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Vedic view of the nature of sleep:
We know thy place of birth (janitra), O sleep; thou art son
of seizure (grahi),25 agent of Yama (the Lord of Death);
ender art thou, death art thou; so, O sleep, do we compre-
hend thee here; do thou, O sleep, protect us from evil-
dreaming. 2. We know thy place of birth, O sleep; thou art
son of perdition . . . 3. . . . son of ill-success . . . 4. . . . son of
extermination . . . 5. . . . son of calamity . . . 6. We know thy
Dream in the Ancient Indian Matrix 41
place of birth, O sleep; thou art son of the wives (sisters) of
the gods, agent of Yama; ender art thou, death art thou; so,
O sleep, do we comprehend thee here; do thou, O sleep,
protect us from evil-dreaming.26
Here Sleep is regarded as a powerful deity associated with death and
destruction. Sleep is called upon to protect one from evil dreams as
well as to bring the forces of destruction and calamity upon one s
enemies. The following passage uses words associated with the nature
of sleep to curse the enemy:
[W]ith ill-success I pierce him; with extermination I pierce
him; with calamity I pierce him; with seizure I pierce him;
with darkness I pierce him.
Now (idam) do I wipe off evil-dreaming on him of such-
and-such lineage,27 son of such-and-such a mother.28
In the hymns of the Atharva Veda, Sleep is said to have been born
among the Asuras and in search of greatness turned to the celestial
gods, who endowed him with his supreme dominion. But according
to the traditional commentary, Sleep (which is unknown to the de-
parted ancestors and to the gods) was banished from heaven because
he overstepped his bounds and seized on the gods.29
The earliest reference to dream in the hymns of the §g Veda is
concerned with protection from evil dreams: If someone I have met,
O king, or a friend has spoken of danger to me in a dream to frighten
me, or if a thief should waylay us, or a wolf protect us from that,
VaruÆa. 30 Wendy Doniger notes the ambiguity in this passage re-
garding whether the thief and the wolf belong to waking reality or the
dream.31 Nevertheless, the appeal makes it clear that protection is
needed against dream dangers. Beyond that, the evil dream in itself
is associated with wrongdoing and regarded as a danger. Like sin, it
is conceived of quasi-materialistically as something to be separated from
oneself and to be inflicted on one s enemies: We have conquered
today, and we have won; we have become free of sin. The waking
dream, the evil intent let it fall upon the one we hate; let it fall upon
the one who hates us. 32 In the Vedic hymns, psychological conditions
such as bad dreams, unfulfilled wishes, fears of poverty, or feelings of
hatred33 are endowed with a vital and material aspect. The gods are
petitioned to loosen and withdraw sins from the body, to banish
evil deeds. Evil dreams and bad intentions can be sent like disease or
hailstorms to strike one s enemy. Just as sleep is no protection from
42 Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism
sinful deeds that can take place while asleep, so waking is no protec-
tion from the demon of evil-dreaming, which can strike while one
is awake or asleep.34 As in shamanic systems, the language of
externalization and personification creates a world of complex interac-
tions between humans and a universe of persons.
In Vedic literature, the power of sleep/dream is established by
virtue of its fearsome nature. Sleep is the agent of death and far from
being just a bad dream, du÷svapna (nightmare) is among the evils
most to be feared and averted, so much so that there is an entire collec-
tion of hymns and ritual actions dedicated to the destruction of evil-
dreaming,35 among them the following verses from the Atharva Veda:
Sin of the mind, depart far away!
Why do you utter improper suggestions?
Depart from this place! I do not want you!
Go to the trees and the forests! My mind
Will remain here along with our homes and our cattle.
Thou who are not alive, not dead, immortal embryo of the
gods art thou O sleep . . .
We know thy place of birth (janitra), O sleep . . . end-maker
art thou; death art thou; so, O sleep do we comprehend thee
here; do thou, O sleep, protect us from evil-dreaming.36
In these passages, the characteristics of Sleep are highlighted am-
bivalent, liminal, and dangerous; Sleep is the bringer of evil, the evil
itself, and the protector from evil. The unreliable nature of power
and the tension between comfort and anxiety that it produces, is a
theme carried through here, as it is in shamanism. As a deity, Sleep,
who belongs neither to the wakeful living nor the unconscious dead,
is invoked to protect the sleeper from Sleep s own terrifying aspects.
The person is enjoined in one ritual to recite these verses while wash-
ing his face and, if the dream was very bad, then to make an offering
of ritual cakes or deposit such a cake in the territory of an enemy,
thereby transferring the evil to the enemy. As George Bolling sug-
gests, the hymns and rituals to get rid of evil dreaming show that,
like sin (with which it was associated), it was regarded as a form of
quasi-physical contamination37 that could adhere to cows as well as
people and be sent to hang about the neck of one s enemy like an
albatross: What evil-dreaming is in us, what in our kine, and what
in our house, that let him, who is not of us, the god-reviler, the
mocker, put on like a necklace. 38
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