Exploration of dreams in Charaka Samhita – an Ayurveda text and their content analysis of prodromal dreams in various conditions
A. K. Iyer, W. Upadhyaya

TL;DR
This paper explores how dreams are described in the ancient Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita and compares them to modern and ancient Greek dream analysis methods.
Contribution
The first use of the Hall Van de Castle system to analyze dream content in an Ayurvedic text.
Findings
Charaka Samhita describes seven types of dreams, including those linked to illnesses.
Prodromal dreams in the text predict future illnesses and contain themes like characters, objects, and social interactions.
Dream content analysis using Hall Van de Castle categories reveals similarities to Western medical traditions.
Abstract
Research into dreams, have shown the association between increased frequency of distressing dreams, specific content themes (analysed using the Hall Van de Castle system) and greater incidence of progression of neurological conditions and dementia. The history of predicting illnesses by the content of dreams, in the western world is popularly traced backed to the ancient Greek medicine. This stimulates the curiosity if any such practices existed in the ancient medical practises of the eastern world. Ayurveda is one such traditional system of medicine, that is native to the Indian subcontinent. Charaka Samhita is one of the oldest texts on Ayurveda consisting of 8 sections and 120 chapters totally. This text was selected for the purpose of this review, with the line of enquiry such as what does Ayurveda say about dreams associated with illnesses? What are the contents of such dreams?…
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Taxonomy
TopicsInfant Health and Development · Sleep and Wakefulness Research
