I have dwelled on this difficult concept of Indian linguistics because it is deeply implicated with Sanskrit poetics. For the latter has borrowed two key terms from linguistic terminology, terms which are of central importance for poetics: these are dhvani-, or suggestion, and vyah^ana (another synonym for dhvani) , or the manifestation of inner meaning.^-1 These terms cover a concept which is actually an expansion of linguistic abstraction into a deeper realm of meaning, the meaning within the linguistic sign — that is, in meaning, or that significance signalled by the significance inherent in the linguistic sign. If linguistic meaning was established as independent of the world it denoted, inner meaning was even more remote from dependence on the world of sensory perception. Thus the grammarian Bhartrhari could assert: "The activity of speech is the cohesive force which unites all the arts and all the branches of knowledge, and the entire object-world only through its being processed through T^fc."" This observation is substantiated by the fact that some verbal expression — be it myth or legend or description — is the basis for almost every Indian art form from painting to drama. Another significant concept that underlies the formulation of Indian esthetic theories can be traced to Vedic literature; this is the concept in which sound finds its correspondence or equivalence in light. Coomaraswamy properly observes that swya^ the sun and symbol of light, "is derived from two roots, one QVCLT which means 'to shineT, and the other svr which means Tto sound? T therefore, the utterance of names and the appearance of worlds is simultaneous.1'-1--3 Connected with this concept of correspondence is that of nWna and pupa. Nama is the continuum of ideas and is represented by its contingent aspect, Pupa or form. NCCTTKX is the microcosm, 'pupa. the macrocosm, the rupa being "a reflection or projection" of the nama, so that form can be said to correspond to the world of the continuum of ideas.I" In the realm of esthetics, nama is the word; rupa, the meaning. Estheticians and poets found in this concept a way of going very deeply into the question of inner and outer meaning, or reality and appearance, as Western theorists might say. It is for this reason that Sanskrit poets have freely borrowed both the terminology and method of linguistics and visual arts, as if using the operations of practical algebra on the higher plain of abstract algebra. Along with the concept of Vak and that of correspondence, the concept of yoga^ or communion, takes its place as part of the foundation of Indian esthetics in general and poetry in particular. This concept involves the further one that art in fundamental ways is different from all other experience. Its difference is to be noted in its nature as communion, and this communion makes art unique in the following ways: 1. Art involves two "repositories of common trust," the artist and his audience, in an act characterized by sdhrdaya^ that is, literally,"having a heart for art."l° This quality shared by the participants is communion, something transcending mere communication.