History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.199
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.199
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It has already been seen (p 728, notes 1157 and 1158) how in the Vedic literature dreams had been associated with good luck or ill-luck. The two epics, the Svapnādhyāya (of Ātharvaṇa-pariśiṣṭa LXVIII pp 438-449), the Bṛhad-yoga-yātrā of Vārāha (chap 16. 1-31), Purāṇas such as Vāyu (chap 19. 13-18), Matsya (chap. 242), Viṣṇudharmottara (II. 176), Bhaviṣya I. 194, Brahmavaivarta-purāṇa (Gaṇeśa-khaṇḍa 34. 10-40), describe good or bad dreams; Agni (229, many verses of which are the same as those of Matsya chap. 242), Bhujabala of Bhoja (pp. 298-304 verses 1347-1378), the Adbhutasāgara pp. 493-515 deal at length with the matters relating to dreams and śāntis therefor. Śaṅkarācārya in his commentary on Vedāntasūtra¹²⁵² remarks that those who have studied the Svapnādhyāya declare that to see oneself riding on an elephant or the like is auspicious and to see oneself sitting in a conveyance drawn by asses is inauspicious (or unlucky). It appears that rarely an ancient writer like Aṅgiras¹²⁵³ said 'the movements of planets, dreams, nimittas (like throbbing), utpātas (portents) produce some consequences by chance; wise men are not afraid of them'. Numerous dreams are mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa on several occasions. Some examples may be given. In the Sundarakāṇḍa (chap. 27, 23 ff) Trijaṭā (a *rākṣasī*) details several dreams that she saw and that indicated the destruction of rākṣasas and that were favourable to Rāma. Among the evil omens that she saw in her dream about Rāvaṇa were;
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he had his head shaved, he drank oil with which he was drenched, he was dressed in red garments, was intoxicated, wore wreaths of Karavīra flowers, he fell on the earth from his puṣpaka balloon, he was carried in a chariot drawn by asses, he was wearing red flowers and was anointed with red unguents &c. (verses 19-27). Similar dreams occur as seen by Trijaṭā in the story of Rāma contained in the Vanaparva chap. 280. verses 64-66. In the Ayodhyākāṇḍa (chap. 69. 8. ff) Bharata who was with his maternal uncle saw in a dream his father (Daśaratha) dirty and with dishevelled hair, falling from a mountain peak in a turbid lake full of cowdung, drinking that dirty water and oil; he also saw the ocean dried up and the moon fallen on the earth, he saw his father seated on a dark seat of iron and wearing black garments and beaten by women dark and tawny in colour, he saw him going to the south in a chariot drawn by asses &c. Bharata says that these dreams indicated the death of the king (Daśaratha) or of Rāma or Lakṣmaṇa. In the Mausalaparva of the Mahābhārata (chap. 3.
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1-4) the Yādavas saw in dreams a black woman with whitish teeth running to Dvārakā with a laugh and kidnapping their women and terrible vultures were seen to be devouring the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas in their own houses in which sacred fires had been established &c It is impossible to point out the unlucky and lucky dreams as their number mentioned in Adbhutasāgara (pp 502-513), quoting the Purāṇas, Parāśara, the works of Varāha and others is extremely large One passage from the Matsyapurāna (242 verses 2-14, quoted in Adbhutasāgara pp 502-503) is cited here by way of illustration; 'the springing of grass and plants from one's body (except from the navel); bronze vessels dashed against one's head and pulverized; shaving of the head; nakedness; wearing dirty garments; bath with oil; being smeared with mud; fall from a high spot (hill &c ); sitting in a swing, collecting mud and iron, killing horses; ascending trees that have flowers and over circles and riding boars, bears, asses and camels; eating of (the flesh of) birds and fishes and oil and rice mixed with *mudga* or *māṣa*, dancing, laughing, marriage and singing; playing on musical instruments other than stringed ones; going for a dip in a river, bath with water mixed with cowdung or mud or with water fallen on bare earth; entering the womb of one's mother, ascending a funeral pyre; the fall of Indra's banner; the fall of the Sun and the Moon;
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seeing portents of the three kinds (heavenly, those in atmospheric regions and earthly); anger of gods, brāhmaṇas, kings and one's gurus, embracing maidens; sodomy, loss of one's limbs; vomiting and purging, going to the southern direction, being overwhelmed by a disease; fall of fruits and of flowers; fall of houses; sweeping of houses with a broom; playing with goblins, birds or animals that subsist on putrid flesh, monkeys, bears and men, humiliation by strangers (or enemies); arising of calamity brought on by another person (or enemy); wearing ochre-coloured garments; playing with women; plunging into oil or drinks; wearing red flowers and applying red unguents; these and others are inauspicious dreams.