Dream Deities: Mahāmāyā in her Aspects Nidrā, Yogamāyā, and Kālarātri
[This is the third article in a series examining gods associated with dreaming and oneiromancy in the ancient world, following the Roman Dream Daimon Morpheus . Despite the extensive lists you can find online, there were surprisingly few gods with direct rulership over dreams. Most of these either had recorded appearances in dreams (oneirophanies), were evoked through oneiromantic rituals, or had dream incubation as part of their cultic practice. Others are only tangentially related to dreaming due to being deities of related domains such as Sleep and Night. Finally there are a number of gods who there is too little information or contradictory information to be able to justify calling dream deities.] In discussions about the Hindu deities in charge of dreams, the names of three Devī or goddesses are often mentioned: Nidrā or Yoganidrā (Sleep, the Power of Sleep), Rātri or Kālirātri (Night, Death-Night), and Yogamāyā (the Power of Illusion). Looking at the textual ev...
