Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c83.40

v2.c83.40

With the establishment, against such hostile views, of the suggested sense and the function of Suggestion in poetry, which is variously termed vyañjanā (revealing), dhvanana (echoing), gamana (implication) or pratyāyana (acquainting), we are introduced to the special doctrine of the system. The unexpressed or the suggested sense (vyaṅgya artha), to which the name dhvani is applied when it is predominant, is definitely posed as the ‘soul’ or essence of poetry¹⁸, and poetry is classified into three kinds in relation to the suggested sense. The best kind, specifically called *dhvani-kāvya*, is supposed to be that in which the suggested sense predominates and supersedes the expressed. It is thus defined by the Dhvanikāra (i 13) : "The learned call that particular kind of poetry *dhvani* in which the (expressed) word and sense, subordinating themselves, manifest that (other suggested) sense"¹⁹. This is *par excellence* Suggestive Poetry, and therefore pointedly called *dhvani*²⁰. The second class of poetry, in which the suggested sense is not predominant but subordinate, is called *guṇībhūta-vyaṅgya kāvya* or Poetry of Subordinated Suggestion²¹. This Sub-