244. CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER V.

MAHIMA BHATTA'S CRITICISM OF DHVANI AND A REPLY.

DHVANI AS A CONTROVERSIAL PROBLEM.

The problem of meaning in the context of Æsthetics engaged the minds of great Kashmirian thinkers for about four hundred years from the 9th to the 12th Century A. D. The point, on which the controversy primarily raged, was the suggestible meaning (Dhvani). It was raging even before Ânanda Vardhana wrote his famous Dhvani Kārikās and a commentary on them with the object of establishing the suggestible meaning as distinct from other recognised types of meaning no less than from such figures of speech as Samāsokti etc. Soon after the appearance of the Dhvanyāloka to establish the theory of Dhvani, Bhatta Nayaka undertook to demolish it in his Hrdaya Darpana, which we know from references only in the works of the subsequent writers. Abhinavagupta, in his commentary, the Locana, on the Dhvanyaloka, adduced convincing psycho-philosophical reasons to demonstrate the unsoundness of Bhatta nayaka's position. But, before Abhinava wrote his Locana, there was another commentary, the Candrika, which again we know from references only. The name of the author of this commentary, is altogether unknown. From a reference in the Locana, however, it is clear that he1 was an ancestor (Pūrvavamśya) of Abhinava himself.

1. Dh. L. 185.