270. MAHIMA BHATȚA'S CRITICISM OF DHVANI 301

MAHIMA BHATȚA'S CRITICISM OF DHVANI 301

Mahima Bhatta cites such passages in corroboration of his theory of inference. But Ananda Vardhana had fully realised the distinction of the æsthetic experience from the logical. He knew that in æsthetic experience there is no logical process from the premises to the conclusion ; that æsthetic experience is free from temporal and spatial relations and that, therefore, no consciousness of any logical category is involved in it. On this point there is complete agreement between him and some of the Western æsthetic- ians like Hegel.

HIS CRITICISM OF THE THEORY OF DHVANI. In his Vyakti Viveka, Mahima Bhatta attempts a logical analysis of the suggested meaning (Dhvani), accepted by Ananda Vardhana and his great followers, like Abhinava- gupta. Anarda Vardhana recognised this meaning as distinct from all other meanings such as the primary, the secondary and the contextual, for the primary reason that it is characterised by its figuring in the consciousness of the æsthete without the apprehension of any succession from the primary. Mahima Bhatta's criticism is primarily directed against this basis of assumption. He asserts tha, logically the succession from the primary to the suggested is undeniable. The conscicusness, therefore, of the simul- taneousness in the grasp of the two meanings is an error. Hence the theory of Dhvani is erroneous. Ananda Vardhana uses the word Dhvani, as has been shown in the preceding chapter, for (1) conventional symbol, the articulate sound that suggests the suggestible, (II) con- ventional meaning that suggests the suggestible, (III) the power of word to convey the suggestible meaning, (IV) the suggestible meaning itself and (V) the poetic work contain-