236. ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF MEANING 261

ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF MEANING 261

(II) Often it so happens that the conventional meaning does not fit in with the context. It is simply a means of arousing the suggested. Therefore, as soon as the suggested meaning has risen in the consciousness, it disappears and so does not form a constituent of the total meaning, as it does in the other case, discussed in the preceding page.1 It is because of the discarding of the conventional by the suggested meaning that it is called

ATYANTATIRASKRTAVĀCYA.

The following illustration will make the point clear :- Ravisamkrāntasaubhāgy ah Tuşaravrtamandalah Niḥśvāsāndha Ivādarśaḥ Candramā na prakāśate.2

(The moon, whose beauty has passed into the sun, with her digit enveloped in the mist, is not shining, like a mirror blinded by sigh.)

This is the description of the Hemanta season by Rama in Pancavațī. The word Andha ( blind ) conventionally means one who has lost his sight. But here it is used in the secondary sense of inability to receiye the reflection of external object and, therefore, suggests its extreme dullness and uselessness etc. The conventional meaning of the word, "blind", does not form a constituent of the total meaning. The former simply arouses the latter. Hence it is an illustration of the type of the suggested meaning under discussion.

The second main division of the suggested meaning, Vivaksitānyaparavācya, is also subdivided into the follo.

1. Dh. L., 61. 2. Dh. L., 63.