Anandavardhana

Ānandavardhana (c. 820 – 890 CE) was a Kashmiri court poet and literary critic, honored with the title of Rajanak during King Avantivarman's reign.[1] Anandavardhana authored the Dhvanyāloka, or A Light on Suggestion (dhvani), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" (dhvani, vyañjanā).

Ānandavardhana is credited with creating the dhvani theory. He wrote that dhvani (meaning sound, or resonance) is the "soul" or "essence" (ātman) of poetry (kavya)."[2] "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." The method requires sensitivity on the parts of the writer and the reader.[2] 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.[3]

Ānandavardhana is mentioned in Kalhana's Rajatarangini.[4] He was noted to not have cited or commented on Daṇḍin's work, instead preferring Bhamaha or Udbhata.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Premnath, Devadasan; Foskett (Ed.), Mary F.; Kuan (Ed.), Kah-Jin (15 November 2006), Ways of Being, Ways of Reading: Asian American Biblical Interpretation, Chalice Press, p. 11, ISBN 978-0-8272-4254-8
  3. ^ Anandavardhana; Abhinavagupta; Daniel H.H. Ingalls; J.M. Masson; M.V. Patwardhan, The Dhvanyaloka of Ānandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta, Harvard Oriental Series
  4. ^ K. Kunjunni Raja (2017). Anandavardhana. Makers of Indian Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-7201-802-3.
  5. ^ Bronner, Yigal, and Whitney Cox, 'Sanskrit Poetics through Dandin’s Looking Glass: An Alternative History', in Yigal Bronner (ed.), A Lasting Vision: Dandin's Mirror in the World of Asian Letters (New York, 2023; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 Mar. 2023), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197642924.003.0006. accessed 8 Dec. 2023.