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The dream is an important motif in ancient Sanskrit literature. It figures prominently in many a work where it is used as an indicator of coming events, good or bad. There had developed in the ancient period in India a regular science of dreams. There were persons versed in interpreting them to whom people repaired for getting the meaning of them and having an idea of what they signified. This was necessary because many a time the events in dreams were indicated through symbols and not directly, which needed to be related to them through proper interpretation. Hence the need of intermediaries. Sometimes the people could themselves interpret them on the basis of the traditional knowledge. They could also do so on the basis of their mental state after the dreams. If they felt uneasy, their mind and heart heavy, they took the dream to forebode some evil. If they felt happy and light, they took the dream to indicate something good. The dream sequence occurs in the Valmiki Ramayana twice, once in the case of Bharata and the other time in the case of Trijata. After Dasaratha had died and his body placed in an oil container by ministers, messengers were despatched to Kekaya post haste to bring Bharata back to Ayodhya to perform Dasaratha's obsequies which in the absence of Rama and Laksmana he alone could perform and to assume the reins of office to avoid the kingdom from slipping into anarchy. The very night the messengers entered the capital of Kekaya, Bharata saw a terrible dream. After it he felt very unhappy. Nothing seemed

to appeal to him. He told his friends of what he had seen. He had seen his father soiled and with unkempt hair falling from the top of a mountain into a pool of cowdung and while swimming in it drinking oil again and again. He then helped himself with sesame seeds and cooked rice, tilaudana and with his body besmeared with oil floated in oil. He next saw the ocean sucked dry and the moon fallen on the earth with the whole world engulfed in a sort of darkness. The next scene was that of a royal elephant with its tusk broken to pieces, the flaming fire suddenly extinguished, the earth cracked, the trees dried, the mountains in disarray and in smoke, the dark and brown ladies sitting on a dark iron stool and in dark attire hitting his father. He further saw him in red garments hurrying to the southern quarter in a chariot drawn by asses. A demon lady in red clothes with hideous looks was dragging him. She looked like laughing. With this dream Bharata was apprehending the death of any of the four: Dasaratha, Rama, Laksmana or himself: evam etan maya drstam imam ratrim bhayavahami aham ramo 'thava raja laksmano va marisyatill After the dream Bharata was just a bundle of nerves; his throat drying up and his mind totally uneasy. Since he was quite unaware of the goings on in Ayodhya, he could not make out as to what evil could befall anybody. But then the dream was precisely indicating that. He lost his lustre, his voice sank. Whatever other indications, he knew this much at least that "anybody seen in a dream going in a chariot drawn by asses has his smoke in the funeral pyre before long." The dream, therefore, was indicative of the death of somebody. Bharata lost his equanimity. And it was in that state that he reached Ayodhya. The dream seemed to prepare him for the harsh reality that he was to face some time later. The other dream, as said earlier, is which Trijata, one of the demoness guards of Sita sees in the Asokavatika. After Ravana had failed to win over Sita, the demoness guards threatened her with dire consequences for spurning his overtures. Their harsh words and threatening postures so unnerved her that she thought CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delui. Dieved her that she thought

The Significance of Dreams in the Ramayana 47 of ending her life. At that crucial moment an elderly demoness guard of the name of Trijata gave a bit of her mind to her other companions and told them of the dream that she had seen the previous night. She had seen in it Rama in white dress and with white garlands come with Laksmana in a divine ivory palanquin drawn in the midair by a thousand horses and Sita united with him like the light with the sun on a white mountain surrounded by a sea. Next scene in the dream was that of Rama moving about with Laksmana on a four-tusked mighty elephant. Both the brothers then came to Sita in white dress and with white garlands. Sita then climbed up the front part of the aerial elephant which Rama was riding. She, after that, jumped up and wiped with her hands the sun and the moon. The elephant carrying the two brothers and Sita then came to position itself above Lanka in a chariot drawn by eight white bullocks. Trijata had seen in the dream Rama in the aerial car Puspaka with his brother Laksmana and wife Sita. She had also seen Rama devouring all the three worlds with every thing moving and unmoving. Next she had seen a white mountain come up in the midst of the milk ocean with a four-tusked mighty elephant on its top on whose back was seated Rama with Laksmana and Sita. She had further seen Rama with his face to the east having ceremonial bath with waters of all the holy places. All the gods bowed to him. He was accompanied by Sita, in white dress and with white garlands. Rama then assumed the form of Visnu to whom all the gods, the Siddhas, the Gandharvas and Brahmarsis, led by Brahma, paid obeisance. Next to this she had seen him proceeding to the north in the company of Laksmana and Sita in the aerial car, the Puspaka. This was with Rama. With Ravana it was entirely different. She had seen him with shaven head, bathed in oil, in red dress, drinking oil, in a state of intoxication with a garland of the Karavira flowers. He had slipped from the aerial car, the Puspaka , and in black dress was dragged by a woman. With red garlands and unguents he, drinking oil and laughing and dancing in confused mind was proceeding to the southern quarter in a chariot drawn by an ass. He was seen next dropping down from an ass.

He got up after that scared and uneasy, beside himself with intoxication, hurling abuses in a state of nudity. He had entered into a mire of filth, unbearable and of foul smell and got drowned in it. He then was seen proceeding to the southern quarter and entering into a mudless pond. A dark woman in red clothes with her limbs soiled with mud was dragging him to the southern quarter. Similarly she had seen Kumbhakarna and all the sons of Ravana with shaven heads and bathed in oil. Ravana had gone riding a boar, Indrajit a gangetic-porpoise and Kumbhakarna a camel to the southern quarter. The next scene was that of Lanka with its broken Gopura and arches sinking into the ocean. All the demonesses of that city who had drunken oil and who were giving out loud laughter in a state of intoxication she had seen entering into a pool of cowdung along with Kumbhakarna and other prominent demons. All this seen in a dream, says, Trijata, had convinced her that Rama would recover Sita and Ravana would meet his nemesis. She advised the demoness guards to desist from threatening Sita and be at peace with her. Since the Rama story has been told by many writers, apart from Valmiki and in many countries, it has come to assume varied forms and contours. A number of new incidents have come to be incorporated into it and the sequence of many of them changed. The dream sequence has also had its share of change. Taking up the Ramacaritamanasa of Tulasidasa we find that it too makes a reference to two dreams of which only one, the dream of Trijata is common with Valmiki. And the other one is entirely new. There is nothing of Bharata's dream there. Instead, there is mention of a dream of Sita. As per the story there Bharata along with the Ayodhya citizenry proceeded to Pancavati to bring Rama back. The night preceding the morning Bharata was nearing it, Sita had a dream which she recounted to Rama. She had seen in it Bharata having come there (Citrakuta) with a mass of people who appeared to her to be sad, sorrowful and afflicted. She had also seen the mothers-in-law in an abnormal mood. On hearing of the dream Rama's eyes were filled with tears and he told Laksmana that the dream was not good and forebode listening to a bad news.

The Significance of Dreams in the Ramayana 49 The dream of Trijata in essentials is the same as in Valmiki but lacks its detail and finesse. It is dismissed just in four couplets of which only two are devoted to its description. Trijata sees in the dream a monkey burning Lanka and killing its entire demon army. She also sees shaven-headed naked Ravana with his scores of arms severed riding an ass. He is seen proceeding to the southern quarter in that state. Lanka seems to pass on to Vibhisana. Rama's name goes round the city and at his bidding Sita is despatched to him. Trijata tells the other demonesses who had been threatening Sita that her dream is sure to come true and that too before long. On hearing this the demonesses get scared and fall at her feet. Trijata's dream also finds mention in the Ramayana of Kamban, the only dream referred to by him. It has its peculiarity in the way it is introduced. Trijata tells Sita that she sees no dream; she is always thinking of Rama; while she (Trijata) has seen one wherein she has seen Ravana on an ass being led to the southern quarter by a dark woman. The description is more or less the same as in Valmiki though very much shorter, only a couple of stanzas being devoted to it. The Assamese Ramayana in both its parts, the part from Book two to six known as the Satkanda Ramayana by Madhava Kandali and the part comprising Book one by Madhavadeva has reference to dreams. In Book one, the Adi Kanda Kausalya and the other queens of Dasaratha are said to have seen a dream before the birth of Rama. They saw the Lord with conch, discus, mace and lotus appearing before them. The Lord's vehicle Garuda had wings of gold. The Lord was sitting on his (Garuda's) back, like a massive cloud on the mount Meru and was illumining all the quarters. The yellow robe on His dark body shone like lightning in a dark cloud. The necklace round His neck and the golden cloth around His waist were covering His body with the brilliance of the full moon. His eyes were like blooming lotuses. The ornaments on His body shone like stars in the clear sky. His smile was a fountain of nectar. He was looking at the three queens with great joy. In Book two by Madhava Kandali there is reference to the dream of Bharata which in its description is very similar to that Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

of Valmiki. Bharata in his dream is said to have seen the moon falling from the firmament on the earth, the oceans being sucked dry by the evil Rahu, a mighty flash of lightning from a cloudless sky striking the earth and shattering it into innumerable pieces. Bharata saw his father wearing blood-soaked clothes. His whole body looked weak and he was being dragged towards the southern quarter by some unseen forces. He also saw his father's body submerged in a tank of oil. Now coming to the Ramayanas outside of India, we find that there is mention of one dream in the Thai Ramayana called the Ramakien. After renovation of Lanka subsequent to its burning by Hanuman, Ravana had a dream wherein he saw two hawks, one black and the other white, fighting. In the fight the white one killed the black one. After that he saw himself pouring oil in coconut shell and putting a wick in it. As soon as he did that, a lady from somewhere came and lighted the wick which gradually burnt the shell. The fire having consumed it, touched Ravana's hand which was holding it (the shell) and he got up in alarm. The next morning he asked his brother Vibhisana who was well-versed in the science of dreams to interpret the dream to him. Vibhisana told him that the dream was highly inauspicious. The two hawks, he explained, symbolized the two adversaries, the white one Rama and the black one Ravana. The killing of the black one by the white one symbolized the death of Ravana at the hands of Rama. The coconut shell symbolized the city of Lanka and the burning of the shell represented its destruction. The oil in the shell symbolized his entire family which is sure to meet with annihilation. The woman lighting the wick was no other than their sister Surpanakha, the root cause of all troubles. After interpreting the dream Vibhisana advised Ravana to return Sita to Rama and secure thereby the safety of the Raksasa race. In the Laotion Ramayana a lonely Khaisi sees once Phra In (Indra) in a dream, who finding her in love with him, descends on the earth and out of the union of the two Valin is born. The dreams figure in quite a few versions of the Rama story within and outside of India and are used to indicate coming events.