Dream-Symbolism in the Śrāmanic Tradition: Two Psychoanalytical Studies in Jinist & Buddhist Dream Legends

The work begins by situating Śrāmanism as a religious and intellectual movement distinct from Brahmanism, emphasizing its ascetic, non-theistic, anti-ritualistic, and socially more open orientation. The first main study, “Symbolism in the Jinist Dream World,” reconstructs the Jain tradition of birth-dreams, especially the fourteen auspicious dreams seen by the mothers of Tīrthaṅkaras and cakravartins, including images such as the elephant, bull, lion, goddess Śrī, garland, moon, sun, flag, vase, lotus lake, ocean, celestial palace, heap of jewels, and flame. It explores how these serial dreams became a stable cultural and religious pattern in Jain mythology and interprets their symbolic value through Jungian psychology. The second study, “Out of the Palace of Pleasure: A Study of Psychoanalytic Implications of the Biographical Legends of Gautama the Buddha,” examines Buddhist birth and renunciation legends, especially Queen Māyā’s dream of the white elephant, and analyzes the psychological meanings embedded in narratives of conception, kingship, desire, withdrawal, and awakening. Together, the two studies present dreams not as isolated legends but as symbolic structures through which Jainism and Buddhism articulate ideals of spiritual heroism, purity, transformation, and liberation.