Vedic Echo in Sumer and Egyptian Concept of Dreams


Statue of Gilgamesh of Sumer

Research Article No. 2031

Written by London swaminathan

Date : 31 July 2015

Time uploaded in London : 8-29 am


Jungian psychologists believe that the symbols in myths, legends, religions and arts have their roots in the subconscious human psyche. Analytic psychologists interpret dreams on the basis of this belief. But ancients believed differently. Now I can conclude that neither Jung and Freud nor the ancients are cent percent correct.

Vedas interpreted dreams, particularly nightmares, differently. I have given it in my previous articles:–

My previous Research Articles on Dreams:

Role of Dreams in Tamil Saivite Literature (posted on July 4, 2013)

Do our Dreams have Meaning? (Posted on December 29, 2011)

God’s Note Book (posted on March 16, 2014)


“Inauspicious Dreams”: Dreams in Vedas and Upanishads (POSTED ON 28TH JULY 2015)

freud jung

Stamps of Freud and Jung

Sumerian culture and Egyptian culture had similar beliefs. Probably they derived it from the same source. My belief is that they got it from the Vedas after the Vedic Hindus dispersed from the banks of Ganga, Sindhu and Saraswati. The reason for my conclusion is not just the dreams alone. Various fields show that they had contact with the Vedic Hindus or one branch of Vedic Hindus spread as far as Sumer, Egypt and Mayan lands in South and Central Americas (I have written several articles on these connections)

Interpretations of dreams is in the Vedas. That is the oldest reference. It is followed by Sumer and Egypt. We have separate books on the interpretations. Greeks have some books like the Hindus.

Five books of the Oneirocriticon by Artemidorous of Daldis (2nd century CE) interpret dreams. He divides the dreams as thereomantic (directly foretelling the future) and allegoric (requires interpreting or decoding). Hindu literature has both the kinds.


Stamps of ramesses of Egypt

Egyptian Dream Interpretation

The following dream directory is taken from the Chester Beatty III Papyrus, which dates from the Ramesses Period (1292- 1075 BCE):-

“If a man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his (own) hand, good; it means killing his adversary.

Eating crocodile flesh, good; it means acting as an official among his people.

Submerging in the river, good; it means purification of all evils

(This is a Hindu custom followed until today. Hindus submerge in millions on all auspicious days)

Burying an old man, good; it means flourishing.

Working stone in his house, good; fixing a man in his house.

Seeing his face in a mirror, bad; it means another wife.

Shod with white sandals, bad; it means roaming the earth.

Copulating with a woman, bad; it means mourning.

Being bitten by a dog, bad; it means he will be touched by magic.

His bed catching fire, bad; it means driving away his wife.

Dreams were considered as god’s messages. Egyptians thought that gods use dreams to contact his devotee. They slept in a temple to receive prophetic dreams.

Hindus, Buddhists and Jains believed that their women dreamt of auspicious things before prophets were born to them. Saivaite saints dreamt prophetic things when they slept inside the temple.

In ancient China, dreams were interpreted differently. They were thought as predictions of events opposed to their contents; death in a dream, for example, predicted longevity in the waking world.

In the Bible certain dreams were taken seriously, in accordance with the ancient Middle Eastern tradition that understands them as divine inspiration (e.g. the dream of Pharaoh, interpreted by Joseph in Genesis 41), but a dream can also be a mere fantasy of wish fulfilment (Psalm 73:20). Solomon received a message from god in a dream (1King 3:5).


Gudea of Sumer

In Sumer

According to texts from Mesopotamia, dreams were seen as channels for divine messages. “Gudea, ruler of the Sumerian city of Lagash,(Gudea=Gurudeva) describes god Ningirsu appeared to him in a dream and gave instructions for building a temple.

(This is a Hindu belief. Many of the famous temples were built after God instructing his or her devotee. Sumerian prefix NIN=sri, GIRISU= Gireesan=Lord Shiva)

People who fell asleep in the temples received divine messages according to Mari archive (Tamil Saivaite Saints had similar experience).

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero receives a notice of the appearance of his companion Enkidu in series of dreams. In addition, dreams were seen as a method among the wider techniques of divination. Several dream omen lists survive, but it is possible that the foretelling the future through dreams became more important in Mesopotamia during the first millennium BCE.

Large fragments of a dream book were found in the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. In this text, the associations that link the dream to the prediction are rarely understandable and cover all sorts of dreams; loosing teeth, receiving gifts, flying. Ashurbanipal himself explains how he had a dream in which the goddess Ishtar appeared to him and it is possible that he is the prince, described in another text, who had a dream revealing the underworld filled with demonic creatures. The Mesopotamian god Mamu was associated with dreams and had a temple at Imgur Enlil  (modern Balawat).

The interpretation of dreams found in the Vedas, Bible, Sumer and Egypt show that we had only one culture before Moses, Jesus and Mohammed appeared. That was Sanatan Dharma, what is now known as Hindu Dharma.



Dictionary of the Ancient Near East by British Museum

Ancient Egypt by David.P.Silverman

Dictionary of Symbolism by TSP