Table Of Content
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON
© 1984 by the University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1984
Paperback edition 1986
Printed in the United States of America 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 5 6 7 8 9
ISBN-10: 0-226-61855-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-61855-5 (pbk.) ISBN: 978-0-226-30809-8 (e-book) LIBRARY
OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger.
Dreams, illusion, and other realities.
Includes tales from the “Yogavāsiṣṭha.”
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Dreams. 2. Mythology, Indic. 3. Yogavāsiṣṭharāmāyaṇa. 4. Yoga—Early
works to 1800. I. Yogavāsiṣṭharāmāyaṇa. II. Title.
BF1078.0'45 1984 111 83-17944
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.
Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty
DREAMS, ILLUSION, and other
REALITIES
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
A Möbius Snake/Rope. Painting by R. Williams
for David Grene
Contents
ILLUSTRATIONS
GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION AND TERMINOLOGY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION. TRANSFORMATION AND CONTRADICTION
1. THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
Indian Texts
Dreams in Vedic and Medical Texts
Dreams in the Rāmāyaṇa: Sītā and Bharata
Dreams in the Mahābhārata: Karṇa and Kārtavīrya
Buddhist Dreams: Kunāla and the Wicked Queen
Western Arguments
Pindar and Plato
Freud on the Reality of Dreams
The Dreams of Post-Freudians and Children
2. MYTHS ABOUT DREAMS
Indian Texts
The Shared Dream
Vikramāditya Finds Malayavatī
The Rape of Uṣā
The Brushwood Boy
Western Arguments
Shared Dreams and Archetypal Myths
The Rêve à Deux in Psychoanalysis
3. MYTHS ABOUT ILLUSION
Indian Texts
Nārada Transformed into a Woman
Magic Doubles
Śuka and Śukra
Shadows of the Rāmāyaṇa: Sītā and Rāvaṇa
Double Women
Māyāvatī in the House of Śambara
The Two Līlās
Double Universes
Viśvāmitra’s Upside-bown World
Inside the Mouth of God: Yaśodā, Arjuna, and
Mārkaṇḍeya
Arguments
Indian: The Meaning of Illusion (māyā)
Western: The Hard and the Soft and Mr. Shlemiel
4. EPISTEMOLOGY IN NARRATIVE: TALES FROM THE
Yogavāsiṣṭha
Indian Texts
The King Who Dreamed He was an Untouchable and
Awoke to Find It Was True
The Brahmin Who Dreamed He Was An Untouchable
Who Dreamed He Was a King
Lavaṇa and Gādhi: Mutual Similes
The Suffering of the Hindu King
Hariścandra among the Untouchables
The Suffering of the Buddhist King
Vessantara’s Gift
Gautama’s Visions
Suffering among the Others
Folk Variants on the Tales of Lavaṇa and Gādhi
Indian Arguments
Ways of Knowing for Sure: Authorities
Unreality-Testing
Common Sense and Contradiction
Western Arguments
Reality-Testing
The Receding Frame
5. ONTOLOGY IN NARRATIVE: MORE TALES FROM THE
Yogavāsiṣṭha
Indian Texts and Arguments
The Monk Who Met the People in His Dream
Karma and Rebirth
Déjà vu: Memory and Emotion
The Monk and the Narrator
The Girl inside the Stone
The Möbius Universe
Western Texts and Arguments: The Furies and the Red
King
The Dreamer Dreamt
6. THE ART OF ILLUSION
Indian Texts: The Root Metaphors of the Yogavāsiṣṭha
The Serpent and the Rope as a Metaphor for a Mistake
The Son of a Barren Woman as a Metaphor for
Impossibility
The Crow and the Palm Tree as a Metaphor for Pure
Chance
The Magic City in the Sky as a Metaphor for Illusion
Indian and Western Arguments
Projection in Art and Reality
Detail and Banality in Surrealistic Illusion
The Artist as a Magician
God as an Artist
CONCLUSION
Serendipity and Obsession
The Dream That Wanders in the Daylight
APPENDIXES
1. The Erotic Dream in China
2. The Dream Adventure in China and Ireland
3. Stories from the Yogavāsiṣṭha Told (or Cited) in This Book
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF NAMES AND TERMS
SUBJECT INDEX
ADDENDA TO THE SECOND PRINTING
Illustrations
FRONTISPIECE
A Möbius Snake/Rope. Painting by R. Williams.
PLATES
1. Nārada sees the water nymphs
2. Bhṛgu takes his son back from the god of death
3. King Vidūratha and King Sindhu wage war
4. King Lavaṇa falls from his horse
5. King Lavaṇa enters the Untouchable village
6. King Lavaṇa returns to the Untouchable village with his
court
7. Viṣṇu appears to the Brahmin Gādhi in the pond
8. King Lavaṇa performs a sacrifice in his mind
9. Queen Cūḍālā creates an illusion of herself with a lover
10. The ogress Karkaṭī is instructed by a king
11. An ogre instructs a king
12. The brothers Puṇya and Pāvana discuss rebirth
13. The desires of Vasiṣṭha become personified as demons
14. The god Rudra, with his wife, visits Vasiṣṭha
15. Drawing Hands, by M. C. Escher
16. The gods and demons wage war
FIGURES
