Unique Verses on Oneiromancy in the Suśrutasaṃhitā

The interpretation of dreams, oneiromancy, is the subject of chapter 29 of the Sūtrasthāna of the Compendium of Suśruta, which is entitled “The chapter revealing inauspicious and auspicious dreams.” This chapter is amongst the earlier writings on this subject in Indian literature. Although dream interpretation is evidenced as early as the Ṛgveda (Pingree, 1981, pp. 77 n. 68), the earliest developed text is probably the two chapters on dream interpretation included in the Śardūlakarṇāvadāna, which was first fully translated into Chinese in the third century CE (Mukhopadhyaya, 1954, pp. 154-161, 161-164; Cruijsen & the Bodhinidhi Translation Group, 2025). It is interesting that the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna is presented as the account of a low-caste non-ārya, Triśaṅku, and this may hint at a non-Indian source for the material. Another Svapnādhyāya appears in the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭa (hard to date; perhaps “modern and epic” (Keith, 1912, p. 767)). As Pingree also noted, the earliest full treatise on the topic is the twelfth-century Svapnacintāmaṇi of Jagaddeva (von Negelein, 1912; Şovărel, 2025).

An old-fashioned translation of the Suśrutasaṃhitā chapter 1.29, published in 1908, by Bhishagratna, can be consulted here, to get a quick idea of the vulgate chapter’s content. But bear in mind that Bhishagratna didn’t know about the verses below. This chapter was also discussed by Dagmar Wujastyk (Wujastyk, 2012, pp. 111-112). The section on dreams starts at 1.29.54 and continues to 81, the end of the chapter.

In the vulgate version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā there are often verses that do not appear in the Nepalese version. In chapter 1.29 of the Nepalese version, however, it is the other way around: there is a stretch of ten verses after verse 71 that appear in all three Nepalese witnesses but that don’t appear in the vulgate either here or anywhere else. In the digital edition of the Nepalese version (Wujastyk et al., 2026) we have numbered them 1.29.71.add1 - 1.29.71.add10, and they are reproduced below.

At the time of writing, we have not identified any parallels for these verses elsewhere in Sanskrit literature.

1.29.71.add2 is notable for it’s reference to Dhanvantari, whose literary role in the Nepalese version is quite different than in the vulgate (Birch et al., 2021).

1.29.71.add1

यो नरो बहुभिर्मुष्णैः क्रुद्धैश्च प्रतिबोध्यते । हन्यते बहुबिः शस्त्रैर्ब्राह्मणं यो न पश्यति ॥

1.29.71.add2

दन्तप्रक्षालनस्नानं स्वप्ने केशविलेखनं । रोगागमनिमित्तन्तद्धन्वन्तरिवचो यथा ॥

1.29.71.add3

अपर्वाणीक्षुर्गण्डानि गुडम्वा योऽतिभक्षयेत् । प्रतिबुद्धो विजानीयादङ्गव्याधिमुपस्थितं ॥

1.29.71.add4

अयुक्तं यानमारुह्य शुष्कवृक्षञ्च सर्वतः । प्लवते तोयमध्ये वा नासरोगं प्राप्नुयान्महत्॥

1.29.71.add5

तिलकल्केन मांसेन वसया कर्दमेन वा। गात्रं यस्योपलिप्येत स रोगम्प्राप्नुयान्महत् ॥

1.29.71.add6

चाण्डालैर्वा श्वपाकैर्वा चोरैः प्रव्रजितैस्तथा । अन्यैश्च नीचबीभत्सैः प्रहारो न प्रशस्यते।

1.29.71.add7

मद्यस्यान्नस्य मांसस्य तिलतैलस्य सर्प्पिषः । स्वप्ने किञ्चिद्यदि प्राप्य पश्येद्व्याधिमुपस्थितं ॥

1.29.71.add8

रक्तवर्ण्णन्तु यत्किञ्चित्सर्व्वन्तन्न प्रशस्यते । रक्टं यदामकं मांसञ्चन्दनञ्च प्रशस्यते ॥

1.29.71.add9

यद्वा शुक्लेन वर्णेन सर्वमेतत्प्रशस्यते । कर्पासमस्थ्यथो भस्म दधि चैवात्र वर्जितं ।

1.29.71.add10

यत्तु कृष्णेन वर्णेन सर्व्वन्तन्न प्रशस्यते । भूमिलाभो हिरण्यञ्च हस्ती चैव प्रशस्यते ॥

References

1. New Digital Edition of the Suśrutasaṃhitā: The Suśruta Project at Saktumiva

   2026

   URL
2. Ḍalhaṇa and the Early ‘Nepalese’ Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā

   Jason Birch, Dominik Wujastyk, Andrey Klebanov, and 4 more authors

   Academia Letters, 2021

   DOI
3. The Exemplary Tale of Śārdūlakarṇa. Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna

   Thomas Cruijsen and Bodhinidhi Translation Group

   2025

   current version v 1.0.4 (2025); important historical introduction, but the Tibetan text tr. here does not include the chapters on oneiromancy

   URL
4. Arthur Berriedale Keith

   1912

   characterised the Svapnādhyāya (ch. 68) as "modern and epic" (p. 767)

   URL
5. The Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna

   Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya

   1954
6. Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature

   David Edwin Pingree

   1981

   URL
7. Well-mannered Medicine: Medical Ethics and Etiquette in Classical Ayurveda

   Dagmar Wujastyk

   2012

   DOI
8. Der Traumschlussel (Svapnacintāmaṇi) Des Jagaddeva – Ein Beitrag zur indischen Mantik

   Julius Negelein

   1912

   URL
9. Jagaddeva: Svapna-cintâmani (Piatra filosofală a visului)

   Vlad Şovărel

   2025

   URL