The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s6.21

v2.c32.s6.21

The existence of men skilled in the interpretation of omens is natural and is also recorded, as for instance in the case of the men who could tell the marks which led to luck or otherwise in the choice of a wife. We hear also of a prophet who made his prophecies on the basis of the smoke of dung, the Çakadhūma of the Atharvaveda, whose business it was, it is clear, to forecast the weather.⁶ We learn also of men who by the means of plants such as the Sadampuṣpā⁷ were able to behold sorcerers male and female, whether they went in the sky or on the earth: the same idea of the power of socerers to assume various forms is found in the Rigveda⁸ where it asks for the destruction of the demons, who in form of birds fly about the village at night. Necromancy, however, is not apparently known,⁹ nor the inspection, on a system, of the entrails of the victims, in order to read the future.