Vibhavana, Vibhāvana, Vibhāvanā: 18 definitions
Introduction:
Vibhavana means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit, Buddhism, Pali, Marathi, Jainism, Prakrit. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
In Hinduism
Natyashastra (theatrics and dramaturgy)
Source: Shodhganga: Mankhaka a sanskrit literary genius (natya)Vibhāvanā (विभावना, “peculiar causation”) refers to a type of Alaṃkāra (figure of speech).—When an effect is said to arise without a cause, it is Vibhāvanā, which is two-fold according as the reason is mentioned or not. The twofold divisions of Vibhāvanā are—Uktanimitta and Anuktanimitta. It may be mentioned here that as an effect is bound by the rule of presence and absence with a cause, it is impossible that an effect can come into existence, without its cause. But if, under some striking mode of speech, it is stated that the effect does come into existence in the absence of its well-known cause, there is Vibhāvanā. The effect in such a cause is due to some other cause, which is not well-known i.e. aprasiddha.

Natyashastra (नाट्यशास्त्र, nāṭyaśāstra) refers to both the ancient Indian tradition (shastra) of performing arts, (natya—theatrics, drama, dance, music), as well as the name of a Sanskrit work dealing with these subjects. It also teaches the rules for composing Dramatic plays (nataka), construction and performance of Theater, and Poetic works (kavya).
Kavyashastra (science of poetry)
Source: Shodhganga: The Kavyavilasa of Ciranjiva Bhattacarya (kavyashastra)Vibhāvanā (विभावना) refers to one of the 93 alaṃkāras (“figures of speech”) mentioned by Cirañjīva Bhaṭṭācārya (fl. 17th century) in his Kāvyavilāsa and is listed as one of the 89 arthālaṃkāras (figure of speech determined by the sense, as opposed to sound).—The poets are free to compose and not bounded by the law of causation (as followed by the Naiyāyikas and other philosophers). Ālaṃkārikas have admitted this freedom of poets and they have postulated two figures of speech viz. viśeṣokti and vibhāvana accordingly. Vibhāvanā has been admitted by Bhāmaha (II/77), Daṇḍin (II/199), Udbhaṭa (II/19), Vāmana (IV/3/13) Mammaṭa (X/162), Ruyyaka (A.S. P. 124), Viśvanātha (X/87), Jagannātha (P. 578) and Jayadeva (V/77).
Cirañjīva defines vibhāvanā as—“vibhāvanā vinā’pi syātkāraṇaṃ kāryajanma cet”.—“When the effect is produced without the presence of the cause, then the figure of speech vibhāvanā happens”. This definition occurs verbatim in the Candrāloka of Jayadeva. (V/77) According to the law of causation an effect is always produced from a cause, without any cause there can not be any effect. Even in the absence of a cause when an effect is found to happen, it is the figure vibhāvanā.
Example of the vibhāvanā-alaṃkāra:—
pracalati sati yasmin kautukenā’pi bhūmau bhavati surasamājo vyākulaḥ sundarībhiḥ |
daśaśataśatarakṣonāyakānāmadhīśo bhavati na hi garīyān sa svataḥ kiṃ baliyān ||“When this world is ruled easily by him how the gods become attracted to beautiful women; whether the chief of the leaders of one lakh demons is not honorable and powerful by nature”.
Notes: Here without the cause that is the attempt for going to heaven, the effect that is overwhelming reaction of the gods is found to be described. So it is an example of vibhāvanā.

Kavyashastra (काव्यशास्त्र, kāvyaśāstra) refers to the ancient Indian tradition of poetry (kavya). Canonical literature (shastra) of the includes encyclopedic manuals dealing with prosody, rhetoric and various other guidelines serving to teach the poet how to compose literature.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionaryvibhāvana : (nt.) explanation; making clear. || vibhāvanā (f.) explanation; making clear.
Source: Sutta: The Pali Text Society's Pali-English DictionaryVibhāvana, (nt.) & °ā (f.) (fr. vibhāveti) 1. making clear, ascertainment, explanation, exposition J. III, 389; Vbh. 342, 343 (ā); SnA. 13, 261 sq. 318; VbhA. 409 (ā); ThA. 76 (ā), 230; PvA. 137, 140 (so read for vibhavanā in attha°).—2. annihilation, disappearance, making non-existing (cp. vibhava 2) DhsA. 163 (vibhāvanā nāma antara-dhāpanā ti attho). (Page 630)
Source: Sutta: Pali Word Grammar from Pali Myanmar Dictionaryvibhāvana (ဝိဘာဝန) [(thī,na) (ထီ၊န)]—
[vi+bhū+ṇe+yu.thī-nitea vibhāvanāç vibhāvanī.vibhāvayati.kāraṇaṃ vinā kāriyuppattiṃ cintayati paṇḍitanti vibhāvanaṃ.kappadduma.vibhāvana-saṃ.vihāvaṇa-prā,vibhāvaṇā-addhamāgadhī.]
[ဝိ+ဘူ+ဏေ+ယု။ ထီ-၌ ဝိဘာဝနာ,ဝိဘာဝနီ။ ဝိဘာဝယတိ။ ကာရဏံ ဝိနာ ကာရိယုပ္ပတ္တိံ စိန္တယတိ ပဏ္ဍိတန္တိ ဝိဘာဝနံ။ ကပ္ပဒ္ဒုမ။ ဝိဘာဝန-သံ။ ဝိဟာဝဏ-ပြာ၊ ဝိဘာဝဏာ-အဒ္ဓမာဂဓီ။]
[Pali to Burmese]
Source: Sutta: Tipiṭaka Pāḷi-Myanmar Dictionary (တိပိဋက-ပါဠိမြန်မာ အဘိဓာန်)vibhāvana—
(Burmese text): (၁) ထင်စွာပြခြင်း။ (၂) ကွယ်ပျောက်စေခြင်း။ (၃) ပြကတေ့-ပင်ကိုယ်-သဘော-ကို ပြခြင်း။ (၄) သရုပ်အားဖြင့် ပြခြင်း။ ဝိဘာဝနတ္ထ (၂) ကြည့်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Explicit display. (2) Causing disappearance. (3) Displaying the essence - the self - the nature. (4) Displaying through representation. See the nature of reality (2).

Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Marathi-English dictionary
Source: DDSA: The Molesworth Marathi and English Dictionaryvibhāvana (विभावन).—n S vibhāvanā f S Considering, examining, investigating. 2 Conceiving, imagining, supposing.
Marathi is an Indo-European language having over 70 million native speakers people in (predominantly) Maharashtra India. Marathi, like many other Indo-Aryan languages, evolved from early forms of Prakrit, which itself is a subset of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of the world.
Sanskrit dictionary
Source: DDSA: The practical Sanskrit-English dictionaryVibhāvana (विभावन) or Vibhāvanā (विभावना).—
1) Clear perception or ascertainment, discrimination, judgment.
2) Discussion, investigation, examination.
3) Conception, imagination; यदन्यदन्यत्र विभाव्यते भ्रमात् (yadanyadanyatra vibhāvyate bhramāt) A. Rām.7.5.37.
4) Development.
5) Protection (pālana); यस्याङ्घ्रिपद्मं परिचर्य विश्वविभावनायात्तगुणाभि- पत्तेः (yasyāṅghripadmaṃ paricarya viśvavibhāvanāyāttaguṇābhi- patteḥ) Bhāgavata 4.8.2.
6) Looking, sight (darśana); पश्चिमां तु समासीनः सम्यगृक्षविभावनात् (paścimāṃ tu samāsīnaḥ samyagṛkṣavibhāvanāt) Manusmṛti 2.11.
7) Showing, manifesting; Manusmṛti 9.76 (com.).
-nā (In Rhet.) A figure of speech in which effects are represented as taking place though their usual causes are absent; क्रियायाः प्रतिषेधेऽपि फलव्यक्तिर्विभावना (kriyāyāḥ pratiṣedhe'pi phalavyaktirvibhāvanā) K. P.1.
Derivable forms: vibhāvanam (विभावनम्).
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English DictionaryVibhāvana (विभावन).—nf.
(-naṃ-nā) 1. Discussion, examination, discrimination. 2. Perceiving, seeing, distinguishing. 3. Conceiving, imagination. 4. Ascertaining or judging of facts. 5. Describing effects not arising. from the usual causes, (in rhetoric.) E. vi before, bhū in the 10th cl. to think, &c., aff. yuc .
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Benfey Sanskrit-English DictionaryVibhāvana (विभावन).—i. e. vi-bhū + ana, n. 1. Discussion. 2. Ascertaining, [Vikramorvaśī, (ed. Bollensen.)] 78, 10 (reading). 3. Perceiving distinctly, [Mānavadharmaśāstra] 2, 101. 4. Conceiving, imagination.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Cappeller Sanskrit-English DictionaryVibhāvana (विभावन).—[adjective] & [neuter] developing, manifesting; [neuter] also perceiving, ascertaining; [feminine] ā a cert. rhetor. figure.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary1) Vibhāvana (विभावन):—[=vi-bhāvana] [from vi-bhāva > vi-bhū] mfn. causing to appear, developing, manifesting, [Harivaṃśa]
2) Vibhāvanā (विभावना):—[=vi-bhāvanā] [from vi-bhāvana > vi-bhāva > vi-bhū] f. (in [rhetoric]) description of effects the causes of which are left to be conjectured (or [according to] to some, ‘description by negatives, bringing out the qualities of any object more clearly than by positive description’), [Vāmana’s Kāvyālaṃkāravṛtti; Kāvyādarśa] etc.
3) Vibhāvana (विभावन):—[=vi-bhāvana] [from vi-bhāva > vi-bhū] n. causing to appear or become visible, development, creation, [Bhāgavata-purāṇa] ([Scholiast or Commentator] = pālana)
4) [v.s. ...] showing, manifesting, [Manvarthamuktāvalī, kullūka bhaṭṭa’s Commentary on manu-smṛti on Manu-smṛti ix, 76]
5) [v.s. ...] clear perception, examination, judgement, clear ascertainment, [Manu-smṛti; Vikramorvaśī]
6) [v.s. ...] (ifc.) reflection on [Kathāsaritsāgara]
7) [v.s. ...] the act of producing a [particular] emotion by a work of art, [Sāhitya-darpaṇa]
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Yates Sanskrit-English DictionaryVibhāvana (विभावन):—[vi-bhāvana] (naṃ-nā) 1. n. f. Discussion, examination, perceiving.
Source: DDSA: Paia-sadda-mahannavo; a comprehensive Prakrit Hindi dictionary (S)Vibhavana (विभवन) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit words: Vibhavaṇa, Vihāvaṇa.
[Sanskrit to German]
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
Prakrit-English dictionary
Source: DDSA: Paia-sadda-mahannavo; a comprehensive Prakrit Hindi dictionaryVibhavaṇa (विभवण) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Vibhavana.
Prakrit is an ancient language closely associated with both Pali and Sanskrit. Jain literature is often composed in this language or sub-dialects, such as the Agamas and their commentaries which are written in Ardhamagadhi and Maharashtri Prakrit. The earliest extant texts can be dated to as early as the 4th century BCE although core portions might be older.
Kannada-English dictionary
Source: Alar: Kannada-English corpusVibhāvana (ವಿಭಾವನ):—
1) [noun] the act of perceiving; mental grasp of objects or qualities.
2) [noun] the ability to perceive things discriminately.
3) [noun] the act of arriving at a conclusion after weighing different aspects, qualities, characteristics of a thing; judgement.
4) [noun] anything imagined; mental image; creation of the mind; imagination.
5) [noun] a displaying; exhibition.
6) [noun] a striking or special relation between a cause and something that is brought about.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Source: unoes: Nepali-English DictionaryVibhāvanā (विभावना):—n. 1. clear perception or ascertainment; discrimination; judgment; 2. discussion; investigation; examination; 3. conception; imagination;
Nepali is the primary language of the Nepalese people counting almost 20 million native speakers. The country of Nepal is situated in the Himalaya mountain range to the north of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Yu, Bhu, Ne, Vi, Bhavana.
Starts with: Vibhavanadassana, Vibhavanagandha, Vibhavanakarappavatta, Vibhavanalakkhana, Vibhavanalamkara, Vibhavanamukha, Vibhavanapannatti, Vibhavanapariccheda, Vibhavanasabhava, Vibhavanashani, Vibhavanasukhata, Vibhavanate, Vibhavanatikkama, Vibhavanattha, Vibhavanavyakhya.
Full-text (+97): Avibhavana, Rikshavibhavana, Vishvavibhavana, Durvibhavana, Asamatthabhavavibhavana, Ayuttatavibhavana, Vacanatthavibhavana, Kammapathasambandhavibhavana, Abhavavibhavana, Cittavibhavana, Rupavibhavana, Vibhavanapariccheda, Niyyayanavibhavana, Padhanabhavavibhavana, Bhavatthavibhavana, Codanadhippayavibhavana, Appatihatananatavibhavana, Buddhagunavibhavana, Arammanavibhavanatthana, Buddhanubhavavibhavana.
Relevant text
Search found 32 books and stories containing Vibhavana, Vi-bhavana, Vi-bhāvana, Vi-bhāvanā, Vi-bhu-ne-yu, Vi-bhū-ṇe-yu, Vibhāvana, Vibhāvanā, Vibhavaṇa; (plurals include: Vibhavanas, bhavanas, bhāvanas, bhāvanās, yus, Vibhāvanas, Vibhāvanās, Vibhavaṇas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Sahitya-kaumudi by Baladeva Vidyabhushana (by Gaurapada Dāsa)
Text 4.7 < [Chapter 4 - First-rate Poetry]
Text 10.114 [Vibhāvanā] < [Chapter 10 - Ornaments of Meaning]
Text 1.7 < [Chapter 1 - The Purpose of Poetry]
Alamkaras mentioned by Vamana (by Pratim Bhattacharya)
13: Definition of Vibhāvanā Alaṃkāra < [Chapter 4 - Arthālaṃkāras mentioned by Vāmana]
3: The classification of poetic figures < [Chapter 5 - A Comparative study of the different alaṃkāras mentioned by Vāmana]
1-2: The number of Alaṃkāras (poetic figures) mentioned < [Chapter 5 - A Comparative study of the different alaṃkāras mentioned by Vāmana]
The backdrop of the Srikanthacarita and the Mankhakosa (by Dhrubajit Sarma)
Part 5q - Alaṃkāra (17): Vibhāvanā or peculiar causation < [Chapter III - Literary Assessment Of The Śrīkaṇṭhacarita]
Part 1 - Rīti or the style < [Chapter III - Literary Assessment Of The Śrīkaṇṭhacarita]
Satirical works of Kshemendra (study) (by Arpana Devi)
1.4. Vibhāvanā (peculiar causation) < [Chapter 4 - Literary study of the Three Satirical Works]
Mudrarakshasa (literary study) (by Antara Chakravarty)
3.17. Use of Vibhāvanā-alaṃkāra < [Chapter 3 - Use of Alaṃkāras in Mudrārākṣasa]
3.4a. Arthālaṃkāras (Alaṃkāras that depend upon the meanings of words) < [Chapter 3 - Use of Alaṃkāras in Mudrārākṣasa]
Garga Samhita (English) (by Danavir Goswami)
Verse 4.19.129 < [Chapter 19 - A Thousand Names of Srī Yamunā]