ABSTRACT
The work of metaphor both in studies of Aristotle and of Kashmir Saiva aesthetic thought focuses on the reception, and by the same token the referential aspect of the poetic text. It is a matter of its relation with the world. Taking another tack, and drawing upon Hegel, Heidegger, as well as ancient Indian cosmogonic and pre-psychological thinking, this essay suggests that a parallel tradition tied to Indian devotionalism (Bhakti) understands metaphor as the concretion of the will. Bhakti poetry when it addressed to a deity is often misunderstood as the lament of the poor and the low caste, expressed in the language of love for a specific god. The essay argues instead that it is the deity that speaks in Bhakti primarily, and the poet only secondarily. It is language that speaks in the devotee, and that helps body forth a will. This latter is inchoate, incipient, like an ‘I’ that is to come. Concretion (making murta) in this sense outweighs the question of reference (anumana). And because it is not yet the subject of Bhakti, this incipience is always ‘in transit’ to the future. This is the event-silhouette of Bhakti.
