In the ninth century, the critic Anandavardhana wrote the Dhvanyaloka, a treatise on poetry in four parts. Its central claim is that dhvani, suggestion, is the soul of poetry.
The Elephant
In the Mahabharata war, the Pandavas cannot defeat their teacher Drona. Bhima kills an elephant named Ashwatthama, which is also the name of Drona’s son, and shouts that Ashwatthama is dead. Urged by Krishna and Bhima, Yudhishthira, who never lies, confirms it.
In Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s translation, Yudhishthira “distinctly said that Aswatthaman was dead,” and said the word “elephant” indistinctly. Drona lost the will to fight and was killed.
The popular form of the line, Ashwatthama hatah, naro va kunjaro va, “Ashwatthama is dead, man or elephant,” is a later compression. It does not appear in the Sanskrit verses that tell the scene.
A Hint Is Enough
Aql-mand ko ek ishaara hi kaafi hota hai. For a wise person, a single hint is enough. The Rekhta dictionary lists the proverb in Hindi and Urdu.
A harsher proverb makes the same point: ghodi ko ishaara kaafi hai, gadhe ko laathiyaan peeta karo. A hint is enough for a mare. A donkey has to be beaten.
Accha
In December 2020 the Hindi word accha entered the Cambridge Dictionary. It can signal agreement or surprise. Its meaning depends “on the tone of the speaker,” and it is often used sarcastically.
My Silence
On August 27, 2012, the opposition BJP stopped Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from making a statement in the Lok Sabha on the allocation of coal blocks. Outside Parliament House, he answered reporters with an Urdu couplet, in the wording reported by India TV: Hazaaron jawabon se achchhi hai meri khamoshi, na jaane kitne sawaalon ki aabru rakhe. My silence is better than a thousand answers. It protects the honor of who knows how many questions.
Sushma Swaraj, the BJP leader, replied that an answer would have drawn so many pointed questions that he would have lost his honor.
Four Kinds of Acting
The Natyashastra, the ancient treatise on drama attributed to Bharata, says that theater presents “the pains and pleasures of the world through the medium of 4 types of abhinaya.” They are angika, physical movement and gesture, satvika, inner states, vachika, speech, and aharya, costume.
The work is believed to have been composed between 200 BC and 200 AD.
The Rasika
In Bharatanatyam, the dancer’s hand gestures work together with movements of the head, the neck and the eyes. In her history of the dance, Dance of Freedom, the dancer Leela Samson writes: “The rasika, or viewer, receives this as they see fit.”
Some viewers, she adds, “do not receive the meaning at all.” Others receive a meaning that neither the poet nor the dancer intended.
Raj Dharma
In 2002, shortly after the riots in Gujarat, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee held a press conference in Ahmedabad with Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He said that a ruler must follow raj dharma, the duty of a ruler. “Raja ke liye, shasak ke liye, praja praja main bhed nahin ho sakta hai.” For a king, for a ruler, there can be no discrimination between one subject and another.
Without turning to Modi, he added that he trusted “Narendra bhai” was doing the same. Modi replied: “Hum bhi wohi kar rahe hai sahib.” We are doing the same, sir.
Monday Silence
Mahatma Gandhi kept a day of silence every Monday, and he did not break it for any reason. “He would write down if there were a need but won’t speak at all,” the Gandhi website mkgandhi.org records.
The Functions of Silence
In a 2014 chapter, “The Functions of Silence in India,” Nemi C. Jain and Anuradha Matukumalli describe how silence is read in India. It can be a sign of interpersonal sensitivity, mutual respect, dignity, affirmation or wisdom. It keeps harmony and avoids conflict. It can also punish.
In Gandhi’s satyagraha, they write, silence communicated self-restraint, patience and protest.