Dreams and Tooth-cleaning-sticks: Two Omens from Indian Tantric Traditions
Dominique Baur, M.A. (Heidelberg University),
Dr. Daisy Cheung (Hamburg University)
Omens are present in many traditional Indian scientific knowledge systems such as
Āyurveda and Jyotiḥśāstra. Although many scholars have surveyed omens in various texts
and contexts, detailed studies are few. Within Jyotiḥśāstra, von Negelein has extensively
studied Jagaddeva’s Svapnacintāmaṇi (1912), a compendium on dream omens. Zysk has
systematically studied human marks (2016) and crow omens (2022) across knowledge
systems. Within ritual studies, Geslani (2018) has focused on the ritual use of omens
concerning kingship rituals. However, none of these works have addressed the place that
omens occupy in Tantric traditions, such as Pāñcarātra, Śaivism and tantric Buddhism.
In our paper, we will investigate the dream (svapna) and the throwing of the tooth-
cleaning-stick (dantakāṣṭha) as two common examples of omens in Tantric ritual. Drawing
from sources in Sanskrit, Tibetan and classical Chinese we will compare, among other
texts, passages from the Jayākhya-, the Viśvaksena- and the Paramasaṃhitā, the
Niśvāsatattvasaṃgraha, the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, the *Svapnohana and the
Svapnādhyāya. With a detailed study of these two omens we hope to provide more
examples of intertextuality and to address the question of a common ‘cultural substratum’,
as well as to shed light on omens as a new field of study.