Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c83.15

v2.c83.15

Although it accepted, with some modifications, the grammarian’s analysis of the nature and function of speech as well as based its theory of *dhvani* on the analogy of the theory of *sphoṭa*, the school really started independently with a distinct theory of expression of its own, which demonstrated a function of *vyañjanā* and *vyaṅgyārtha* untraceable in earlier speculative literature. But the influence of other schools of Poetics on the composite work of the Dhvanikāra and Ānandavardhana cannot be ignored. The latter, if not the former, appears to be perfectly familiar with the views of Bharata, Bhāmaha, Udbhaṭa and Vāmana, most of whom are cited directly by name; but even the Dhvanikāra must have known the theories of the Rasa, Alaṃkāra and Rīti schools in some form or other. For, the *Dhvanyāloka* has two professed objects in view, viz., (1) the establishment of the theory of *dhvani* and demonstration that this idea cannot be comprehended by the theories of earlier or contemporaneous schools of Poetics, and (2) an examination of the existing ideas of *rasa*, *alaṃkāra*, *rīti*, *guṇa* and *doṣa* with a view to correlate them with the idea of *dhvani*, and thus by synthesis to evolve a complete and systematic scheme of Poetics. It succeeded so far in realising both these objects that not only was the concept of *dhvani* accepted implicitly by almost all later writers, but the systems, which emerged after Ānandavardhana and of which Mammaṭa may be taken as the first and foremost representative, cannot be regarded strictly as independent schools, nor can they be affiliated readily and entirely with the older Rasa, Alaṃkāra or Rīti schools. They constitute in substance a new aesthetic scheme in which the ideas of all these schools are worked and harmonised into a comprehensive doctrine, the outlines of this new adjustment being first clearly marked and the foundations firmly laid by Ānandavardhana.