248. 274 CHAPTER V

274 CHAPTER V

readers. He recognised Ananda Vardhana to be a great thinker and was convinced that his acquaintance with the views of such a person will itself bring him to predominance among the intellectuals. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK. The Vyakti Viveka, as its very name indicates, is concerned with the criticism of the fourth power of word, technically called "Vyakti", the power to convey the suggestible meaning. Here an effort is made to demolish the theory of meaning, propounded by Ananda Vardhana and to show that it is included in the theory of inference, presented by him. It may be interesting to note in this coanection that this theory of inference had been propounded by Sri Sankuka in the course of his interpretation of the aphoristic definition of Rasa by Bharata. Mahima Bhatta mostly repsats that very view with almost the same arguments in the context of meaning. Most of these arguments had been shown to be unsound by Abhinavagupta in the course of the refutation of Sri Sankuka's interpretation of the Rasa Sutra in the Abhinava Bharati, where the theory of inference has been fully exploded. Though there is enough evidence to show that Mahima Bhatta read the Locana of Abhinavagupta ; for, he quotes from this work in his Vyakti Viveka : yet there is no evidence to show that he read the Abhinava Bharati also. For, after reading the Abhinava Bharatī, the theory of inference, as presented by Mahima Bhatța, looks absurd. HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS DHVANIKĀRA. His fundamental difference from Ananda Vardhana