Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s2.t6.1
Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s2.t6.1
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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