Ānandavardhana (c. 820 – 890 CE) was a Kashmiri court poet and literary critic, honored with the title of Rajanak during King Avantivarman's reign. Anandavardhana authored the ''Dhvanyāloka'', or ''A Light on Suggestion'' ('' dhvani''), a work articulating the philosophy of "

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

suggestion" (''dhvani'', ''vyañjanā''). Ānandavardhana is credited with creating the ''dhvani'' theory. He wrote that ''dhvani'' (meaning sound, or

resonance Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration whose frequency matches a resonant frequency (or resonance frequency) of the system, defined as a frequency that generates a maximu ...

) is the "soul" or "essence" ('' ātman'') of poetry ('' kavya'')." "When the poet writes," said Ānandavardhana, "he creates a resonant field of emotions." To understand the poetry, the reader or hearer must be on the same "

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

." The method requires sensitivity on the parts of the writer and the reader. The complete ''Dhvanyāloka'' together with Abhinavagupta's commentary on it has been translated into English by the Sanskritist Daniel H.H. Ingalls and his collaborators. Ānandavardhana is mentioned in

Kalhana Kalhana (c. 12th century) was the author of '' Rajatarangini'' (''River of Kings''), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be deduced from his own wri ...

Rajatarangini ''Rājataraṅgiṇī'' (Sanskrit: Devanagari, राजतरङ्गिणी, IAST, romanized: ''rājataraṅgiṇī'', International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: Help:IPA/Sanskrit, �ɑː.d͡ʑɐ.t̪ɐˈɾɐŋ.ɡi.ɳiː ) is a metrical legend ...

. He was noted to not have cited or commented on

Daṇḍin Daṇḍi or Daṇḍin (Sanskrit: दण्डिन्) () was an Indian Sanskrit grammarian and author of prose romances. He is one of the best-known writers in Indian history. Life Daṇḍin's account of his life in ''Avantisundari-ka ...

's work, instead preferring Bhamaha or Udbhata.

''Dhvanyāloka''

Anandavardhana classifies three categories of poetry: # Dhvani kavya (prominence of suggestion) # Gunibhuta vyangakavya (secondary place of suggestion) # Chitra kavya (portrait like - absence of suggestion) He categorizes Dhvani kavya as the best form of poetry, Gunibhuta vangiya kavya as the second class and the third or lowest class is said to be Chitra kavya. The philosopher

Abhinavagupta Abhinavagupta (Devanāgarī अभिनवगुप्तः; c. 950 – 1016 CE) was a philosopher, mystic and aesthetician from Kashmir. He was also considered an influential musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logicianR ...

(c. 950 – 1016 CE) wrote an important commentary on ''Dhvanyāloka'' titled the ''Locana'', or ''The Eye''.

Assessment by Modern Sanskritists

Modern Sanskritists have a very high opinion of Ānandavardhana. Commenting on Ānandavardhana's ''Dhvanyāloka'', P.V. Kane writes that "the Dhvanyāloka is an epoch-making work in the history of Alaṅkāra literature. It occupies the same position in poetics as

Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...

's Aṣtādhyāyī in

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

and Śaṅkarācarya's commentary on

Vedānta ''Vedanta'' (; , ), also known as ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six orthodox ( ''āstika'') traditions of Hindu philosophy and textual exegesis. The word ''Vedanta'' means 'conclusion of the Vedas', and encompasses the ideas that e ...

". Daniel H.H. Ingalls calls Ānandavardhana "the most brilliant of all Sanskrit

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

s". Sushil Kumar De, along with Kane, considered there to be no work similar to the ''Dhvanyaloka'' in the corpus of

Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature is a broad term for all literature composed in Sanskrit. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as some ...

Franklin Edgerton Franklin Edgerton (July 24, 1885 – December 7, 1963) was an American linguistic scholar. He was Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Yale University (1926) and visiting professor at Benares Hindu University (1953– ...

and

Louis Renou Louis Renou (; 26 October 1896 – 18 August 1966) was the pre-eminent French Indologist of the twentieth century. Education and career After passing the ''agrégation'' examination in 1920, Louis Renou taught for a year at the ''lycée'' in Rouen. ...

also considered the work to ge exceptional in its treatment of poetic theory and aesthetics. Lawrence McCrea considers the ''Dhvanyaloka'' to be influenced by

Mīmāṃsā ''Mīmāṁsā'' (Sanskrit: मीमांसा; IAST: Mīmāṃsā) is a Sanskrit word that means "reflection" or "critical investigation" and thus refers to a tradition of contemplation which reflected on the meanings of certain Vedic tex ...

, particularly by how it approached an

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...

of the

Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...

References

External links

The ''Dhvanyaloka'' of Anandavardhana with the ''Locana'' of Abhinavagupta
(for purchase only). *Revise

(untranslated) of the ''Dhvanyāloka'', based on the edition by K. Krishnamoorthy, Delhi:

Motilal Banarsidass Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indian academic publishing house, founded in Delhi, India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religions, Buddhology, Indology, East ...

, 1982. {{Authority control 9th-century Indian philosophers 9th-century Indian poets Kashmiri people Kashmiri writers category:Kashmiri Hindus Kashmiri philosophers 820s births 890 deaths Indian male poets Scholars from Jammu and Kashmir