Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s2.t6: Other Professions
Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s2.t6
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Other Professions
c12.s2.t6.1
Another profession in which the Brāhmaṇas were interested was that of dream-reading (suvinapādhaga) and fortune-telling On the birth of a king's child it seems to have been a standing custom to have the future predicted by the Brāhmaṇas. Signs (lakkhana) in the body were interpreted by the Brāhmaṇas versed in the signs of predicting the future We are told that, when Mahāvīra was born, king Siddhārtha sent for the interpreter of dreams (suviṇalakkhaṇapādhaya), versed in the eight divisions of Mahānimitta and other sciences, who predicted the future of the child ²⁷ Then we hear of a fortune-teller who prophesied the fall of Indra’s thunderbolt on the head of the lord of Poyanapura.²⁸ People ascertained from the Brāhmaṇas whether a day was good for a journey, when the latter uttered benediction praying for safe journey.²⁹
c12.s2.t6.2
²⁷ Kalpa Sū 4 60 ff
c12.s2.t6.3
²⁸ Uttarā Ṭī 18 p 242
c12.s2.t6.4
²⁹ Nāya 8, p 98
c12.s2.t6.5
Magic and demon-worship was another profession practised by the Brāhmaṇas which we shall treat in a separate chapter Medical profession is mentioned as still another profession of the Brāhmaṇas
Linked texts (3)
- Uttarajjhayaṇa — Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
- Nāyādhammakahāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
- Kalpasūtra — Bhadrabāhu, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit