In Hindu mythology, Rakshasas are a large class of cannibalistic demons. The female term is Rakshasi. These beings were created from the breath of the god Brahma as he lay sleeping at the end of Satya Yuga, the Age of Truth.
Rakshasas are usually described as tall humanoids with blazing red eyes. Each individual has a few features more typical of beasts, such as tails, spotted or striped fur, horns, or clawed feet. Most have two large curved tusks protruding from their upper jaw. Deformities are common, ranging from the mild (hunched backs, missing ears) to the grotesque (two heads, five feet, fingerless hands). All rakshasas are fierce warriors. Some are also master illusionists who can appear in different shapes.
Rakshasas are most active at night. They are said to be less powerful in the East, where the rising sun saps their strength. They are mortal.
The Rakshasas of Bengali folklore, called Rakkhosh, have a famous catchphrase they use while on the hunt: Hau, mau, khau... Manusher gondho pau! (“Hau, mau, khau... I smell human meat!”)
The female of the species is just as deadly as the male, if not more so. Numerous well-known folktales involve Rakshasis who abduct, fall in love with, and/or eat human males. They typically keep their kidnapped boyfriends imprisoned in deep pits, taking them out every night to use them sexually for a while before finally deciding to have them for dinner. Some Rakshasis are so voracious that, given a few years, they can depopulate whole countries.
According to one source, there are 20,000 Maharakshasas (Great Rakshasas) who rule over lesser Rakshasas as kings. These Maharakshasas reside on islands in the sea, where they attack and swallow ships.
Pretas are hungry ghosts. The feminine version is Preti. They live in Naraka, the abode of the dead, but occasionally they roam the world of the living. Even when they do walk among us, they are invisible; only people in heightened states of awareness, attained through deep meditation, are able to see them.
Pretas are naked, emaciated, and corpse-like, but with huge distended bellies. Their putrid skin is stretched over their bones, making their veins bulge, giving them the appearance of dried-up leaves. They have extremely small mouths and/or long skinny necks.
Some say Pretas are spirits of humans who were greedy, jealous, corrupt, or murderous during their lives, and are therefore condemned in death to suffer from great thirst or hunger. According to others, they are the ghosts of anyone whose funeral rites were not performed correctly, or who died unnaturally as the result of violence or accidents.
Each hungry ghost has a craving for one particular sort of abhorrent food. For some it is blood; for others it is corpseflesh; for others it is the ash from cremation grounds; for still others, it is feces.
But no matter how much they eat, the food always catches fire in their bellies, and burns up before it can provide them any nourishment.
Pretas suffer other torments too. The heat of the sun scorches them, even in the shade. Any good food that is offered to them turns to dung, urine, pus and blood as soon as they accept it. If they are given clothes of fine fabric, these transform into scorching-hot sheets of iron the moment they put them on.
In Tulu-speaking communities around Mangalore, the word Bhoota is used for a rather different sort of spirit than the Bhoot of North Indian stories.
While outsider accounts often refer to the Tulu Nadu Bhootas as devils or demons, many are worshipped as benevolent deities — or at least, deities that can be benevolent if correctly propitiated. Some of them are nature or animal spirits, while others are the ghosts of legendary human heroes.
Many of these Bhootas are represented by intricately detailed brass masks. In a ritual folk performance known as Bhoota Kola, dancers in elaborate costumes go into trances, and are possessed by these spirits.
A few of the well-known Bhootas are listed below.
Bobbariya
Bobbariya Bhoota is the ghost of a legendary fisherman and sea merchant who was prominent in the trade between North Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the Malabar coast. He is supposed to have lived at least 500 years ago.
According to one account of his origins, Bobbariya was born near Goa. His mother was a Tulu-speaking Jain woman named Durgu Shetty. She had been married forty times, but every one of her husbands had died in their sleep on the first night after marriage.
Her brothers finally arranged for a forty-first wedding. The groom was a man named Madhava Bayri, who may have been of black North African Muslim ancestry.
In most Indian languages derived from Sanskrit, Bhoot or Bhoota means “ghost”. The word usually refers to the spirit of a person who died in an accident, committed suicide, or was murdered. A person may also become a Bhoot if they died suddenly of some acute illness, or because they passed away with some unrequited desire, or because their funeral rites were not performed correctly. The word can also be used as a catch-all term for any sort of ghost or evil spirit, especially in combination with Pret (Bhoot-Pret).
Bhoots abound in mythology, folklore, and popular culture. Their description depends on community and geography, but there are several elements that are common to most stories.
Bhoots are shape-shifters; but most of the time they appear in human form. In many tales, they try to fool people into thinking they’re not ghosts at all. One way to discover their true nature is to check their feet. Bhoots don’t like to make contact with the earth, so they float just a tiny bit above the ground. Also, some of them have their feet reversed — their toes point behind them, rather than in front. Their ears are often pointy and bat-like.
Bhoots don’t cast shadows. They speak through their noses with a nasal twang. They are most active on warm nights and on hot, dry days when the sun is directly overhead.
Bhoots are usually confined to the house they died in. If the house is abandoned and dilapidated-looking, it’s called a Bhoot bangla. Or they may be confined to a village, the boundary of which they may not cross; or to a flat complex, or an office building. Old stone ruins are often said to be full
The Barola is a whirlwind or dust devil. There is a folk belief in some Punjabi villages that these whirlwinds have evil spirits in their centres, and that people who get caught up in them will be afflicted with mental problems. Some even say the Barola can be fatal to young children.
The spirit of the Barola is thought to be wealthy. There is a superstition that if you urinate into an old shoe and throw it into the whirlwind, the shoe will be full of coins after the wind passes.
Ref: 50. Brar, Gurnam Singh Sidhu. (2007). East of Indus: My Memories of Old Punjab. Hemkunt Press.
Барола
Барола — это вихрь или пылевой дьявол. В некоторых деревнях Пенджаба существует народное поверье, что в центре этих вихрей находятся злые духи, и что попавшие туда люди будут страдать от психических проблем. Некоторые даже говорят, что барола бывает смертоносна для маленьких детей.
Считается, что дух баролы богат. Есть суеверие, что если помочиться в старый башмак и бросить его в вихрь, то после того, как ветер пройдёт, башмак будет полон монет.
Ист.: 50. Brar, Gurnam Singh Sidhu. (2007). East of Indus: My Memories of Old Punjab. Hemkunt Press.
A Barambha is a male spirit in the mythology of the Warli tribe of Maharashtra. The Thakurs* call the same spirit Munja.
A Barambha is usually invisible to human eyes, though when he does choose to show himself, he appears as a tall and handsome albino. His skin and hair are pure white. So are his shirt, his loincloth, and the towel which he always keeps draped over his shoulder.
Most of the time, though, he keeps himself invisible.
Some say that he carries a long staff with a bell fixed to the top, and that even when he is invisible, the faint, rhythmic tinkling of his bell can be heard.
Barambhas live in peepal trees*.
This ghost often becomes enamored with young human women. During the day, it follows the object of its affection through the forest as she goes about her work. Then, at night, he sneaks into her room and tries to lie with her.
If the woman isn’t happy about this, she can tie a piece of leather cord around her neck, and sprinkle a few drops of water from a cobbler’s pot on her skin. A Barambha abhors the smell of leather, and as long as a woman wears this protection he cannot touch her.
On the other hand, if the woman is willing, she may let the Barambha visit her every night. She may even make love to the invisible Barambha secretly, while lying next to her sleeping husband.
The Warli once believed that albino children were fathered by a Barambha.
This powerful spirit from the forests of Himachal Pradesh has a taste for old, rusty metal. It makes its home in a deodar tree — the Himalayan cedar. In old British accounts of folk beliefs in the region, Banshira is described as a Bhoot or hobgoblin; today he is also worshipped as a Hindu deity, a lord of the forest.
The Banshira has some limited shapeshifting ability. It can appear like a giant ape, a monkey, a jackal, or a goat, but it seems to always be covered with short fur.
If any branches are taken from its tree for firewood, the Banshira becomes furious and attacks the perpetrator.
On the other hand, if the spirit is treated with respect, he can protect a village against malevolent spirits. Whenever someone from his village has to go on a nighttime errand, the Banshira will walk nearby unseen; and since all other ghosts tremble in fear of him, the person will reach their destination safely.
In olden days, iron sickles and other implements used to be left on the branches of the Banshira’s tree. Today, Banshira shrines contain piles of rusty machine parts and old automobile number plates.
Whenever a new village is to be founded in a fresh area, a few pieces of metal from an old Banshira’s tree are brought to a new Deodar tree, and thus a new guardian spirit is created. It is said that the guardian spirits of all the villages in Kullu Valley are descended from eight original parent Banshiras in this way.
In the mythology of the Donyi-Polo faith, as practiced by the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh, Banji-Banmang is the first-born son of the primordial couple Pedong Nane and Yidum Bote, who are also the ancestors of humans. He is an evil and bloodthirsty spirit.
The term Banji-Banmang is also used to describe this first-born son’s progeny — a whole clan of destructive, malevolent supernatural beings. The Banji-Banmang reside in their own land or plane of existence, separate from our own.
Occasionally they visit us. A Banji-Banmang comes in the shape of an eagle, flying high over the land in search of smaller birds and mammals to prey upon. Sometimes they take human babies.
They can also take a humanoid shape when they need to walk on the ground. In this form, they are seen to always be carrying a gourd full of human blood.
It is believed that the spirits of soldiers who have died in wars travel to the plane of the Banji-Banmang to spend the afterlife.
The Banji-Banmang once tried to take control of our world as well. They were thwarted by a goddess named Misum-Miyang, who cut off her own fingers one by one and planted them in the earth. Her severed fingers then grew into the sacred ginger roots that bind the worlds together. This legend is recounted during the Adi marriage ceremony, in which several varieties of ginger (galangal, cassumunar ginger, etc.) have ritual significance.
When a woman cannot conceive, the Banji-Banmang are thought to be responsible.
One of Banji-Banmang’s daughters is Banji Medeng Sene, the spirit of lies, treachery, and vanity. She remains active in the human realm today as the force that inspires con-men and scam artists.
This being occurs in the mythology of the Tamang people, many of whom reside in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal and the state of Sikkim, as well as in Nepal.
Ban Jhakri means “shaman of the forest” in Nepali. He is a Himalayan teacher-spirit who appears as a short (3-5 foot tall) dark-skinned ape-like man with large ears and matted golden dreadlocks. He usually goes about entirely naked, though he sometimes wears a skirt made of feathers. According to some, he is a small type of Yeti. There is disagreement as to whether there are many Ban Jhakris or only one.
Ban Jhakri is a nocturnal shapeshifter with the power to turn himself invisible. He can see well in the dark. Like other types of Yeti, he eats from the backs of his hands; but unlike them, Ban Jhakri is a vegetarian. He plays a golden frame drum, called a dhyangro.
Ban Jhakri searches for human children who are pure of heart and body and who show promising spiritual talents. Once he identifies such a child, he abducts him. He usually selects boys between the ages of six and ten, but there are a few stories of Ban Jhakri abducting girls as well.
Once the child has been captured, Ban Jhakri brings him to his lair to train him to become a shaman. This lair is a beautiful golden cave in the mountains. It is said to be a blissful place, where one has a view of the whole world.
But there is a complication. As long as the child stays in the cave, he is in danger of being eaten by Ban Jhakri’s wife, Ban Jhakrini.
Balvala is an Asura who appears as a character in the Mahabharata. He was the son of Ilvala, and shared his father’s hatred of sages and rishis. Like many other Asuras, he had the power to conjure storms of filth.
The story goes that Balvala was tormenting the rishis of Naimisharanya, a forest near the Gomti River in what is now Uttar Pradesh. Whenever the rishis who lived in this forest lit a sacred fire to perform a yajna ritual, Balvala would summon downpours of disgusting, putrid rain to extinguish the flames.
Frustrated, the rishis pleaded to Lord Balarama, elder brother of Lord Krishna, for assistance. And soon, he came to their aid.
But just as Balarama arrived in Naimisharanya, Balvala sent a dust storm which filled the sky. Hailstones started to fall. A noxious stench filled the air. Then angry torrents of pus, hair, blood, liquor, piss, shit, raw meat and bone began raining down from above.
Finally the demon appeared. He flew through the sky towards Balarama brandishing his trident. He was gigantic, with shining coal-black skin; his hair, beard and moustache were the colour of blazing copper. He had a terrible scowl on his face, and long yellow fangs protruded from his mouth like blades.
But Lord Balarama easily dragged Balvala to earth and smashed him in the centre of the forehead with his club, cleaving his head in two.
From then on the rishis of the forest could perform their rituals in peace.
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