Dreams in The Ramayana: A Study

The phenomenon of Dreams is a subject of absorbing interest. Scientists, Physiologists and psychologists have made elaborate studies on the origin, nature and contents of dreams and established their connection with the physical and psychic conditions of the dreamers. It is believed that sound sleep gives no quarter to dreams. Only those whose minds are disturbed be desires, ambitions or fears usually provide congenial climate for dreams to slide in. In such situations, the pictures that appear in the dreams may raise hopes of fulfilment or presage failure and frustration. The scenes that the dreamer visions are assessed as good or bad, according to their association with the features which attend on them. Some features are considered auspicious and they yield good results; while others are deemed inauspicious and they forebode evil. Sastras and tradition, and experience stretched over epochs, have defined which elements in the dreams signify beneficial results and which others presage, evil effects. Similarly, natural occurrences, sounds made by animals and notes of birds, sudden twitches in the limbs or organs of the human bodies are invested with auspicious or inauspicious import. Poets have lavishly drawn upon the hoary tradition of beliefs of their times to enliven and vivify the situations and deepen their significance. Valmiki, who takes primacy among poets, has made use of this popular lore with telling effect.

Valmiki has given, in picturesque detail, dreams of Bharata and Trijata and the dream, or more precisely the recollection, of Dasaratha about his youthful misadventure resulting in the blind anchorite’s curse. An attempt is made, in the following pages, to analyse their contents and indicate their import.

Dasaratha’s Dream (or Recollection) Rama leaves for the woods (with Sita and Lakshmana, who volunteer to accompany him) to preserve and enhance his father’s reputation for strict abidance in truth. There is no trace in his demeanour of disappointment, much less of distress, for the sudden reversal in his fortune-­the day fixed for his installation as Crown-Prince and Heir-apparent turns out to be the day on which he departs from the city as an exile into the woods. Dasaratha is shattered with intense grief; he stands dazed: he stares in the direction in which the chariot carrying its precious burden moves, till it goes out of sight. Guilt of his hasty acquiescence in the demands of Kaika, without ascertaining, in advance, their nature and contents, smites him hard. He curses his infatuation for a woman whose beautiful features have successfully concealed a vile mind and a venomous heart. Remorse for, making himself, under Kaika’s strangle-grip, a stranger to Kausalya, the Queen­Eminent, and Sumitra, the senior queen, makes him acutely miserable. A sudden rush of harrowing sensations, owing to this lapses in the past, take an agonising edge with the departure of Rama, his most-beloved son and universal favourite; and he collapses to the ground. Kausalya and Sumitra raise him; Kaika, too, attempts to lend her hand of support. The king denounces her. He renounces his association with her, as she has wickedness. He forbids her touch: he announces that, by separating him from Rama, she has hastened his death; for without him, he cannot live. He bitterly declares that now that her wish is fulfilled, she may rule over the kingdom as a widow. He even goes to the extent of expressing his wish that if Bharata acts in tune with his mother’s conduct he should not perform his obsequies. A pall of gloom and mourning spreads over the city of Ayodhya; it is the darkest day in its history.

Dasaratha frets and raves in agony and wishes to be taken to Kausalya’s mansion, where, he hopes to get some relief and consolation from the touch of the mother, whose hands have fondled Rama with love and solicitude. Kausalya’s affliction on parting from her son is no less severe than her husband’s; despite Sumitra’s assurance that no evil dare approach Rama who is the Supreme, under whose command all the elements and the entire Universe function, the mother’s grief does not abate a bit. Sumantra returns from the woods with the empty chariot and gives a factual account of what has happened there. The report accentuates the mother’s grief; and forgetting for the nonce her obligations as a virtuous woman and loyal wife, she makes a scathing attack on the king for his vulnerability to the blandishments of Kaika, a venomous serpent at heart, who has brought ruin, at one stroke, to him, to her, to the royal house, to the kingdom and people of Kosala, by her machinations, resulting in Rama’s exile. And the king should thank himself for this grand achievement!

hatyam tvayaa raajyamidam
 saraashtram hatastathaattaa
saha mantribhischa
hataassaputraasmi hataascha
pauraassutascha bhaaryaa
cha tavaprahrishthau

This avalanche of bitterness, emerging from an unexpected quarter, reduces Dasaratha, who is passing through the fiery ordeal of repentance, tothe position of a humble supplicant for her gracious forgiveness and considerate treatment.

dahyanwanassa sokaabhyaam
Kousalyaamaaha bhoopatih
vepamaanaainjalim    Kritvaa
prasaadaartha mavaunjmukhah
Prasaadaya tvaam Kousalya ravitoyam
mayaanjalih;

The presence of her husband, shorn of his kingly majesty and beseeching comfort at her hands, wrings her heart; grief has carried her too far and made her oblivious to her obligations to her husband. She makes ample amends for her misconduct and puts forth earnest efforts to console and comfort him, with the observation that he is not at fault as he has no alternative to his committal to truth-abidance and therefore no blame attaches to him.

Jaanaamidharmam dharmajna
tvaamjaane satyavaadinam
putrasokaartayaa tattu maya kimapi bhaashitah

Kausalya’s atonement serves only to aggravate the poignance of his guilt as the cause of all this misery; he feels thoroughly exhausted and drops unaware into sleep. So does Kausalya.

Dasaratha’s Dream (?) or Recollection: Six days have passed since Rama left Ayodhya; these six days appear to be six epochs of excruciating agony. Dasaratha is suddenly roused from sleep at midnight as a strong premonition of impending death flashes across his mind. Could this be due to a dream of his past misadventure as a youthful Crown Prince, an unwitting crime of murder of the only son and prop of blind anchorite-patients with the curse that it has brought upon him? Or could it be due to a resurging contrition for guilt committed and the curse earned as consequential penalty? In whichever way it is taken, it accentuates his dejection and restlessness. He can find some relief by disburdening his heart to one whose anguish is as intense as his; and so he awakens Kousalya and recounts the episode to her in vivid detail.

Dasaratha is known to be an expert marksman; he is a master of Sadbavedhi Vidya; he could shoot at unseen targets aiming at them by the sounds they produce. Rainy season provokes passion and swagger: Praavridaanupraaptsa mada Kaama vivardhanee:Clouds and night contribute to blinding darkness. Dasaratha feels enthusiastic to go a ­hunting; he exercises his expertise and succeeds in hitting two wild beasts by releasing his arrows in the directions from which he has heard their sounds. Success goes to his head; he hears a bubbling sound of water and behaves that a wild elephant has come to the river to quench its thirst and is sucking water with its trunk. A pitcher, dipped in water to fill it in, also produces a similar sound. But without waiting to verify the source, he lets fly an unerring arrow at the unseen target and hits it. He discovers, to his consternation, that the object hit is a human-being, an anchorite, come to collect water in his jug. And the Prince hears his wail, complaining that he who lives on roots and fruits, who has given offence to none, has been struck. With one arrow the hunter has killed not only him but also both his blind parents by cutting off their prop.

Ekenakhalubanena marmanyabhi hate mayi
dvavandhau nihataa vriddhau maataajanayituachame

“Dasaratha feels stunned at the sight of the youth rolling in blood and writhing in pain. The youth tells the Prince, who he is and how his blind parents are in dire need of water to quench their thirst and desires him to pluck out the piercing arrow from the painful wound and hasten to them and report what has happened. Any delay on his part will involve him and his lineage (vamsa) in utter ruin from their curse. Accordingly, Dasaratha hastens to the blind happening. He craves for their pardon for his unwitting committal of a grave crime. The parents are considerate because of his frank confession and desire him to lead them to their dead son. They touch his body and set up a heart-rending wail and tell their son to wait for their company, as they have no wish to stay behind even for a moment turning to Dasaratha, the father has urged him to put them to death. But as the Prince keeps mum, trembling, he tells him that the gift of sorrow for his son, that he has given him in his old age, will not go in vain; and that the Prince will suffer a similar fate and die of grief, parted from his son, in his old age.

putra vyvsanajam duhkham yedetan
mama saampratam
evamtvam putrasokena Raajan Kaalam Karishyasi

Then the blind anchorites fling themselves into the blazing funeral pyre of their son and end their lives.

This unfortunate misadventure of Dasaratha in his youth may have unrolled itself in his dream on that fateful night-the night that turns out to be the last in his life! The picture of the blind old anchorite, pronouncing the curse that climaxes the dream, shocks the king and he wakes up with a start. Separation from Rama has broken his heart; and he now feels that the time has come for the anchorite’s curse to take effect. Or, it may be that Dasaratha’s sudden recollection, in a flash, of this long-forgotten guilt and the resulting curse, has abruptly shaken him now from sleep; it begins to haunt him like a nightmare. Restlessness holds him in its grip; and contrition and remorse, couples with premonition of impending death, drive him to desperation. He declares that to him alone belongs the credit of a father banishing his son for no fault of his and that to Rama alone redounds the glory of a son quietly acquiescing in his father’s unjust wish. Dasarahta feels the acute agony of separation from such a virtuous and noble-hearted son; his heart beats faintly; his spirits droop; his breath flickers; his lips utter the name of Rama; he longs for his embrace; failing to realise his wish, he faints unconscious and falls into deep sleep - ­Kausalya and Sumitra, smitten as they are with grief unfathomable, slide exhausted into rest. In the dread silence of midnight, the king’s soul takes its flight; and none is aware of its departure!

Bharata’s Dream: Bharata is at Girivrajapuram with Satrughna keeping him company. He is blissfully, nay, more precisely woefully, unaware of the tragic developments at home in Ayodhya. Mithila and Kekaya are deliberately kept in the dark, for tactical reasons, about the proposed installation of Rama as Crown Prince and Heir - apparent. This proposal does not materialise. Manthara designs a clever scheme, and Kaika executes it with tenacious pugnacity, to thwart the celebration; Kaika succeeds in securing the throne for her son, Bharata, and in sending Rama into exile. Dasaratha, unable to bear separation from his beloved son, collapses and dies. Vasishtha sends messengers of known integrity, loyalty, tact and competence, to fetch Bharata to Ayodhya. They are specifically instructed not to disclose the tragic happenings at Ayodhya to anyone; they are to convey to Bharata that the preceptor desires his immediate presence at home. They make all speed and reach their destination at dawn after three days of strenuous journey.

Bharata has had a dream, full of ill-­import, the night previous to the arrival of the messengers. He is very much depressed in spirit. The attempts of friends and courtiers to cheer him up prove futile. The terrible dream has turned the gay youth into a brooding, melancholy person. What he has seen in his dream has abruptly upset him and with good reason. In it, he sees his father fall precipitously from a mountain­ summit into a stinking pit of cow-dung. Then Dasaratha appears eating plums of rice mixed with sesame (ginglelly seed); he drinks palmfuls of oil with avidity and laughs and makes merry, all the while floating on filth-Quite a horrid sight, indeed!

Svapne pitara madraaksham malinam muhtamoorthajam
Patanta madri sihharaat Kalushe gomayahrade
plavamaanascha me drishta ssa tasmin gomayahrade
pibannanjali new tailam hasannapi muhurmuhuhuh

Bharata then witnesses a violent cataclysm in nature: Earth shakes and cracks; mountains crash into shreds; trees shed their leaves, fade and die; seas dry up; the moon suffers an inglorious fall; blazing fire suddenly gets extinguished; a thick shroud of grim darkness spreads, in a trice, over the entire world.

Svapnepi saagaram sushkam chandram cha patitam bhivi
aparuddhaam cha jagateem tamaseva samaavritaam
avateernaam cha prithiveem sushkaamshca vividhaan drumaan
aham pasyaami vidhvastaan sadhoomaamchaapi parvataan

The dream reaches the climax, the king presents himself, clad in dark robes, and drives in a chariot, yoked to donkeys, heading south. A ghastly demoness in red garments sprouts from nowhere, breaks into ghoulish laugh, snatches the king and knocks him down against the earth.

tvaramaanascha dharmaatmaa raktamaalyannulepanah
rathena kharayuktena prayaato dakshinaamukhah
prahasamteeva Raajaanam pramadaa raktavaasinee
prakarshantee mayaadrishtaa raakshasee vikritaananaa

This terrible dream sends a chill shiver along his spine. Bharata, who knows no fear, is dreadfully shaken; he feels petrified at his shocking spectacle. It takes sometime for him to recover HIS poise and to realise that he has just passed through a dream. But he is very much disturbed in mind; for such inauspicious dreams presage grave disasters.

The Import of the Dream: The convulsions in nature, affecting planets, elements and living creatures, signify that some great disaster has happened with a malevolent impact on the entire world. Could this not be construed as indicating the intense grief, shared by all elements and living creatures, in Ayodhya and its environs, when the universal favourite, Rama, leaves to lead an anchorite-life in the woods? But what depresses Bharata most is the series of spectacles concerning his father. Dasaratha’s fall from a lofty mountain into a deep filthy pit suggests the loss of his majesty and power; his blind and thoughtless acquiescence in Kaika’s demands leads him into the trap laid by the crafty Manthara; once caught in it, he loses dignity and command, and is reduced to the position of a servile petitioner; and his impotent threats and humble entreaties alike fail to impress Kaika or change her mind. The pleasure he derives from eating rice mixed with sesame (gingelly-seed) and from indulging in bouts of oil-draughts, all the time lolling in filth, indicates how he has lost all sensitiveness and become a stranger to decorum and decency. Does this not suggest that whim the king finds no alternative to his committal to satisfy Kaika’s demands, the dismal prospect of Rama’s exile unhinges his mind and helpless wrath makes him mad? This marks a further stage in his degradation. His drive on donkey-yoked chariot proceeding south, the domain of Yama, presages the course of his last journey. Recollection, in a flash, of his youthful misadventure, ending as it were in an unwitting triple murder of the blind anchorite’s and their son, and incurring, as a result, the curse of death from separation from Rama breaks the king’s heart and ends his misery...and life. An attempt is here made to link up the various phases in Bharata’s dream to the course of events which have lately happened in Ayodhya.

The Dream comes true: to the story. The more Bharata thinks of his father, who is far away at Ayodhya, the more he trembles, fearing about his safety. It is at this juncture that the messengers from Ayodhya arrive at Kekaya’s court. They take care to observe the usual royal courtesies, pay their respects to the king and his son, deliver the gifts they have brought for them from Ayodhya, hint at the urgency of their mission, and then meet Bharata and convey the message of the Preceptor Vasishtha and the ministers that his immediate presence is required at Ayodhya. They merely impress upon him the urgency of the summons and the need for expeditious return, without giving any hint of the tragic happenings at home. Deeply distressed as Bharata is with a strong premonition of grave disaster, he eagerly enquires about the welfare of his loving father, noble brothers, Queens Kousalya and Sumitra whom he esteems for their abidance in righteousness and lastly his mother for whose impulsiveness he expresses real concern. The messengers return a tactical evasive answer; “how can those happiness he so fondly cherishes be otherwise”? They even declare that good fortune attends on him: Could this be an enigmatic reference to his impending installation as King? But Bharata finds no comfort; his anxiety is not allayed; he takes leave of his grandfather and uncle and makes haste to reach home. Finding that the large retinue of attendants and caravan, burdened with heavy and lavish gifts, have impeded quick movement, Bharata leaves the entourage in Satrughna’s charge and proceeds alone, in advance, with utmost speed.

A desolate scenario greets him as he approaches his capital. The verdant gardens are bereft of their glory; the twittering birds have lost their sweet voice; the sonorous Vedic chants seem to have become frozen; the streets appear deserted; gaiety and cheer have disappeared; the whole city is shrouded in death-like silence. Inauspicious sights and dolorous sounds abound everywhere. Bharata is perplexed, he is very much upset; his heart beats fast. How woeful it will be, if his dream has projected real happenings! The pall of gloom that has stifled Ayodhya.

Bharata is shocked: His dream has shown his father involved in perilous situations. He must make sure that he is safe; he must seek him and make his obeisance’s. He rushes into his father’s mansion but does not find him there; the king then must be in Kaika’s company; he repairs to his mother’s chambers; but he is not there, either; where then could he be? That he will learn from his mother, who advances towards him to welcome him. He prostrates before her: she raises him, embraces him, seats him on her lap, enquires about the welfare of her father and brother. He briefly answers her and questions, with a palpitating heart, about the whereabouts of his father. Greed has infected Kaika and has driven out from her sensitiveness, decency, decorum,   righteousness, considerateness, clemency and other virtues. Her reply, to her son’s enquiry reveals her callousness and indifference. She tells him that Dasaratha has gone the way of all living creatures and reached his destination; he is dead. Bharata receives the first shock; his dream has come true; his father is no more. He wails for the tragic loss of an extremely loving father; he regrets that he is denied the privilege of attending on him in his last days. Kaika counsels him not to make himself miserable, as death is inevitable and unavoidable for all living creatures. And this consolation comes from the queen to whom Dasaratha has given the privilege of monopolising his love and attention! This casualness in his mother’s attitude must have dealt a severer blow to Bharata than that the loss of his father did! From now on, Bharata is to receive unexpected shocks in quick succession. In her mood of exhilaration for her success in accomplishing her wish of making her son king, Kaika makes use of all her ingenuity in leading her son, step by step, to the climax of her achievement.

Uttishotishtha kim seshe Rajan natra mahaayasah

She addresses him as ‘Raja’ thus administering, unwittingly, another shock to her son. He declines the title as it rightly belongs to Rama, the eldest of the sons of Dasaratha; and it will be his pleasant duty to render him loyal service. He enquires whether the dying king has left any message for him. Kaika reports with utter fidelity that Dasaratha has wailed, in a groan, that he is not fortunate to extend welcome to Rama, Sita and Lakshmana when they return to Ayodhya from the woods.

Raameti Raajaa vilapan haaseete Lakshaneticha
namahaatma paramlokam gatogati nwtaamvarah

This is the third shock which unnerves Bharata. He expresses bewilderment as to why such models of virtue and righteousness are made to undergo penal penance in exile. Kaika assures her son that Rama has not strayed from Dharma even a whit. In her womanly vanity, Kaika commits a mistake in thinking that her son will be pleased with her efforts to secure for him an uncontested crown; and she gives a forthright account of how she has manoeuvred to upset Rama’s instant installation as Crown Prince by the clever device of wresting from his father a solemn pledge to redeem the two boons granted to her years ago. After his committal, she advances her demands to crown Bharata and to send Rama into exile for fourteen years. As one who abides by truth, the king has had no alternative to conceding her wishes. Sita and Lakshmana volunteer to accompany Rama. This news paralyses Bharata. The disclosures reach the climax when Kaika reports that separation from Rama has become unbearable for the king and resulted in his death.

Mayaatu putra srutvyava Raamasyai uaabhishechanam
yaachitaste pitaa raajyam Raamasyacha vivaasanam
sasvavrittim sanwastaaya pitaa te tattathaa karot
Raamascha saha Soumitri preshita Sseetayaa saha
tanwpasyan priyam putram maheepaalo mahaa yasaah
Putrasoka paridyunah panchatva mupasedivaan

Kaika urges her son not to grieve but boldly accept what has come his way without his seeking or working for it­ the undisputed sovereignty over Kosala. It is now clear to Bharata that his mother is the root-cause of the entire tragedy. Inordinate greed has expelled from her heart all higher impulses and nobler sentiments and has completely erased her fond attachment to her husband and her deep affection for Rama. Every detail of his dream seems to have received full reflection in the grim sequence of dreadful happenings at Ayodhya. Bharata knows his mother well enough as a vain, vengeful, haughty and irascible lady: aatma kaamaa sadaa chandee krodhanaa prajanamaninee. But he has never imagined that she could be mean, guileful, callous, treacherous and wicked. The simmering grief in Bharata’s heart, now accentuated by bitter resentment at his mother’s monstrous conduct, explodes like a volcano in a scathing, merciless attack on Kaika. He declares his innocence; he is unaware of the conspiracy brewing in his mother’s chambers; and he denounces his mother for her reprehensible machinations, and he refuses to profit by them. He takes a solemn vow to undo the mischief wrought by her and clear himself of the ill-repute brought on him by her. The main purpose of her strategy is to install her son on the throne. Rama’s exile is secondary; his absence from Ayodhya is meant to facilitate establishment of Bharata’s hold on the kingdom and the subjects. It is sheer irony that she succeeds in sending Rama to the woods and fails ignominiously in achieving her primary objective. The castle she has built in the air goes up in smoke. The very person for whose benefit she has worked so hard and taken unflinchingly, in her stride, universal condemnation and execration for her cruel and stubborn conduct, now turns against her and administers a violent shock. She collapses on the floor and weeps. The hour of her triumph now turns out to be the hour of her discomfiture and degradation.