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INTRODUCTION
Baku, devour my evil dream". The Baku will listen to this prayer which will be rewarded with good fortune. The Vedic texts also enjoin on the dreamer to wipe his face to keep away its untoward effect.
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(B) THE IDEA OF THE RISTAS AS FOUND IN VEDIC LITERATURE :— § The theory of divination has its root in mimetic magic. Forecasting of events is largely dependent on the course and movement of things. Still, however, future could not be entirely foreseen. This very fact was a causal factor in calling for divine help to decipher the phenomena which eluded the grasp of 10 human understanding. Between ordinary divination and the divination through divine help there is a fundamental difference. In the former it is the human agency that occupies predominant position while in the latter it is the divine favour which reveals the unknown. Thus mimetic magic, religious ceremonies and is rites have all a legitimate use and application in omens and portents.
There is a number of interpretations as there is a number of cultures. The Vedic texts are replete with such references. A future can be foreseen through the sacrificial fire and the z victim-the two indispensable elements of the sacrifice-which are believed to be connected with gods in the heavens. Birds and beasts also have been adequately recognized in them and used as means for fathoming future. The direction of the bridegroom could be settled from the first appearance of a 25 crow'. A bright flame or a smoky flame as also the conduct of a cow at the sacrifice could lend a diagnostic clue to the degree of a good luck of the sacrificer. The outcome of a war and the soul's condition after death could be divined from the behaviour of a fire. The RV also takes a passing notice: of the birds of oment. Owl has a distinct place in the Science of Omens and Portents. The sex of the unborn babe was inferred from the gender of the limb of the pregnant woman touched by a Brahmin boys.
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Jain Education International
1 KauS, xxxiv, 24.
2 GGS, iv. 8. 15; SB, iv. 5. 8. 11.
3 AGS, iv. 4. 2ff.
4 ii, 42 and 43; cf. also HGS, i. 17. 3.
5 KauS, xxxiii, 19; also see HENRY, La Magie dans l'Inde Antique, p. 67.
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