Dhvani

Dhvani

"sound, tone, echo, hint"

1. In Indian linguistic philosophy, dhvani are changeable physical sounds, as opposed to the eternal sphota and shabda. According to Bhartrihari, dhvani means "sound" or "phoneme".

2. In Indian raga (musical art), dhvani means both the sound itself (meaning any non-articulated sound: whistling, laughter, crying, sounds of nature, musical instruments, etc.) and what makes the sound. According to the concept of raga, all sounds always exist, in an unmanifested form. And dhvani is the carrier of sound, thanks to which the sound vibration is manifested (released) in the manifested world.

3. In Indian poetics, dhvani is interpreted as a hint or suggestion. According to Anandavardhana’s ideas ("Dhvanyaloka", 9th century), artistic enjoyment of a literary work is achieved not by images created by the direct meaning of words, but by the associations and representations that these images evoke. Thus, the expression of dhvani was carried out through a language game, the purpose of which was to awaken in the reader (viewer, listener) a special rasa (taste, feeling, emotion), which could not arise through the direct meaning of words or images.