Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c82.s1.82

v2.c82.s1.82

This, in its general outlines, is the *rasa*-theory as finally fixed by the Dhvani school; and all later writers, from Dhanañjaya to Jagannātha, accept, more or less, this new interpretation and attempt to work it out in detail. Even Mahimabhatta, who tried to demolish the *dhvani*-theory, acknowledges the importance of *rasa* and declares that on this point there is no difference of opinion between himself³⁸ and the Dhvanikāra, the only difference existing with regard to the function *par excellence* which manifests the *rasa*. Thus an endeavour was made by the *dhvani*-theorists not only to explain the concept of *rasa* in terms of inward experience, but also to absorb this idea of aesthetic delectation into the new theory of *dhvani*, and make it applicable to poetry as well as to the drama; and the Rasa school, properly so called, began to merge from this time onwards into the dominant Dhvani school, to the consideration of which we