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Dhvani and The Full Word Suggestion and Signification From Abhinavagupta To Jacques
Dhvani and The Full Word Suggestion and Signification From Abhinavagupta To Jacques
Dhvani and The Full Word Suggestion and Signification From Abhinavagupta To Jacques
Reviewed work(s): Source: College Literature, Vol. 23, No. 1, Comparative Poetics: Non-Western Traditions of Literary Theory (Feb., 1996), pp. 142-163 Published by: College Literature Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112234 . Accessed: 14/09/2012 06:08
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Dhvanian? Word":
the "Full
Suggestion
Lacan
PANDIT
Laiita Pandit
is Associate at the
or In a spoken failure, split. Impediment, sentence written stumbles. something is attracted Freud these by phenomena, and it is there that he seeks other the uncon scious. to be tional, demands
of English,
of Wisconsin-La
She is co-editor of
Criticism
and
occurs, rality. What is presented this gap, is in this way that ration first encounters (Lacan unconscious
as inten appears a strange tempo in is produced, what of the It the_discovery. Freudian explo occurs in the what 24). as
and Literary
1973,
signifying
bles in a
value
of that which
or written
stum
spoken
sentence
to Lacan's idea of a split refers the ego and the subject, a funda between mental principle of post-structuralist psycho analysis. Lacan's theory of mind and language it and is quite obviously anti-objectivist that reify the human rejects psychologisms being. The subject, for Lacan, is necessarily the subject and the split between subjective for the "full and the ego is a contingency
word." account Lacan's of the emphasis unconscious on a is similar subjectivist in many
ways
to the subjectivism of the pre-modern that underlies and linguistics psychology the Indian theory dhvani theory. In addition,
142
in a linguistic system that, like the is grounded of poetic suggestiveness on Lacan bases his notion of the "full word," Sassurean which linguistics makes an equally insistent distinction between langue (language as a system) and parole utterance). (individual
More importantly, emphasize In analytic and the dhvani the theorists connection ultimately, "truthfully," and the practioners language subject has Freud is of and the pointed Lacanian uncon subject out, of in psychoanalysis scious desire. the unconscious between the as
situations, most
it speaks
that the ego's censorship has slips of the tongue and other errors showing for Lacan is not a reified object; instead, been suspended. The unconscious as a result of the "split" and "cut" between it is a discourse that proceeds the suject de enonciation (speaking subject) and the sujet de l'?nonce (subject as spoken of): the constituting subject and the constituted subject (see Lacan, Concepts 28-44). In his widely
Language," Lacan
known
makes an
essay,
explicit
"Function
reference
and
to the
Field
Indian
of
Speech
theory of
and
sug
gestion
in order to point out that the unconscious does not express itself in it More reveals itself language; through suggestion. narrowly, Lacan traces the sources of the "full word" in what he calls "the power of the symbol," a
that the analyst of can his evoke remarks" "in a carefully 1966, calculated 82). He adds, fashion "this in the semantic resonances (Ecrits is sure
power
ly the way for a return to the use of symbolic effects in a renewed technique in analysis" of interpretation [emphasis mine] (82). Thus, it is in the context of finding a more dynamic that Lacan refers to "the teaching of technique More Lacan identifies (tenth (110). Abhinavagupta century)" specifically, Abhinava's dhvani theory and the properties of speech on which the theory as an important source for his notion of the "full word." The is based in which Lacan first refers to the dhvani theory are of passages sequence in full. worth quoting
In this dhvani, which trates thing etrate the Hindu could take note of what regard, we in the sense stresses that this tradition the it communicates this by in these the truth what it does not actually which tradition property Hindu teaches of about by speech tradition illus
say.
a tale whose
to be the usual appears to us to pen induce enough of a stream to him this and when exclaims she in
sees
A girl, it begins, is waiting a Brahmin coming along and most amiable to frighten you by devoured just been absence have were of he the
on She
lucky day its barking will not be along seen by a lion that is often thus for (Ecrits the 82). have lion as much only
is for you! The dog this river bank again, around affect here'.... as once, his spring the
lion may
appreciated
present, by Freud
springs
says
The example of the girl, the Brahmin, citrant dog is one of nearly five hundred Lalita Pandit
143
mary combination
same tion way evoke
sense
83-87).
other
in with the suggestive Besides being preoccupied functions of utterance in the passages that follow the elaborate reference to dhvani, Lacan general, affirms the interdependence of analytic and aesthetic uses of language. This is particularly to his concept its connection of the "full word," relevant
reliance mary on character the internalization of symbols," of Lacan the poetic resources them of close says, "brings language. to those The "pri numbers
out of which all the and if they therefore underlie others are composed, semantemes [emphasis added] of a language (langue), we shall be able to restore to speech itsfull value of evocation [emphasis added] for their infer
ences, using as our guide a metaphor whose symbolic displacement will neu
of the terms that it associates" tralize the secondary meanings (82). The psy on Lacan calls a is based what of poetic metaphor choanalytic significance resources the of and assimilation of especially language (langue), "profound of those that are concretely realized in itspoetic texts [emphasis added]" (82 dhvani theory emerges as Ahbhinava's 83). From this citation and discussion,
an important source for Lacan's idea of a new psychoanalytic technique of interpretation.
one is undoubtedly dhvani aesthetic Abhinava's that non-Western theories developed literary/poetic
before the beginning of Mid-Eastern and European
a world-historical context of continuity establishes of this theory as evidence on aca in the light of which one wonders why dialogues (and indebtedness)
demic multi-culturalism today are reticent about non-western literary theories.
Current debates
literatures, not
over
"the politics
theories.
of knowledge"
It is as
mention was
only non-Western
like the mass
non-Western
if literary
theory,
first invented and/or reified objects of modern technoscience, produced of "non-Western in the West. That iswhy an initial mention fashioned literary than is more likely to invite skepticism theory before European colonialism" a post-colonial a willing of disbelief. Hence, realignment of non suspension
Western guage, theories time, and outside history the centers, along necessary. the margins The of nation, culture, Dasien, lan as seems world-historical
is essentially deter is "that living thing whose maintains, Being Heidegger Time mined by the potentiality for discourse" 41). (Being and on discussion this revisionist framework Within then, the subsequent con to aims the "Full of Word" Lacan's idea notion of dhvani and Abhinava's these struct an interpretative model based on points of contiguity between temporally placed on 144 and culturally divergent Lacan's and Abhinava's shall be theories. Particular emphasis as a shared sense of the unconscious College Literature
dynamic intention
process, in every
of
the instance
centrality of poetic
of memory, and
erasure analytic
of
primary
sense a necessary
and
enunciation,
between the signified and in instances of speech all ambiguity the subject). rupture Memory, Certainly,
Judeo-Christian.
on constitutive signifier and emphasis to the between the ego and (due split A Cross-Cultural Paradigm. European: Valmiki
aesthetic is engendered
Repression Freud's
At the
and Recollection:
notion
same
of the unconscious
time, a world-historical
is distinctively
amnesia
by
forgetting
also
that Abhinava
identify unconscious
precursors,
as the source
Vy?s,
of
and
expe
K?lid?sa,
notion of the unconscious is no doubt grounded in the rience. Abhinava's Saivaite metaphysics of forgetting one's true cosmic [bhraman] nature and partial recollections by the individual soul [dtman] of this lost self-awareness.
In a manner that is no less mystical, Leibniz's theory of the unconscious also
unconscious and conscious posits a distinction between thoughts and sense 10-21 and to the (see Monadology, paras. perceptions Oxford Companion Mind 433). Leibniz, and subsequently of the significance Proust, underscore (Leibniz) or half forgotten (Proust) per recalling unconsciously perceived ceptions and sensations: of objects, details, familiar scenes that trigger a new,
reconstituted emotion/experience. Similarly, Abhinava's claims about the aes
is not con thetic import of mental processes of forgetting and remembering fined to spiritual and mystical dimensions He empha of human experience. sizes that within the normal life span of one individual so many selves are
lost and forgotten, recognized, misrecognized, recollected and lost again.
Human
samskdras,
mind
and memory
traces of
constitute
desire
unfathomable
and latent
layers of vdsands
impressions,
and
frustrated
which,
Abhinava in poetic claims, are triggered by dhvani markers In the context of analytic speech, especially in the way
maps give it out, rise the vdsands of and samskdras as in (desire instances traces of and to chains associations parapraxis,
Both systems of speech (vdc) assume an endless, beginningless in memory relation to endless and beginningless flashes of recollection forgetting?with here and there. Abhinava refers to human minds being "varied by begin
ningless memory." He says, "Samsara is beginningless and every man, before
being that which he actually is, has been all other beings as well. The con sciousness of the spectator thus possesses is varied by) the (in other words latent impressions of all possible beings, and he is therefore susceptible to In himself contexts in with each" the which the word, (Gnoli 59). identifying sams? ra, is frequently used, it stands for the world as it is constituted with in each human consciousness. It is beginningless one forgets only because the point of origin, it is endless because one is always at the mid-point of all
space-time configurations.
restates his thesis less mystically in another context. He says, is mind most various latent impres indeed the characterized "Everybody's by Abhinava Lalita Pandit 145
sions" (Gnoli
in S'akuntald,
refers to K?lid?sa's
the stirrings of
famous verse
and
Dusyanta's
Sakuntal?'s restlessness of their (erotic) desire for each other, the consequent otherwise traces left by attach tranquil hearts, to latent impressions, memory ments in another time and place. Dusyanta's long forgotten, formed perhaps remem subsequent forgetting (of Sakuntal?), due to a curse, his desire-filled a curse to is when the lifted leads (and reunion) at the recognition bering end of the play. The tripartite causal sequence of remembering and forget a of with the the demonstrates fusion ting complete plot signifying functions rasa and rasadhvani in K?lid?sa's major play. K?lid?sa of the dominant is,
thus, one of the precursors of the memory based dhvani aesthetic?an aes
thetic
aesthetic
that is strikingly
of memory and
consistent
narration.
with
Marcel
Proust's more
widely
known
Even though Abhinava and others draw examples from the cultural tra for ditions they know best, they make claims the validi larger philosophical same of At and the their the dhvani theorists time, ty practical efficacy theory.
do not assume homogeneity of the particular. In his introduction to rasad
hvani, Abhinava spells out only the most generalizable principles of the nine emotions and art emotions on which the dhvani aesthetic rests (see Gnoli 74).
He tural rists, aesthetic variance assumes and the other situations experience provides invariance forms of at the most basic Moreover, and are another consequents) varied and level; yet his system to the allows dhvani a for cul theo difference. according under context
which bound.
infinitely context
in which
dhvani-related
and elucidated. phies and signifying patterns can be recognized in the following A culture bound view of the dhvani schema outline, is clearly based on specific language theories, ideas of order and meta which it clear that each particular item can physics derived from Hinduism, makes con be substituted by other indigenous and/or hybrid terms and matching
cepts. From a Sanskritized Indie point of view, an abstract of the dhvani aes
like this: (a) four levels of language awareness, look something transcendental (the "beholding" (undifferentiated pard signified), pasyanti or object awareness) of awareness, thinking, under madhyamd (speech thetic should and vaikhari (b) four (the audible, material language); standing, fancying), or kdma artha aims of life, dharma fortune), (sexuality, or (money (duty), character three of moksa and/or con (c) desire), (salvation); components
stituent elements of consciousness (sattva [reason], rajas [passion], tamas
derived from vari (or dilatations) [ignorance]); (d) three types of mobilities ous combinations vikdsa druti of the constituent elements, (blossoming), art emotions nine emotions basic vistdra and (e) (expansion); (speed), [love], karu?a srngara [disgust], raudra [ter [pity], hdsya [laughter], bibhatsa and ror], bhaya [fear], vira [valor], santa [peace]); (0 the attendant permanent and and bhdvas), consequents transitory states of mind (sthdyi vyabhicdri and vibhdvas). Added to these are seventy five fig determinants (anubhdvas ures of speech, numerous subtypes of each, all adding up to a final count of 146 College Literature
646), or an "endless variety," as roughly 7,420 types of dhvani (Dhvanydloka states (668). Abhinava field for The promise of an "endless variety" suggests an open-ended
creative, performative and interpretive activity. In the following pages, I
like to focus on various general would the theory of dhvani and Lacan's between
focus on especially Technique." on The Lacan's primary early writings Sanskrit
text,
Locana the of with (Commentary) Dhvanydloka and Patwardhan 1990). (Trans. Ingalls, Masson Literary Abhinavagupta of "full speech" and dhvani come from various Sanskrit texts and examples davardhana's
Shakespearean Drama.
DHVANI
AND THE
"FULL WORD":
A COMPARATIST in parole
and the "Full Word" of Dhvani on ?nanda's Dhvanydloka, In his commentary Orientation
the dhvani effect resides in uvdc." Interestingly, are the
Abhinava
Sanskrit
that
par
allels parole
"full word"
in the context
refer to signifying
of which
schema
"full speech"
that
occurs.
Dhvani
and
conven
the
located
in between
tional systems of language and instances of reason that conventional figures of speech figurativity of dhvani, though dhvani can be in collaboration speech. Just as dhvani works language, instances of "full speech" in Freud
the (in tongue, dreams), instances mistakes, of parapraxis, unintended errors,
It is for this individual utterance. are not to be confused with the fused with a particular figure of with various figurative uses of are most often found in slips of
metonymy The examples and metaphor that Abhinava
homophony, puns.
uses
to support his theses instantiate all these verbal processes (see Ingalls is val the orientation of the dhvani theory inparole 780-837). Etymologically, idated by the fact that the word kavih (poet) in Sanskrit is derived from the root ku (to speak). More importantly, the use of the word dhvani to refer to verbal sugges tion is itself a metaphoric construction. the Sanskrit aestheticians Originally,
the word last sound" from is "the grammarians in a chain of where sounds the that technical enters the meaning ear, "so of "dhvani" that heard
borrow
are sounds born of sounds, [not the original sounds produced by the of speech]" these "sound-produced" (Ingalls 170). They compare a "stone is dropped to waves when resonate "like in a pond" which
of a bell." Abhinava's reference to the sphota theory is sim
reverberations
ply an attempt
grammatical
use of dhvani
this elaborate
in the context
emphasis on
of a reified
the differ
precedent.
is actually spoken and what is heard, or what is meant what is central to the concept of dhvani as verbal suggestion. In the differential between what is spoken and what is heard, to locate semantic sites of dhvani around sites of silence. manages
Lalita
Pandit
147
What
dhvani
reveals,
manifests,
hints
at,
is often
what
is not
said,
either
lit
dhvani meaning is that which lies beyond Hence, erally or metaphorically. It is that in words. is the the midst constituted silences spoken meaning by its location is the borderland is said and what is left of speech; of what is unsaid. This hinted at, unspoken, dhvani what the the suggested meaning orists refer to as the "soul of poetry." Through dhvani, poetic language reach es the condition It functions of silence. like a meta-language, generating collective and individual memory banks, latent many meanings by deploying
impressions, mental associations.
Vyanjand
and
uThe Function
and Field
" of Speech.
In the concluding section of "Function and Field of Speech," Lacan cites an instance of the meta (through a cross reference to T.S Eliot's Wasteland) conversation between and Prajapati and the devas (gods), men, physical asuras (demons). is from Bhrahad-Aryanayka The well known passage and Prajapati is identified as the god of thunder. It is clear that Upanishad,
what thunder says in this uncanny conversation is similar to Bharatrhari's
of sound) that enters the human concept of sphota (the physical explosion ear in the form of a phonetic unit. The sphota in this case is the n?dsabda
(successive replication of a sound): "da, dd, dd." However, what the auditors
of the phonetic unit: semantic the signified. replication the of the for each Furthermore, group is determined transportation signified from Other. their also the The distinctions by differing demands/expectations of gods, men, and have to do with the different natures and orientations hear the
demons. master give". "Thou hast said Men for to us, think the O God of has they thunder," said hear to the devas them: same say," udatta, sound yourselves." The imperative the Other asuras, as ddmyata, that is, is: "dayad to
is
natures and orientations The differing of the three hvam, be merciful." of passion include various combinations (rajas), reason (sattva) and igno "da" and its that they incorporate. The root word rance/blindness (tamas)
conjugated forms?its grammaticality, phonetics and semantic configurations,
facilitate a hermeneutic and contiguity laws of association what transfer of gift and command, Moreover, imperative and prohibition. in this passage is a transcription of what the thunder said into happens humanly intelligible speech, a speech that fills a void: a need, a lack. his discussion of the function and field It is clear that Lacan concludes of speech by reiterating the connection with the dhvani theory. In addition, combined with their between he underscores the connection analytic and poetic speech, "If the in a commanding voice: He concludes for suggestion. potentiality is to be sufficient for your action as domain defined by this gift of speech For it it will also be sufficient for your devotion. also for your knowledge, on a of function it "the field" (106). Dwelling further offers poetic privileged continues: he language" that "gives desire its symbolic mediation,"
The psychoanalytic as the the Word law experience that has has formed rediscovered him in its in man image. the imperative It manipulates of the
148
College
Literature
to give to his desire its symbolic mediation. May language to at it is in the gift of understand last that enable you for it is by way of this gift that all reality has resides; reality act that he maintains it is by his continued it (Ecrits and 106). of
from Lacan's "Function and Field of Language" clearly draws its in the of symbolic mediation from the principle encoded inspiration that law constrains Lacan's claim the all Upanishadic signifying example. even in the finds the the of further word, support practitioners gods, iteration. Within framework this comparative then, the common Upanishadic goal of the Indian theorists and Lacan is to show the importance of a com This excerpt
munication model that considers seriously the context, constitutive ambigui
ty and the role of the speaker and the interlocutor in all acts o? parole ic and analytic). to Abhinava the particular sabdasakti (and ?nanda), According
power) that constructs such a communication model is vyanjand, or
(poet (word
van
jaktva dhvani
in the variants (suggestiveness). Frequent use of the morphological a discursive demonstrates discourse need to distinguish the mediat from particular instances of mediation. ing principle Closely associated with a psy the word power of suggestiveness is the Indian idea of Samskdra,
variant of which is, clearly, the "memory trace." Freud's notion
choanalytic
of the memory-trace
engram, corresponding defined
is no doubt
as an
distinct
impression
from
for Freud
the empiricist
a is "invariably
notion
of the
to the in
bearing
resemblance recorded
memory-trace
[coded] systems, and stands there in relation to other traces" (see Laplanche and Pontalis 1973, 248). The Indian term, samskdra is in a (memory-trace), ave similar distinct from the samskdra because codi way engram strikingly fied within the archives of the human mind and can be recalled by the trig gering effect of signifiers. The archival durability of samskdras that allows the Indian theorists to of and reconstitution memory recall, imagine possibilities accessibility
beyond sistent many like 'the deaths agency and of re-births the letter attests to the fact that as samskdras would are per in unconscious,' Lacan describe
this process.
strates that
Abhinava's
dhvani
prior
analysis
are
of
context
meanings
outside the text and must be they are determined by conditions must remain in abeyance when knowledge about these conditions deferred, is absent (see Chari 96). Similarly, Freud believed the evocation of psycho Sometimes
analytic meaning may sometimes not occur because, "a memory may be
context while, in another, itwill remain inac reactualised to cessible consciousness" (see Laplance and Pontalis 248). In both instances, trace distinguishes the archival nature of the memory it from the empiricist the connection between memory, engram. Emphasizing language and the
unconscious in "Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious," Lacan states, "With
in one
associative
the second property of the signifier, that of combining to the laws according of a closed order, is affirmed the necessity of the topological substratum of Lalita Pandit 149
which
approximate
the
term
idea:
I ordinarily
rings of
use,
namely,
that
the signifying
is a ring in another
chain,
necklace
gives
made
an
a necklace
in Studies
in which
inHysteria,
individual
Freud compares
memories are
mem
arranged
to different methods to chronological of classification: according according to in to degree of links chains of and association, order, according according to consciousness" Pontalis and (see Laplanche 248). References accessibility to various kinds of contiguity are clearly assumed by the dhvani theorists in their practical analyses of how suggestion in poetic dis (vyanjand) works
course.
As has been pointed out, in spite of Abhinava's and ?nanda's allegiance to Saivaite mysticism, is their account of dhvani-related language functions no a account. true It is in doubt that sections materialist of basically
Dhvanydloka, ?nanda invokes the supra-sensory nature of non-mundane
experience (brhaman).
based on
where However,
the etymology
the
seeks the larger truth of subject (dtman) that is relevant here is attribute of brhaman
The root word brh means to "increase,"
the word.
because
brhamita, sation
brhaman
as and an perception
has
instrument
the virtue
of an that
of being
brahat
(large).
with is consititued
In the verb
a fusion by. The of
form
sen state
increase, aesthetic
it is associated moment
of pure
awareness; ?nanda Leibniz
brhaman
there attributes produces a
is an undifferentiated
cannot a be any denotative
state,
and status of the
the pard
suggestive to this unconscious
state of
language
higher similar
ontological description
in this regard "monads" whom he regards, differing thinking processes as inferior, less intelligent minds from ?nanda, (see Monadology, paras. 14 case is obvi in The this 26 and The Oxford Companion 432-433). similarity of
ous, binary as the difference opposition. consists in the two authors' setting up a different type of
The material
superior to
operations
of language
consciousness
and perception
are called
that Leibniz
regards
the monadic
avidhyapade
in Sanskrit,
because essary
ness of
is the nec they occur through the intervention of avidhya. Avidhya on the limit and of large imposition ignorance/blindness impossible
brahman and of the pard stage of transcendental language aware
ness.The dhvani theorists' naming of a transcendental signified, no doubt, reminds one of the metaphysics the reified object of transcendental of presence, phe meta been invalidated deconstructive that has by supposedly nomenology to assume that Abhinava invokes the itwould be wrong physics. However, at Abhinava considers all all. of (mis Instead, presence avidhya metaphysics as the point of origin for all processes lan of material recognition/blindness) to him, it is the principle of Avidhya that creates a rup guage. According ture
rial
between
?nanda operations.
the
transcendental
and others, this
signifiai
split regard
and material
condition as a
language.
for dynamic,
For
cos
Abhinava,
is a necessary avidhyd
all mate
Saivaite
metaphysicians
mic 150
causal
principle,
of the world
of
condition):
the
sine
qua
non
of
it. Subsequent
discussions
of
terminology?
the etymological
lation, ented meanings, Abhinava's instances
origins
of
of the Sanskrit
between the
of received
and
trans
of and
parallelism
dhvani-ori
the
and language.
Bhdvana,
Bhogakrtva,
Jouissance
and
Lacan's widely has to do with the genesis of known idea o? Jouissance the psychoanalytic in the foundational for fantasy (and desire) prototypes the associated myth of the family romance, the Oedipus complex, prohibi
tions and necessary censors: the entire trauma/drama of growth in the face
of the Law of the in Lacan. concept more than a brief ment which causes left over from the object a is mostly
excess, of surplus
Father. The object petit a develops into a more specific It is too widely associated with his thought to need any reminder. In the context of fetishism, object a is the frag that desire is always something that is desire, assuming fulfillment of need and demand. In economic terms, the structured by the subject's relation to the principle of
value. As a remainder left over from a whole, as a trace of
something
various aesthetic
consciously
pleasure) are
forgotten,
and determinants part always
itmobilizes
of objects. rasa
desire.
(the Moreover,
For dhvani
art emotion dhvani
theorists
that leads espe
the
to
consequents
theorists,
as being consider aesthetic pleasure and erotic pleasure cially Abhinava, a In mere choice of and fact, they go beyond analogous. metaphor analogy and clearly identify the primacy of the pleasure principle. In Saivaite meta the human and the divine, between dtman and physics, the relation between is a highly eroticized brhaman relation and its reference point is a much cel ebrated mystical/cognitive (see Mircea Eliade 1958, 254-273). jouissance In this specific context, a brief discussion of Bhattn?yaka's concept of bhdvand and bhogakrtva (aesthetic (the pleasure efficacy) principle) will The metaphysical notion of bhdvand and its help to clarify the connection. materialist demonstrate the counterpart, bhogakrtva (enjoyment efficacy) in sociological foundation of dhvani a processes. theory Bhattan?yaka, staunch critic of dhvani theory whose defeats explicit arguments Abhinava but whose he uses to make the dhvani account more plausible, objections the idea of bhdvand in the (aesthetic efficacy). This term originates develops technical vocabulary invented by Mimamsakas. They use it to refer to the "efficacy of the verb in a Vedic sentence" leading to the "efficacy of a Vedic
command," whereby verbs are transformed into phenomenal reality. In the
context of aesthetics, bhdvand refers to the efficacy of particular combina tions of causes and consequences, in poetry and performed verbalized in
drama. The aesthetic structure associated with bhdvand, according to
universalizes
so that they lead to and consequents A related consequence of aesthetic is bhoga (consummation leading to 151
or
translates larger
bhoga assumptions
as
using on the
basis of which N?yaka introduces the third term bhogakrttva effi (enjoyment to referred above 36). cacy), (Ingalls In my view, the non-technical term "enjoyment" is not what N?yaka has inmind. Bhoga term. As one of the four aims of life, bhoga is a paradigmatic itsmore exact parallel is the French term, jouis refers to sensual gratification; sance. Bhoga is connected with the dynamics of desire, of eating and the it is associated with of objects of desire. Psychologically, the consumption mind's metaphorical for oral consumption of objects of thought, proclivity emotion and desire. The highly lauded ascetic virtue of withdrawal-restraint (tapas) is contrasted with bhukti, a derivative of bhoga. The word for hunger is bhubhksa. Bhogakrttva in the context of N?yaka's paradigm of bhdvand,
can be accurately explained as "consummation-consumption efficacy" of
poetic krttva
kr,
and theatrical uses of language and other semiotic systems. The word (the doing of it, or that which does it) is derived from the root word
Determinants and consequents in N?yaka's account, in connec
"to do."
can be plausibly tion with jouissance, associated with the diffusion of petit or arouse fetishes that (aesthetic) desire and lead to aesthetic a, part objects not only associated with In is this the psycho way, bhogkrttva jouissance. consumma notion of but also with of processes analytic orality, sociological tion and consumption that derive from what Plato defines as the "appetitive
desires." ple, with This the account idea of of dhvani-related industry" "enjoyment translates "culture bhogkrttva in Theodore efficacy." quite nicely is consistent, Adorno's Even into the sense idea of for of exam it: the
agency as of an the
of value.
produces increase
brhaman context
the material
Contrary
to N?yaka's
objectivist
orientation,
however,
Abhinava's
own
account of aesthetic response is subjectivist and privileges subjective mental states. For Abhinava, it is important to conceive of rasa (aesthetic emotion) as something not simply formalistically simu that is subjectively perceived, use to in him articulations and places his lated. He takes what is of N?yaka's the framework o? parole or (vdc), the contexts theory of rasadhvani within
of shared and personal memory, associative response (personal and cultur
and perception relevant to the al). Actually, Abhinava would say the memory a is all because he makes of rasadhvani experience subjective perception, the thing-in-itself distinction between that is similar to Kant's distinction It is in light and as the thing appears to the mind (phenomena). (noumena) account of the Unconscious, that Abhinava's of of this type of distinction vdsand (desire trace) and samskdra (memory trace), is different from ?nan of the da's and N?yaka's. important to Primacy knowing subject is equally Lacan because the intersubjective framework of an analytic session, through the "full speech" (of the unconscious). constitutive ambiguity, makes possible "Revelation" is for him that "other side of speech" made possible by the rup in favor of this ture between the ego and the subject. Lacan heaps evidence 152 College Literature
is not expressed, that "the unconscious showing (Seminar 48). He further distortion, except by deformation, transportation" in the dimension of this kind of sug that Freud's work unfolds emphasizes into a writ gestive revelation through the signifier (of desire) that stumbles necessary distinction by
ten or spoken sentence.
VARIETIES OF LANGUAGE FUNCTION ASSOCIATED WITH VASTUDHVANI and ALAMKARADHVANI The first part of this section focuses on the dhvani theorists' use of ter that highlight similarities between their notion of structural ambi minology Sanskrit terms guity and Lacan's notion of consititutive ambiguity. Various used by dhvani theorists to speak of vastudhvani and ala mkardhvani clear of negation, ly refer to the processes repudiation, denial, and misrecognition. orientation of these terms is established The psychoanalytic by the literary
and other contexts in which dhvani meanings occur. In order to suggest pos
of vastudhvani and ala mkardhvani, analysis of dhvani and the "full word" and
the in
Dhvani
and
and Abhinava after him, praise the language efficacy of vyan subordinates and secondary (denotative) primary meanings stress and the meanings. (metaphorical m?tonymie) They point that it is the not "literal meaning;" are literal meanings "primary sense" that is blocked, In fact, the link conventional and are linked with langue rather than parole. of literal meaning with vyanjand is important because the dhvani significa
tion occurs because of a differential between the two. As has been shown,
Lacan's notion of the rupture that occurs due to the split between the sub this differential. ject and the ego also emphasizes Abhinava's of blocking parts of a sig specific account of the processes
nified, account semantemes, of repression, as Lacan foreclosure, calls them, censorship, is similar and to the the psycho-linguistic transfor subsequent
mation of the signifier: the return of the repressed (and repudiated) memo trace. we As link the causal the between ry know, repressed signifier and its inevitable return leads to the discovery The (in speech) of the unconscious. to aside function and of denotation contrary is, of language setting blocking it the dhvani meanings "shine forth," become vyanjand Through are to a vision build in Abhinava (as resonant, seen, rasadhvani). up poetic resonance to a the effect the reverberation of (return) compares bell, or an instant effect based only on the signifier (sabdasaktimula). He also maintains that it might be a delayed revelation based on the semantic activity of the course, signified
hvani) or
(arthasaktimul?).
unseen
He
further notes
sequential
that itmight
or
be seen invoke
(vivaksitd
In actual
(avivaksitdhvani),
non-sequential.
analyses Laiita
of
Abhinava
and An anda
space-time 153
Pandit
at
level of
of art.
the
temporality associative
of
the
sentence,
the
stanza
as
context
of
memory
(and
desire)
traces,
Abhinava
response. tion and tural in the
assumes, works
Personal same way collective have an and
in conjunction
memory instances
with
banks of
the temporality
work langue
of reading
and
public in which
audience's discourses
memories impact on
subsequent
aesthetic
to Abhinava, however, materials. According each nalize and remember cultural materials differently
memory clusters: samskdras and vdsands.
individual depending
inter own
A significant area of continuity with the processes of repression through is indicated by the pair of terms that Abhinava, foreclosure (or repudiation) Ananda and others use to refer to the subordination and blocking of the pri sense terms One is the of tiraskrit, translated by Ingalls mary (mukhydrtha).
and dain, others censure, as "setting hit," or aside." to More repudiate. literally, set This the of term terms means evokes "to a abuse, comparison dis
with
term
the psychoanalytic
mentioned above invisible."
process
is tiraskarini Tiraya
of foreclosure.
a curtain, "to conceal, means
A derivation
or a "magical
of the Sanskrit
veil from rendering appearing,
the weather
prevent
446-447). The term Tiraskrit is con stop, restrain (Monier-Williams a topological as dhvani theorists the used term; its intensified sistently by or In Monier variation is atyantiraskrit entirely repudiated). (excessively one instances of for tiraskarini of the William's (curtain) is usage dictionary, from a Kalidasa play and refers to a curtain in the context of staging of the hinder,
play. Hence, the term includes a reference to theatrical semiosis that gives
rise to dhvani
In connection
as much
with
language
processes
does.
of distortion, trans
portation
scious and
(also
speaks
condensation
in dreams, articulate and
and displacement)
other shared instances assumptions of
through which
speech, about a the dynamic
the uncon
terms tiraskrit uncon
atyantiraskrit
In almost all the passages that scious that manifests itself in human utterance. are analyzed dhvani the effect (in Dhvanaydloka), for their signs, signifiers to do with prohi and signifieds that are deferred have invariably something and and the Law. The majority of the verses Abhinava bition, transgression, choose from Prakrit (popular ?nanda literatures) deal with adultery. The are often associated with adulterous and prohibition codes of transgression at the same time it is assigned a high love that is shameful (and sinful), but on myth and epistemological Drawing significance. degree of metaphysical dhvani aesthetic the of and the metaphysics posits erotic triangular desire, a same in as in the which basic its and desire way trope psycho negation
analysis does.
in its specific psychoanalytic The emphasis on Negation, sense, is strong uses in terms his formulation Abhinava of that another pair ly suggested by The first term, aksepa, means of vastudhvani and ala mkaradhvani. feigned 154 College Literature
or
pregnant
denial,
the
second
term,
apahnuti,
is often
translated
as
denial
that lift the sign (as the sig refer to verbal operations (Ingalls it in order to facilitate the and transubstantiate nifier/signified composite), "to poetic signification of dhvani. Upoha, translated as denial, literally means 147, 337). Both
push, time." pull The or word draw also near, refers push to under, the action insert" of or "heaping, "to draw near in point causing of accumulating,
to appear"
leads one
(Monier-Williams
to assume that the
216). The
processes
etymological
that make the
history
primary
of
these
sense
terms
disap
pear through deferral, are causally related to those that result in the aesthet It is interesting to note that Lacan defines ic circulation of dhvani meanings. context the dialectic of emptying in of "empty speech;" "full speech" the an from fullness and (resulting involuntary surfacing of (through negation) as to is the French essential the negated analyst as it is to the signifier)
Sanskrit In aestheticians. Lacan's own words, consititutive ambiguity is characterized, funda
in a "whether I speak of myself mentally, by the condition of not knowing manner of conforming to what I am, but rather of knowing whether I am the a same as that of which term aksepa, I speak" (Ecrits 165). Abhinava's and indi denial" the often of stated figuratively suggested meaning, "feigned
cates this type of ambiguity in poetic utterance. Monier-William's entries on
the morphologically
the meanings draw (as in from, variously
connected
as: "to
word
throw
cluster,
down,
aksip,
aksipta,
aksepa,
defines
a bolt, strike with take off, with " to be overcome and deride;" insult seized, caught, " to, or referred to;" convulsion, removal, hinting, "reviling, abuse" (128). Once again, Abhinava's
pointed
also,
and ?nanda's
tion, transgression,
selection
and
of examples
other such
revolves
contextual
around
conditions
denial,
theorists'
negation
reiterative
and foreclosure
references
(Ingalls
to denial,
337). More
reviling,
importantly,
of
the dhvani
the sign and
repudiation
the two different sub signifier (of desire) take for granted the split between in instances of all human involved ject positions speech. To elucidate his theory of negation and denial further, An anda uses two "He can express lines of a lost poem, Hayagrivavadha (Death ofHayagriva):
all of Hayagriva's virtues/who can measure by jars the water of the sea." The
in these lines is atisayokti conventional figure of speech directly expressed, sense occurs Withdrawal of the the primary naturally because (hyperbole). to to virtues describe the has been of able invoke poet Hayagriva. Therefore, the sea for what has already been done is a the impossibility of measuring
"feigned denial." The feigned denial, Ananda says, refers to an "unex
pressed" Abhinava's)
take the
and
"hinted at" signified. For some strange reason, ?nanda's (and verse not own of this does further their theses. explanation They
to mean "Hayagriva's virtues are unique." This is clear
suggestion on
I interpret Lalita
If the signified
was
the immeasurability
of 155
Pandit
virtues alone, that sense being sufficiently expressed Hayagriva's by the fig ure of hyperbole, the sentence would not start with the third person pronoun "who." The dhvani signals are "he" and be linked to the relative pronoun
these connecting pronouns as nodes in the syntax, not in the semantic activ
ity. The
throws
poet whose
in a verse of
work
name
(Bhartrmentha)
verse that
lives,
many
self-praise,
self-inscripting
Indian poets inserted into their compositions either formally, or infor sea in is The India Ebbesen the suggested metaphor 95). Literary mally (see for the enterprise of poetic creation, and a suggested (embedded) figure of a can One is that there is simile of denial say (upama). feigned speech a of false The aided assumption by "humility." syntactical authorly "pride" to from Hayagriva elements signal a transfer of the hyperbolic implications the verse constitutes the poet as the poet himself. Read in the dhvani way, ancient the subject who
verse-sentence of
speaks
a lost
and also
epic, the
is being
spoken
of
of. In this
the autho
is a signifier
of the prideful authorial inscription. rial presence, various This type of fusion of dhvani with figures of speech generates kinds of dhvani effect: thus we can have vyatirekadhvani (derived from con laksanadhvani slesadhvani (from metonymy), (from trast), puns), (from the (from the figure of substantion), utpreksddhvani arthdntaranydsa and other). The three major types common figure of conceit, metaphysical As has been and rasadhvani. alarnkdradhvani ly identified are vastudhvani, are blocked while others shown above, in all three certain verbal operations
are released, or un-blocked. Through this blocking and un-blocking opera
in instances of vastudhvani is an idea, or a thing is suggested as or a an not art it of would be in the two emotion (vastu): speech figure like other dhvani can other forms respectively. form of any Vastudhvani, or in and with forms of other operate conjunction disjunction independently, tion what
dhvani.
Instances
of Dhvani-filled
'Full Word"
ofMacbeth's
"Weird Sisters".
is struc in Shakespeare's Macbeth The enigmatic speech of the witches to with overall do the tured by constitutive tragic causality ambiguity having of the play, the intervention of a supernatural agency that uses all too nat ural speech. Combined with these is the ontologically riddling subject posi of this play. A brief dis in their relation to the protagonist tion of the witches in this well known play will cussion of instances of dhvani and full speech to above. To begin with, one of the ideas further many explored clarify help is that "none of woman of the witch's prophecies born/Shall harm Macbeth." it suggests because At the most basic level, this is an example of vastudhvani
not an art emotion, or a figure, but a syllogistic idea: all men are born of
women;
Equivocally,
Macduff
it
is a man;
cancels out
therefore,
the primary
he
is (must
sense of
be)
an
born
earlier
of a woman.
utterance:
the Thane of Fife. "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware/ Macduffl/Beware are me: and the poets Dismiss speaking subjects in this enough." The witches 156 Literature
College
moment.
as the dhvani Their intention, prayojandrtha (purposive meaning), into an attitude of "security" that theorists would say, is to delude Macbeth is "is a mortal's enemy." They do itwith a cryptic use of vastudhvani which later on linked with various kinds of figurative dhvani. First, they distance their "full word" by projecting it onto visual hallucinations, the apparitions
say only what they are permitted to say. Secondly, the line structure of
who
the enunciation "Beware." itself hides and reveals. The first line ends with it is repeated in the third line. Through is distanced The word enjambment innocuous from the name, "Macduff." Finally, there is a seemingly rhyming in reminiscent its irrelevance of the deafening of "Macduff with "enough," in Oedipus. Yet, Macbeth is not Oedipus; noise the sphinx made he won't a solve the riddle. The unsuspecting tiraskarini word lowers (a "enough" identifies Macduff. curtain) after the apparition foreclosing in is enhanced by the fact The aesthetic efficacy of vastudhvani Macbeth that it occurs in the middle of the third and fourth parts of the plot. These are identified by suggestive names. The third parts in Sanskrit dramaturgy face (pratimukha) and the fourth is called part is called the mirror-reflected "the womb" (garbha). The first part is referred to as "the face" (mukha). The use of a body metaphor to refer to the first three parts of a play in Sanskrit is curiously suggestive. In the context of (Bharata's Ndtyasdstra) dramaturgy
Macbeth, the metaphor makes uncanny sense. Psychoanalytic readings of the
on the importance of Macbeth's childlike dependence play have emphasized his demonic mothers, his reliance on what they know. In the context of the is important is the significance of the weird sisters' present discussion, what use of vastudhvani to misinform Macbeth, their dhvani way of hiding and a prompt denial (tirask?r) revealing. As speaking subjects, they accomplish intent as they cover their speech in a sheath (kancuka). of their denotative as an Abhinava would instance of This, poetic speech (parole or vdc) regard a vengeance. that uses with is at Macbeth vyanjand (oblique suggestion) in this moment the media womb the the of res, trapped (garbha) play, and
the weird sisters' equivocating speech tightens the strings. Thus, the womb
like nature of the temporality of the plot, the womb-time of it, places the psy a in context of the cross-cultural of the psycho-lin play choanalytic reading structure. dhvani of of and guistics plot a figure of speech. A functions Clearly, alamkdrdhvani along with Sanskrit example and alamkdrdhvani of the fusion of hyperbole has been discussed above. A parallel example chosen from the famous witch-speak in will further illustrate the nature of the relation between Macbeth suggestion and figurative meaning. Itwill also help to contextualize Abhinava's general of dhvani with drsti emphasis on the association (sight). In addition, a brief
discussion of this instance allows us to situate in a literary context the meta
physical
awareness.
origins
As
of dhvani
mentioned
aesthetic
in the
in the hierarchized
introductory section,
levels of
the four
language
types are:
unity of the subject and object (of perception) "beholding" mental language of "thinking, understanding,
Pandit
pasayantl.
temporal guage
The
order
intermediate
of a is
stage, madhyamd,
written) audible
is the speech
The final (vaikhari).
that follows
stage of Inherent
the
lan in
awareness
sentence. language
this typology is the alignment of language and perception with sight (drsti). centers The difference the first and the second stage, for example, between on "not beholding" and "beholding" (of objectivity by the subject). The lit
eral meaning of the second term, pasyanti, is "seeing, or to see." The first
blindness. The initial rupture stage is characterized by an undifferentiating to increasing degrees of visibility. leads from blindness that Macbeth shall not be vanquished The weird sisters' suggestion until come against him" (4. to high Dunsinane "the Great Birnam Wood Hill/Shall not unlike that used by the poet in 1. 903-94) uses the figure of hyperbole, in the lines discussed above. The dhvani-drsti fusion is Hayagrivavadha
supposed sense. to occur when primary sense is "wholly set aside" in the opera
tions of excessive
mary In the
deferral,
sentence
denial
quoted
and suppression
above, the weird
(atayantiraskdr)
sisters, though
of pri
they are
the speaking (and intending subjects) defer the material act of speach to the "A Child Crowned, with a tree in his hand." Macbeth's "Third Apparition:" to significations that the process of vyanjand lack of receptivity has set into is in part due to this first deferral, or projection. motion the pri Secondly, it is a lie is entirely set aside. Literally speaking, mary sense of this sentence later on complain about the "devil" who that makes Macbeth "lies like truth." sets up Macbeth's defeat as an utter impossibili the hyperbole Figuratively, ty. At the level of material speech (vaikhari), Macbeth does not wonder what scene he sends mur the "Crowned Child" might signify. Yet, in the following derers to kill Macduffs children wife. (child-bearing age)
The operation foreclosed that the primary dhvani sense, theorists
absent Thane
of Fife's
an its
way
level of language mind only at the pasyanti (beholding) said unfolds the apparition The dhvani effect of what a visual ori case. From in the this this has beginning unfolding sequentially is literalized and the entation. At the end of the play, no doubt, the metaphor is completely statement about Macbeth's canceled, being the unvanquished maneuver uses out. The that branches Macbeth) ("against" military emptied to the "high Dunsinane to arrive unseen Hill" is of the "Great Birnam Wood" an entirely visual phenomenon. At this moment in the play, the semiotic sign has a full vision of the dhvani meaning and Macbeth replaces the signifier into Macbeth's thought awareness. as he looks into the "three mile way" and watches this hallucinatory replica tion of what was spoken (to him) in the earlier scene. It is in this moment that the spectacle of "fullness" (of signification) (of his tragic fate, his niyati)
comes to the warrior as a revelation. Clearly, the revelation is causally linked
to the operations of sequential dhvani in the form o? drsti (sight). It is important to remember that the plot segment that follows Macbeth's to the Sanskrit theo sisters would, final encounter with the weird according 158 College Literature
ry of plot, be identified as avamarsa/vimarsa (dubiety and/or struggle). The term avamarsa, inhib refers to doubt and uncertainty that might obviously, it vimarsa (struggle). In Macbeth's removal of case, through the denotative doubt a false sense of security is induced in the warrior's mind. This makes him apathetic and an agonistic struggle, appropriate for the vanquisher of the
opening scenes, is blocked. When he sees the mirror reflection of the equiv
ocating prophecies, struggle. He moves traces of the nihilistic inevitability ity of time and desire.
remains of a sight him with (the end) carrying memory suggested by his famous lines on the futil leads him to what
INSTANCES OF DHVANI
IN PSYCHOANALYTIC
SPEECH
Lacan speaks of the analytic value One of the early Seminars in which of "full speech" includes a dialogue on Freud's notion of Negation. Following functions of the ego is Freud, Lacan points out that one of the fundamental Patterns of misrecognition underlie mech (m?connaissance). misrecognition anisms of defense that shape the discourses (and the semiosis) of the ego, its myriad ways of hiding, setting aside, repudiating, negating, and so forth. The Sanskrit equivalent is central to the typolo of misrecognition, avidhyd, above. Even though gy of the four levels of language awareness mentioned
the matic Sanskrit term, word avidhyd avidhyd is closer is often to the translated Freudian-Lacanian as "ignorance," term, as a paradig miconnaissance.
Vidhy? means
French me.
knowledge.
avidhyd
The
suffix a is equal
a state of
to the English
Hence,
signifies
"non-knowledge."
in Abhinava's metaphysical is abhigy?n, system the word for self-knowledge or the exact parallel of which is the English word the French "recognition" connaissance. The fundamental affinities between word, terminological dhvani and "full word" are strengthened this between the equivalence by principle of avidhyd and the psychoanalytic principle of misrecognition. In an attempt to emphasize the subjectivist orientation of his discourse, Lacan speaks of the "synthetic function" of ego in psychology and its
"dynamic analysis function is a verbal in process "analytic speech." in which ego Lacan becomes out points a defense, that therapeutic demonstrating
"the significance
(53). The German
of speech
and
that is unspoken
terms, verworfen
because
it is verworfen
as we can
"
are
(rejet?e)
see,
French
(rejet?e),
matched tiraskrit or atyanti above, by parallel Sanskrit terms introduced raskrit. These in the lexicon of the dhvani instances of linguistic parallelism theorists and the practitioners of poststructuralist indicate psychoanalysis quite clearly that dhvani is not a rhetorical term (to be confused with irony or a figurative term (to be confused and paradox), with metaphor, term. It is impor etc.). Instead, it is a dynamic psycho-linguistic metonymy, tant to keep in mind that in poetic reduc language, one is not concerned in poetic function. Nonetheless, tively with a particular ego and its dynamic
language as in analytic discourse, the signification of the unspoken creates a
dhvani Lalita
effect Pandit
through
(Verneinung),
foreclo 159
sure (Verwerfung),
when semantic,
condensation
and
(Verdichtung).
various other
This working
of speech
over
become
occurs
ver
syntactical,
aspects
worfen, rejet?e, tiraskrit and atyantiraskrit. Lacan emphasizes that the constitutive
revelation logical, of the "truth" of the unconscious idiomatic, syntactic, morphological, et son 22). enseignement" Psychoanalyze must our attention the words, focus upon
ambiguity
may or have other
which
"a phonetic, basis" (see
results
a Hogan, that even
in the
phono "La "we let
Further, expressions,
Lacan
maintains sentences,
ters seeking to isolate the ambiguous voice in the speech of the analysand" Dhvani theorists also locate 23). (Hogan places of ambiguity as the sites for
dhvani in various parts of speech: particles, suffixes, prefixes, verbs, idiomat
ic and other expressions. For example, in the following a verbal prefix is identified as the source of dhvani.
sloka
from Kalidasa
the King (the protago The sloka describes Kasyapa's hermitage which see "Wild rice grains under nist) has just entered. He and his charioteer stained by dark oil/of crushed trees/where trunks,/stones parrots in hollow deer who hear human voices/yet ingudi [pine] nuts (emphasis mine)/trusting water from wet don't break their gait,/and streaked/by paths from ponds to ?nanda, in the term the prefix bark cloth" (Miller 93). According translated here as "stained by dark oil" intensifies suggestive prasinigdhah, or the dhvani and Abhinava believe that the stanza, effect. ?nanda ness, have been a simple citra (picture the word prasinigdhah, would without to Ananda, According painting) poem aimed simply at atmosphere-building. the dhvani meaning. it is this word the image with that impregnates Here, factor to account for the dhvani effect. The isolates a morphological ?nanda combined with snigdhah (oiled) gives prefix pra (with, or endowed with) it the phrase would rise to dhvani; without have been a simple descriptive
phrase. recurrent The emphasis action of is not the grinding on the of stones pine but nuts. what they show, a pattern of
the It is this larger context that produces dhvani-fullness of signification, as is ascetic action indicative of the life of forest dwellers, repetitive styles use mustard, While householders distinct from the lifestyles of householders. sesame and other fine oils, hermits can only use pine oil and other wild oils: a self abnegative for that scriptures and law books proscribe substitution in ancient India, pine oil is used to heal wounds ascetics. Moreover, (S'akun that disrupts tald 4. 14). The wound motif, beginning with the love wound
S'akuntala's life, is recurrent in the play. Equally recurrent are references to
healing getting,
orients
associated
the reader
with
into
remembering
K?lid?sa's play is a drama of desire, for it in the way and recognition. This sloka is significant asceticism.
the oppositional value systems of eroticism and asceti
is part of the thematic structure of the play. However, the most in favor of ?nanda's he does not himself idea, which significant argument is the following. articulate, The phrase "prasignidhah" facilitates the recall of a related term, vdsand. traces in the mind. The literal mean Vdsand refers to desire related memory cism which 160 College Literature
ing of the word, vdsand, is something close to "perfumed with oil or grease" In this associative way, the cognitive act of falling in (of former attachments). and sprouting of erotic impulse is causally linked with the love, germination
oil and grease marks, memory-desire traces (vdsands) accumulated either in
the temporal past or the pre-past of a previous birth. It is interesting to note, in the context of ?nanda's isolation of the prefix pra, the word for repeated is punarjanma births of vdsand-drenched (souls) psyches (again birth): a The in is word that uses the preiixpunah (again). prefix punah prasnigdhah stained with dark oil because of the The signifying stones become embedded. repeated "again-oiling" of them (by the hermits). The suffusion (of oil) sug gested by pra is due to the repetition (punah) of this action, a repetition that is emblematic of the repetitive function of memory and desire traces. As usual, intuition about the dhvani-fullness o? prasnigdh ah ismore precise ?nanda's than he seems to have thought at the time. The "stones stained with dark oil" for the image, in the dhvani way of reading, emerges as a mirror metaphor on and is aesthetics which the famous based. metaphysics, psychology play an An embedded and instance lead to an associative simile would of thought stones are stained with oil like minds are marked by vdsands vastudhvani-. enters into the for in the past, and so forth. When Dusyanta accumulated is him the that of his destiny (niyati) emblematic greets est/hermitage, sight as a human subject and as the hero of this play. He does not know that, alle stones announces the semiotic sign of the oil-stained his entrance gorically, or the tapas/bhoga driven aesthetic of rememory, into the pleasure/penance,
to borrow a famous phrase from Toni Morrison.
Certainly,
desires does
the psychoanalytic
not transcend the
context
limits of
of memory
one life, nor
traces
does
past
awak
Dusyanta's on to an or
ening
human tion.
to desire,
limit. The general
his forgetting
the psychoanalytic
and remembering
is not on emphasis the
transcend
past,
life span of
assump grease
Moreover,
parallelism
contingent
vdsands of earlier (Oedipal attachments), their remembered and perfumed traces in the in associative mind, forgotten subsequent working through is not too far either from Abhinava's psycho-poesis and speech, and memory Lacan's analytic thinking and practice. In light of this invariant analytic and I shall close my discussion with a reference to the dhvani aesthetic model, fullness of analytic discourse. In one of his many discussions
of one of Ernst Kris's patients. The
on
patient
"full speech"
is a young
Lacan uses
man, an
the example
who
academic
wants
to write and publish, but is inhibited in this because he feels he is a plagiarist. He often talks to a brilliant scholar and then feels he takes on this in the publishability ideas and loses confidence of what he himself person's to work on his thesis and "gets the has written. Nevertheless, he continues text into shape" (Lacan, Seminar 60). Then, one day he declares "almost tri that his whole thesis is published umphantly" already in the form of an arti cle and is in the library. The note of triumph in the patient's voice as he makes this announcement, the site of dhvani one might say, is significant because it
Lalita
Pandit
161
betrays
the
patient's
need
to prove
to
the
analyst
that
he
really
is a plagiarist.
to the patient this ego the analyst believes While this claim to be exaggerated, belief (that he is a plagiarist) functions as a sheath (kancuka) for that which as dhvani significations are sometimes held is not said, but held in abeyance
in abeyance?as they wait for contexts to become concomitant.
Further analysis
successful, never
reveals
the patient's
while the
belief
grandfather
been
fer
productive,
tile mind" (60). The patient wishes the father to have been like the grandfa ther, or to have been a "grand father," as Lacan puts it (60). The use of the
procreative metaphor is very interesting. In any case, Kris's patient fulfills his
to believe in a progenitor's intellectual need fecundity by finding himself new tutors all the time, each grander than him and becomes by dependent means of a fantasy of plagiarism. When is linked with associa this problem as well as tive memory and recollection of the father and the grandfather, with the patient's obsession with the father's failure, the patient says nothing statement: and is silent. At the next session, he makes the following "the
other day, on leaving, Iwent to such and such a street?" (here Lacan men
tions
took place
can eat rather
"in New
more
York where
dishes." The
restaurants
spicy
I could find a dish I am particularly to state, "and sought out a place where In irrelevant remark, Lacan finds fresh brains" this seemingly fond of, (60). an instance of "a level of speech which is both paradoxical and full in its
meaning." say, after The the stated, dhvani expressive theorists, meaning this meaning has no relevance. put Hence, aside," we just as can the is "entirely
patient's
when the
statement
patient
that he
seems to
is a plagiarist
say nothing
is to be discarded.
that he says everything.
Yet,
His
it is exactly
previous
discourse necessary
utterance
on plagiarism and his failure to produce was a product of negation last involuntary for the integration of his ego. The analysand's
sums up what Lacan interprets as "the fundamental relation of [the
thinks he ideal ego in an inverted form" (61). The analysand patient] is a plagiarist (which he is not); he is obsessed with his father's failure and He announces that his favorite food is a dish his grandfather's productivity. of fresh brains. Finally, the context of hunger, or eating, of seeking out a of his cul place that is unusual, where he can relish a food that conventions ture regard inedible, and finally the evocative of "fresh brains" are signifier to his
all a part of the vyanjakatva, the suggestive resonance of analytic discourse.
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