Dhvani and the "Full Word": Suggestion and Signification from Abhinavagupta to Jacques Lacan Author(s): Lalita Pandit

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
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

College Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Literature.

http://www.jstor.org

Dhvanian? Word":

the "Full

Suggestion

and Signification From Abhinavagupta to Jacques

LALITA

Lacan
PANDIT

Laiita Pandit

is Associate at the

Professor Department University

Crosse.

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

There, something realized?which of course, but

Criticism

and

Lacan India. The

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

examples, that it conceals.

ingenuousness, shows itself humorous

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

for her towards tones:

lover her. 'What

on She

the bank runs

the warmest that used for it has The would proverb

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

the devouring lion and the recal at length in discussed examples

143

and others Abhinava Dhvanydloka. and elite (Prakrit) (Sanksrit) literatures

that facilitate poetic communication by

use from popular these examples to isolate various properties of speech

concealing, negating, erasing of pri

mary combination
same tion way evoke

sense

(Ingalls [mukhydrtha] of lucidity and equivocation,

in which meanings. jokes, puns and

83-87).
other

The example cited by Lacan, in its in the signifies through suggestion

instances of humorous enuncia

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

of the most significant in India for centuries

colonialisms. Lacan's use

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

and his poet

memory

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,

figuration. in which Lacan

memory and so traces) forth.

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,

112). In this section, Abhinava

where the poet attributes

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

(determinant occurs simply

which bound.

particular Cultural typogra

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

and particular points of contact I shall concept of the "full word."

and his as seminar indicated on Freud's above, "Papers is ?nan

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

PERSPECTIVE (or vdc). reiterates

term exactly

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

sounds organs sounds

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

to justify his poetic

Nevertheless,

use of dhvani
this elaborate

in the context
emphasis on

of a reified
the differ

precedent.

ential between to be heard, on focussing Abhinava

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

function poetic that experience that all speech come to man

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

generally The reality.

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

the lines cited by Lacan demon

bound, variable, not fixed.

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

of rings" (Ecrits 153). Likewise,

ory "to complicated archives

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

limited the only

of

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

there. operation state. Interestingly, by referring to

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,

the raison de'tre

of the world

of

limit (of the human College Literature

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

terms in the context

key psychoanalytic

of received
and

trans
of and

parallelism

dhvani-ori

terms?emphasize as well as formulations

the

avidhyd-genevated of desire primacy about speech and

and language.

dispersal/delimitation in Lacan's its negation

Bhdvana,

Bhogakrtva,

Jouissance

and

the Object Petit a.

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

N?yaka, the experiencing communication, Lalita Pandit

universalizes

the determinants of rasa (art emotion). to N?yaka, according

so that they lead to and consequents A related consequence of aesthetic is bhoga (consummation leading to 151

consumption a basic, mute

or

jouissance). Ingalls term that conceals the

translates larger

bhoga assumptions

as

"enjoyment," about desire

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

that mass instrument surplus

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

sibilities for literary applications section concludes with a brief

Shakespeare's Macbeth.

of vastudhvani and ala mkardhvani, analysis of dhvani and the "full word" and

the in

Dhvani

and

the "Full Word": Negation, Denial Repudiation of Primary Sense.

Ananda, that jaktva

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

lines and passages,

Abhinava

and An anda

space-time 153

Pandit

considerations well as In the all entire cases,

at

the work the

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

in conjunction/disjunc and parole do. Readers' literature to and other cul

audience's discourses

memories impact on

of mythological their receptivity

subsequent

aesthetic

to Abhinava, however, materials. According each nalize and remember cultural materials differently
memory clusters: samskdras and vdsands.

individual depending

subject will on his/her

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

as the play of poetic

the psychoanalytic

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

"to disperse;" the mind), pointed or referred to,"

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

the subject of prohibi

as motivations for

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

ly the figurative meaning.

Drawing Abhinava's meticulous analyses of other instances of dhvani,

I interpret Lalita

the lines differently.

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

is lost, but whose

a typical

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

the subject who

name "Hayagriva"

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:

undifferentiated stage; Lalita

unity of the subject and object (of perception) "beholding" mental language of "thinking, understanding,

in the para fancying" is 157

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

(and spoken the material,

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

and the suspiciously

along call with sankra

absent Thane

of Fife's
an its

its metaphorical expansion, mana makes (circulation),

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.

the belated mental towards nirvahana

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

"non" and the

Again, with

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

the "working over" of negation

(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

linked with one

such the oil

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

that his father has never

had a "constructive,

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

that this incident

where you

took place
can eat rather

"in New
more

York where
dishes." The

there are foreign

patient goes on

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.

WORKS CITED
Bharata-Muni. 1951. Chari. Eliade, VK. Sanskrit Yoga: Criticism. Immortality Princeton Honolulu: and U P, U. Freedom. 1958. According to Abhinavagupta. Varanasi: of Hawaii Trans. P,1990. Willard Trask. Bollingen Series The N?tyas?stra. Vol 1. Trans. Manamohan Ghosh. Calcutta: Oriental,

Mircea. LVI. New

Gnoli,

Jersey: Raniero. Aesthetic

Experience Series, 1968.

Chowkhamba

Sanskrit

162

College

Literature

Gregory, UP, Hogan,

Richard 1987. Patrick,

and

O.

L. Jangwell, Pandit.

eds.

The

Oxford and

to the Mind.

Oxford:

Oxford

and

Laiita and and

Criticism

Lacan: U

Heidegger, New

Structure, Language, Martin. Being York:

the Unconscious. Time. Trans. John

Athens:

and Essays of Georgia and

Dialogue 1990. Robinson.

on

Macquarrie

P, Edward

trans. The Dhvany?loka With the Ingalls, Daniel. ofAnandavardhana: Locana U London: Harvard 1990. P, of Abhinavagupta. in Indian Literature." In Literary "The Question of Authorship Ebbesen. India: Jeffrey, in Aesthetics, Studies Colonialism and Culture. Ed. Patrick Colm Comparative New SUNY P, 1995. York: and Lalita Pandit. Hogan Albany, Trans. In the Ring Barbara Stoler Miller. Kalidasa. Sakuntala and of Recollection. Ed. Barbara New York: Theater The Plays Stoler Miller. of Kalidasa. of Memory: Columbia Lacan, Lacan, Jacques. U P, The 1984. A Selection. Four Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Norton, Ed. 1966. Jacques Ecrits:

1962. Harper, H. H., ed. and

Jacques. Alain Miller. Jacques. 1954. Book 1975.

Fundamental Sheridan.

Trans. The

Alan

Concepts New York:

of Psycho-Analysis. Norton, 1973. on

Lacan,

Seminar

I. Ed.

Lacan: Freud's of facques Trans. Miller. John Jacques-Alain The Norton, Vonn. Oxford

Papers Forrester.

Technique New York:

1953 Norton, David

J. and Laplanche, Nicholson-Smith. Gottfried Leibniz, Ed. Richard Monadology UP,

Pontalis. J.-B. New York: Wilhelm,

Language 1973. In The U.P,

of Psycho-Analysis.

Trans.

Freiherr

Oxford Robert

Companion Latta.

To

the Mind.

Oxford: Gregory. and Other Philosophical Stuart.

1987. Trans. London: Oxford

Writings. to Freud: P, 1980. Shakespeare.

1925. Returning Yale U The Clinical Psychoanalysis Ed. G. Blackmore in the School of

Schneiderman, Lacan. Shakespeare, Houghton Williams,

New

Haven:

William.

Riverside 1974.

Evans.

Boston:

Sir

and Mifflin, Monier-Monier. Arranged.

Philologically

Dictionary: Sanskrit-English Delhi: Motilal 1986. Banarsidass,

Etymologic

ally

and

Laiita

Pandit

163