Tamil Discovery! Do Animals Dream? (Post No.13,872)
Post No. 13,872
Date uploaded in London – 10 November 2024
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
xxxx
If you google Do Animals Dream? you will come across some science reports from the past four years. What these people have now “discovered” is already in 2000 year old Sangam Tamil Literature!
Kalidasa , the greatest poet of India of India, who lived 2200 years ago have described the feelings of animals and plants in his dramas and Kavyas. His world-famous play Sakuntalam means ‘Bird Girl’. Shakespeare copied it to some extent and created Miranda , the island girl in The Tempest. (we get the word Sakuna for omens and auguries from that Sanskrit word.) But Kaliadasa sang about human dreams only.
Birds and animals do dream according to Sangam Tamil books. When the Brahmin Vishnu Sarma wrote Panchatantra fables, he really believed that animals do talk. That is why his fables spread far and wide.
Though I have noted down many dreams from ancient Sanskrit books, I have never come across animal dreams in Sanskrit; so, all the credits go to Tamils!
The oldest book in Tamil is Tolkappiam ; we see dreams of human beings in it
I give below the references for animal dreams from Sangam Tamil poems; they not only show they do dream but also tell us what they dream about!
கனவு நற்றிணை பாடல் 87; வௌவால் கனவு
Natrinai is one of the Sangam books with 400 verses. In the verse No.87 , we see a bat dreaming about the sour taste of gooseberries (amla in Sanskrit; nellikkay in Tamil)
The sharp teethed bat is dreaming while it was sleeping on the high branch of a mango tree standing inside a village. The poet says it is dreaming about the sour taste of the nelli fruits of the forests of the patron Alici.
****
யானையின் மதநீரை வண்டு/ தேனீ கனவு காண்டல்; அகநானூறு 132
In another anthology with 400 verses called Akananuru, in verse 132, the poet describes a beetle or bee dreaming about the rut of the elephants. Many poets including Kalidasa sing about the flow of rut in elephants and the bees swarming around it.
****
கடற்காக்கை இறால் மீனை கனவு காண்டல்; அகநானூறு 170
A sea gull is dreaming about prawns – is in Akananuru verse 170
****
கவரிமான் நிரந்தம் புல்லைப் பற்றி கனவு காணல் – பதிற்றுப் பத்து 11
And in Pathitruppaththu verse 11, we see the deer dreaming about a particular type of grass
In the later post Sangam books also, we come across animal dreams. In general, human dreams are more than animal dreams in Tamil literature.
We have at least 50 references to dreams in ancient Tamil literature; later we have innumerable dream references in Tamil epics, and devotional literature.
***
Do our Dreams Have Meaning?
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › 2011/12/29 › do-our-drea…
29 Dec 2011 — For instance, the Chandogya Upanishad (V 2-8-9) says seeing a woman in a dream means a previous sacrifice (fire ceremony) was successful. But it …
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › dreams-in-vedas
31 Jul 2015 — Eating crocodile flesh, good; it means acting as an official among his people. Submerging in the river, good; it means purification of all evils.
–subham–
Tags- Animal dreams, Sangam literature, Tamil discovery
Tamil and Vedas 