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Chapter XIII
'Dhvani' and other thought-currents such as guṇa, alamkāra, samghațanā, rīti, vṛtti, etc. etc., and also Dhvani-virodha
It has been already noted by us at a number of places that Anandavardhana had offerred a most catholic theory of poetic criticism viz. the theory of dhvani which tried to absorb and accomodate all other thought-currents prevelent in the field of literary criticism. In fact he was opposed to no concept whatsoever floated by any earlier school of alamkarikas, but actually welcomed them all, embraced them with love and made room for each concept in his all-absorbing vyañjanādhvani-rasa theory of literary criticism. May be, he tried to give a definite shape to certain concepts that were hazy or nebulous, or with an authority silenced all conflicting notions concerning this or that concept and brought about a chiseled. concept regarding the same. He tried to fix a sort of final terminology concerning various concepts and his opinion was by and large respected and accepted by majority of critics who followed him with exceptions of only a few. In the present chapter we will try to examine how his catholic theory brought about a sort of harmony in the field of literary aesthetics. Thus he ably harnessed all the concepts of guna, alamkāra, etc. and put them under the supreme control of 'dhvani' or better say "rasa-dhvani" as the commander-in-chief. Let us see how tactfully he proceeds with this job. But it should be made clear that in this regard he had the able support of Aphinavagupta, Mammața, Hemacandra and the whole galaxy of writers ending with Appayya Dixit and Jagannatha. With all this there was some opposition to dhvani and we will take care of it by the end of this chapter.
At Dhv. II. 6 he starts with the concepts of guna and alamkāra and their exact place in his wider scheme. But prior to that he had successfully dealt with the concept of what was termed as "rasavad ādi alamkāras." He had made a clear distinction between what he terms 'rasa-dhvani' and what should be taken as
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