Dhvani

(Sanskrit, literally “echo”), a category of medieval Indian poetics, according to which the artistic enjoyment from literary works is achieved not by the images that are created by the direct meaning of the words but by the associations and ideas that are evoked by these images. The former, direct images are called vachya (the stated); the latter are called pratyamana (the implied) and are perceived only by those who know the meaning of poetry. Anandavardhana elaborated the theory of dhvani in the middle of the ninth century. The use of dhvani together with other categories of traditional Indian poetics created an extreme refinement of artistic form and eliminated the need for poets to turn to new themes and plots. Dhvani became a part of the poetics of national Indian literature.