Dhvani and Structuralist Poetics (Multicultural Studies of Creation of Meaning in Poetry)

Dhvani and structuralism poetics emerge as the two primary theoretical frameworks in which the reality of inquisition and propagation of comprehensibility and creativity of the artistry could be well-conceived, exposed and implied. In each of the two systems, the maturity of conception and universality of expression of the content, context and the medium are quite remarkable.

The book is an in-depth study of dhvani, that is, the Indian critical system developed around the eighth century CE, and structuralism poetics — the Western critical premise, commencing with Ferdinand de Sausage’s Course in General Linguistics — that substantiate an adequate methodology to understand the formation of categories, contents, constructs and mediums as a necessary corollary to an analytical procedure that would bring about transformation. It examines the independent universalisation of Sabda, pada, varna, vakya, bhava, vibhava, anubhava, sthayibhava, sancaribhava, alambana and uddipana for the sake of an absolute artistic formation, especially as propounded by Anadavardhana, the progenitor of dhvani system. It then delves deep into the structuralism poetics, following Saussure, Barthes, Jakobson and others, that focuses on the need and necessity to explicate words, letters, syllables and even otherwise an experience so as to create a valid notation, out of each of these, for the sake of totality in the meaning formation.

The study has immense significance owing to the fact that it promotes proper understanding and enjoyment of literature. Moreover, the fact is that Indian and the Western scholarships have not paid much attention to the subject discussed herein. The volume, therefore, will be of an immense interest to scholars and students of poetics and literature in general.

Bhavatosh Indraguru received his Ph. D from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He specializes in Comparative Poetics, Comparative Linguistics and Comparative Literature. He has taught at Universities at Itanagar, in Arunachal Pradesh and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Presently he is teaching at the Department of English and Other European Languages, University of Saugar, Sagar in Madhya Pradesh.

AN ideal event of artistic creation manifests and presupposes the necessity of continuity, progression, generation and finally the modification from an occasional and particular notation to a significant suggestion inasmuch as the categories that participate in its enrichment, expansion, signification and uriiversalisation themselves undergo a radical change in both, the form and content. To that extent, artistry intentionally projects itself through the grounds of synthesis and transformation. It must be added that every category of expression (for example, abda, pada, variza, vkya, bhava, vibhiva, anubhava, sthay bhava, sancribMva, ilambana, uddipana) composes itself around the multiplicity of variables, which are either converging on or are synchronized along a fixed coordinate. This is essentially the groundwork for the commencement of a lengthened and necessarily dignified procedure of change where the purport is to bring about the equivalents in concrete universals. The argumentative concern underlying the situation, out of necessity, has attracted the attention of theoreticians both in Indian and the Western intellectual traditions. Accordingly, dhvani (Indian critical system developed around the eighth century CE) and the Structuralism poetics (Western critical premise commencing with Ferdinand de Sausage’s Course in General Linguistics) substantiate an adequate methodology to understand the formation of categories, contents, constructs and mediums as a necessary corollary to an analytical procedure that would bring about transformation, and, would consequently end up with the emergence of a qua work of art. Anandavardhana, the progenitor of dhvani system, suggests the independent universalisation of abda, pada, varna, vakya, bhtWa, vibhai’a, anubhava, sthayrbhava, sancharrbhava, aiambana, uddipana for the sake of an absolute artistic formation. Similarly, the Structuralism poetics (following Assure, Bathes, Jacobson and others) focuses on the need and necessity to explicate words, letters, syllables and even otherwise an experience, so as to completely create a valid notation out of each of these for the sake of totality in the meaning formation. This is essentially the reality of contention that would propose a sequence of identities and an assertion thus bringing about the truth of exposition.

The worth and intention of a study of this nature are primarily born out of the fact that Indian and the Western scholarships have not paid much of attention on this subject. The significance thereof, therefore, is immediate, forthwith and a brilliant one in that it promotes the proper understanding and facilitates the enjoyment of literature. Should it be brought to the construction of the categories of appreciation, the effort will have its meaning and significance! In preparation of a work of this demanding nature, the scholarship has been immensely strengthened by the constant criticism brought about by my wife Nisha. I, therefore, put my sincere thanks for her on the record.

The comprehension of an artistic situation manifests varieties of composite units and parts through which the possibility of reinventing further refined models and absolute categories could be successfully worked out. And, it is also remarkable to understand that the event of assertion made by the comprehensibility, in fact, attends to the aspect of resolution, transformation, modification, generation and transmutation of an object into an event. It is, in this context, that the strength of an artistic situation could be rightly examined and explained through perceptible categories of appreciation and the preoccupation of theoretical method would necessarily enlarge the range and extent of idealistic configuration. This situation is basic to the canonical framework developed for the purpose in Indian and the European methods of obtaining equivalents for inquisition, enquiry, explication and the like. For that matter, dhvani and structuralism poetics emerge as the two primary theoretical frameworks in which the reality of inquisition and propagation of comprehensibility and creativity of the artistry could be so well conceived, exposed and implied. In each of these systems, the maturity of conception and universality of expression of the content, context and the medium are quite remarkable; thus the exposition of creative content for the sake of an equally idealized artistry becomes a notional and conceptual framework. It is, however, to be admitted that the Indian situation tends to lay more emphasis on the cognitive and speculative urgency so as to build up large-scale models of universality in artistry. While the Western structuralism poetics conforms to an admittance of the principle of immediacy in the resolution of object and event, yet, however, the standard of categorization and intention of appreciation, in relation to an absolute and supra-rational form of an artistic situation, upholds the worth of a common pursuit of excellence. To this end, the inculcation of terms of comparison and subsequent explication could hold up to the variety and precision affecting a credit of perception under the circumstances of perceptibility of having an excess through the implicated and implied categories, the expansion of evaluative measures, would, therefore be worthy of attention.

In dhvani system, the aspect of absolute artistry intending an ideal and significant perspective includes purity, refinement, and elegance, precision in the manners in which the linguistic and emotive categories are composed, conceived and constituted. The effect of precision is felt squarely in equal concretization of contents, constructs and models which participate under the exceptional principality of a well-designated and approved form. Anandavardhana, in the eighth century CE, had displayed the wisdom and brilliance in elevating the substance of such a contention to the extreme, and, at the same time, developed the theoretical form, understood and explained as dhvani. This theory, while holding the highest standards in terms of organization and application of the category, carefully develops the principles of artistic creation. Accordingly, in order to create an ideal artistry, in keeping with the principle of Anandavardhana, there shall have to be a conscious and inductive necessity to propagate a reasonable understanding of almost every content, every construct, every model, every context and every medium. For this reason, an artistry could be seen, realized, understood and visualized, as if it is prone to the utmost division so that one could understand the significance of every unit and every part, and subsequently every division manifest in the isolation and bifurcation of every unit and part, would find a proper assortment by the way of converging themselves into the significant act of idealization. It is, thus, division of an existing category and evolution of a new category in terms of the coherence of an intended and absolute, which becomes the fundamental necessity, in accordance with the laws of creativity developed by Anandavardha19 Inasmuch as the presupposition of what is intended as an ideal, must begin with the division of a form into content and must end by completing the process of evolution, it would be, of necessity, the requirement that linguistic and emotive categories are first isolated and then brought to the condition of rationalization. In this regard, the linguistic categories are brought forth through the correlation of properties inherent in Sabda (word) as one of the important segments of creation of an art. Sabda, as a category, is effective in initiating the versions of associative forms, which them selves acquire the shape of dependent categorical situation. Thus, the complete linguistic system would be one in which there would be the intensity of modification suggested by the artistic turn that each receives and begets as the creativity advances. Subsequently we can understand that Sabda, pada (group of words), varsa (syllable), vakya (sentence) are the primary locations where the maturity of content in terms of the growth of the linguistic foundations could be successfully observed.

Anandavardhana has a point in stating the fact that the identification of the contents in the categories; categories in the content; models in the categories and categories in the models, are the preliminary ground works which are to be convincingly brought about. At the beginnings the process of formulation is based on what one could find as an extensive network of relations and interrelations within each concrete term. Therefore, Sabda is indispensable by the virtue of segmental completion that it could bring about. On the other hand, initiation of Sabda as the point of advancing assertion may invite a range of phonetic, syntactic, morphological and semiotic figures which are historically, culturally and artistically expressive. It would mean, in the second place, that sabda is displaced and moved and thus the entire system is figuratively and connectively implied in being supplemented by the greatest range of approved figures and functions, so necessary to build up strength in the artistic form. The manner is based on the needs and necessities of both, the context and the medium, and thus scabda as the factor of production of phonological universals would also be, at the same time, exactly a deducible relation to effect large-scale changes in the other structures which are similarly produced for the sake of building up factor and variables in the artistry. Besides abda, it could also be demonstrated that the cumulation is strongly felt in the relative situation where varna, pada and vakya come together and give rise to a direct distortion of the fact contained in the advancement of the situation. The figure that is most suited for the purpose of approving an absolute form and concrete term is an organised whole that emerges out of the process of inter-transmutation and, on that account, the need of division becomes justifiable, progressing and expanding sabda, pada, variya and vakya shall have an exact statement of denotation only by virtue of the consideration that each one is dispersed to the greatest possible limit. In the process of dispersion, there is also the maximum probability of selection of the right content and it is accomplished exactly at this stage. While the linguistic contents approach optimum concretization, there is also the significant revelation of an equivalent form in terms of categorical conjunction, and because of this, we have the experiential side that is as important as the linguistic form. Anandavardhana goes on to suggest that every intensity of perception generated in language, is simultaneously suited to similar event of actual form in the conduct of experience as a factor of artistic production. Experience involves the constitution of categories like bhava, vibhva, sthiythhva, anubhava, sañcarthhava, ilambana, uddpana in such a way that each of these is capable of establishing a foundation of standard aesthetic configuration. To begin with, bhva is the principal factor in which every concrete figure is originated and it stabilises both, the sensation and intellection. The concordance between sensation and intellection, so as to institute the condition of transformation of every sensory and intellectional category within the complete form, is one of the significant functions to be observed in this connection. In bhava, what is initiated is the manner of prospective structure that the other categories (sthtythhva and the like) would acquire, and following this at every major event of coordination, the content is made to modify itself into the medium in that the two similar constructs would be brought together so as to compare the structural and functional equivalences. The progressions of bMva in such a manner lead to the building up of universals at several junctions, and, while artistry is at the end of every universal accord itself to a definite semantic projection. The contents that originate in bhava, as a part of universality and significance, are further strengthened by another important category in sthcythhtiva through which primordial separation of form and content, context and medium and context and context is realistically fixed up and exposed to determinate meaning forms. It is, therefore, an act to synthesize any disintegration whatsoever, which might be forthcoming in the artistic situation. For that matter, sthtiythhavas explain the emergence of nine idealistic expressions of determinate significance as long as the consideration is made for the sake of artistic existence. These nine forms are the exceptional modes of synthesis which govern the cultural, religious, historical and social universalisation of the collective human perception. The eventuality of prospective absolute that inheres upon stylistic or formalistic regeneration of a sañctribhiivas inducts the enriched content, both by the homogeneous and heterogeneous modes. In the homogeneous modes, they bring about the perfection of emotive models and thus project the fact of synthesis as one of the necessary arid reliable circumstances. In a heterogeneous situation, on the other hand, the event of correlation is aggravated to such a great extent that language forms the experiential, varieties that are brought to stay as the two corresponding situations. In this way, the artistry progresses and acquires structurally competent models for perpetuation and prolongation. With these categories as the necessary events in the creation of universal form of artistic situation, we will have to understand how dhvani comes to realize such a possibility. The primary part of this theoretical system meets the necessary requirements for laying down the aggregate structure for the creation, constitution, exposition and presentation of an ideal artistic situation, and accordingly, the ideal artistry is convincingly begotten in the division of the categories in the first place and the successful transformation in the second place. It is, indeed, the fixation of communication of both experiential and linguistic categories that finds out and establishes convincing groundwork for the acceleration of an artistic situation. In this way dhvani becomes a term for totality and the absolute in the artistic form, artistic structure and artistic manners.