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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
past, present and future.' At the death-bed of a man various universal phenomena (artitthaga), which could forecast the future, could be of three types—(i) physical ( kayika ) like the throbbing of eyes or arms, (ii) vocal (vācika) like the words unconsciously or accidentally uttered which come out to be true in life (sahasa-bhasita) and (iii) mental like dreams etc.
People firmly believed in the potentiality of dreams (suvina). The dreams seen in the early hours of the morning were taken to forecast the coming events. Dreams and their results could be of five types-(i) dreams that come out to be true in life (ahātacca)—this type of dream could be seen only by holy and pure-minded people, (ii) dreams seen in an unbroken chain (pratata ), (iii) dreams concurring with the thoughts. of a person (cimta-savina), (iv) dreams radically opposite to the actual happenings in life ( vivarita ), and lastly, (v) the dreams which one does not remember properly or the implications of which cannot be understood by the person concerned (avvatļa ).4 The science of dreams thus was well-defined, and there is no doubt that the birth of all the great personalities in Jaina, Buddhist as well as Brāhmanic literature is always linked with various dreams which their mothers are apt to behold at the time of conception.
Like the belief in dreams to be seen by the mothers of the great religious personages, it was also believed that such a child would be invested with certain auspicious distinctive body marks as well as certain moral or spiritual qualities to forecast his future greatness. Such distinctive marks were known as lakṣaṇa and vyañjana. The former could be of two types--the internal marks like the nature, physical strength and other moral virtues etc., and the external marks like speech, complexion and physical marks which could be seen on hands
1. NC. 3, p. 18. 2. NC. 3, pp. 384-85. 3. NC. 3, p. 384. 4. NC. 3, p. 385. 5. N. Bha. 4292-3; NC. 3, pp. 383-84.
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