collectively used. Thus the term Dhvani can mean (1) the Suggestive word, (2) the Suggestive primary sense (Vācyārtha), (3) the Suggested Sense (Vyañgya), and (4) the process (Vștti) of Suggestion, and (5) the Dhvanikavya - a whole poem. We can see here that this concept of Dhvani is a highly developed aesthetic concept and a far cry from the grammarians' Dhvani. According to these grammarians, Sphoța is Dhvani as also the sounds (Dhvanati iti dhvanih) which suggest that Sphoța which is an eternal and indivisible but significant word.
Following the grammarians but developing fully their conception of Dhvani, the literary critics, chiefly of the Dhvani
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