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Balishtamaru. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Balishtamaru

The Kumbri Marathi community of the Karnataka coast speak a dialect that combines Marathi and Kannada. They are thought to be the descendants of troops in the service of the Maratha warrior king Sivaji during his invasion of Karnataka in the 1670s, who then left the army and settled in the hills.

In the Kumbri Marathis’ complex taxonomy of ghosts and spirits, a Balishtamaru (plural: Balishtamarava) is an extremely malignant spirit, even more evil than a Padosomaru. Possession by this type of demon causes serious illness. It sometimes happens that a person is afflicted by a Balishtamaru and a Padosomaru at the same time, and these cases are the most deadly of all.

Interestingly, a Balishtamaru is not the ghost of a single dead creature. Instead, the spirit is formed as a result of a rare and unlucky event when the deaths of several people or animals occur simultaneously.

There are different types of Balishtamaru listed below. Each one arises from a different set of circumstances.

Devati

A Devati comes into being when three cats die at exactly the same moment. This spirit causes fever, weakness, cough, cold, and vomiting in humans.

Rav

A Rav is created when seven tigers die all at the same moment.

This cruel demon causes its victims to vomit blood. A person afflicted by a Rav will die within 3 to 12 days unless a ritual is performed for them by a gadiga (diviner) assisted by a Yakshi spirit.

Akashmurchi

Bakasura. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Bakasura

Bakasura is a Rakshasa who appears as a character in the Mahabharata.

A gluttonous demon who lived in a cave in the forest, Bakasura had made an arrangement with the raja of the nearby city of Ekachakra, whereby the raja would send him a bullock cart loaded with food once a week. Bakasura would devour not only the food, but also the bullocks and the man who drove the cart.

The citizens of Ekachakra held a weekly lottery. The chosen household had to volunteer one of its members for the grim duty of driving the cart to Bakasura’s cave. In return, the city was spared from the ogre’s wrath.

It was around this time that Kunti and her sons the Pandavas (the five brothers who are the heroes of the epic) were wandering through the forest. They had been exiled from their homeland and were trying to keep a low profile. Near Ekachakra, they met a villager who lived with his wife and two children. He kindly welcomed the travellers into his house and let them stay on as guests.

Shortly after they arrived, it happened that their host’s household was selected by lottery to provide the weekly sacrifice to the Rakshasa. Every member of the family was willing to sacrifice themselves to spare the others; but Kunti insisted on sending one of her own sons. As guests, she said, they should be the ones responsible.

Kunti chose to send her second son, Bhim, who was the strongest of the Pandava brothers. He was also the hungriest, renowned for his gigantic appetite.

Bhim traveled to the city, loaded the cart high with provisions, and drove it towards Bakasura’s cave. But on the way, he started feeling peckish, so he decided to have a snack.

Bai Thappikne Seithaan (and other spirits of misdirection). Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Bai Thappikne Seithaan
(and other spirits of misdirection)

Many parts of the country have a folkloric spirit that causes people to lose their way at night. Afflicted travellers start wandering around in loops and circles, unable to find their bearings, even when they are very close to their destination.

Bai Thappikne Seithaan, a spirit from Kasaragod, Kerala, belongs to this category. The word Seithaan is the local Kasrod-Malayalam dialect version of Shaitan, so the demon is presumably some sort of evil Jinn; but in most tales, he is actually fairly harmless.

After he selects a person or party to confuse, he simply follows some distance behind them in the shadows. He chuckles silently at all the anxiety he’s causing as they get more and more lost and distressed.

Luckily, there is a method by which the spirit’s enchantment can be defeated. The lost person should pick up seven stones and proceed to drop them one by one as he walks, letting go of each stone a few paces apart, as if leaving a trail. As he drops the stones, he should count them out loud. Finally, as he drops the seventh stone, he should confidently say, “EIGHT”.

The demon gets terribly confused at this, and rushes back to see where he lost count. In the meantime, the spell is broken, and the person can find their way again.

People who claim to have successfully used this trick report that they have heard Bai Thappikne Seithaan’s deep bass voice behind them, counting and recounting the stones, sounding very perplexed.

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Baalu. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Baalu

Baalu is a dwarf-spirit that lives high in the mountains of Ladakh.

It is said that if you stand at a crossroads and wait for a Baalu to walk by, you can catch him. Keeping a captive Baalu brings tremendous luck and riches to one’s household.

However, the Baalu will continually throw tantrums and demand to be let out. It is vitally important to ignore it. As soon as you let yourself get drawn into a discussion with a Baalu, it will hypnotise you and persuade you to let it out of its cage.

The people of the remote Himalayan settlement called Sumda Chen claim that they are descended from Baalus. There is also a ruined fortress in the area called Baalu Mkhar, or Dwarf’s Castle, which is so inaccessible that not many people even from the closest village have ever set foot there. The fort is said to have been built one thousand years ago by Baalus. To support this claim, people point to the tiny doorways, and the fact that the architecture is very different from other ancient structures in the surrounding area.

Tibetans claim that Baalus derive their power from the Yül Lha, the ancient gods of the soil.

Ref: 397. Vohra, R. (1982). Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh: The Brog-Pā. Zeitschrift Für Ethnologie, 107 (1), 69-94.

Baak. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Baak

The Baak is perhaps the best-known monster of Assamese folklore. It inhabits swamps, lonely ponds, and abandoned temple tanks. It is constantly in search of fish.

In its natural form, a Baak appears as a very tall, lean, gangly, shadowy humanoid. It has long fingers and toes and messy hair, and it stinks like rotten seafood.

However, a Baak can change its shape. It can become a mist floating through swamp grass, with tendrils that reach out to snatch the catch from a fisherman’s boat. It can also take the shape of a human.

It is thought that in order to survive, a Baak needs to occupy a human corpse once in a while, drawing its energy from the dead. The more peaceable among the Baaks satisfy this need by inhabiting the bodies of the drowned, or of people who have been murdered and thrown in the water. Other Baaks have no compunctions about killing in order to obtain a fresh corpse.

A Baak always carries a small pouch or bag. This bag appears to be made of black fishnet, but it is really of some otherworldly material. If a person is able to steal a Baak’s bag, he will gain complete control of the monster. He can even make the Baak assume human form and work for him like a servant. However, the Baak will always be on the lookout for a chance to reclaim its bag, and if it does, then woe betide the thief!

There is substantial overlap between legends of the Doht, the Ghorapaak, and the Baak. These may all be different names for the same creature, or they may be related varieties.

Avittam. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

 Avittam

Avittam is the Tamil name for the star Dhanishta, or δ-Delphini as it is known by Western astronomers. This star gives its name to the 23rd of the 27 lunar mansions in the Hindu astrological calendar. One night every month, the moon is in Avittam.

This star manifests as a grotesque demon that lives in the cremation ground. If someone dies on the night of Avittam, then the demon visits the house of the deceased every month on the same night for the next few years. The relatives of the deceased are supposed to leave offerings for it on the thinnai, a raised platform outside the house: a little water in a snail shell, a handful of rice. They are also supposed to spread some sand on the thinnai so that Avittam can lie down for a while after it eats.

Failure to propitiate the demon in this manner can have dire consequences. When Avittam is angry, it grows in stature until its head touches the sky. Then, at midnight, the humongous monster stomps out of the cremation ground. In this form, it has huge bells hanging from it that clang when it walks, and smaller Rakshasas that ride along on its shoulders and limbs.

In its rage, Avittam is capable of destroying the house of the family that neglected to feed it, or even leveling the whole village with fire.

Ref: 291. Rajanarayanan, Ki. (2008). Where are You Going, You Monkeys?: Folktales from Tamil Nadu (Pritham K. Chakravarthy, Trans.). Blaft Publications Limited; 292. Rajanarayanan, Ki. (2016). நாட்டுப்புறக் கதைக் களஞ்சியம். Annam-Agaram Pathippagam Books.

Asura. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Asura

Commonly translated into English as “demon”, the word Asura is very ancient, and its meaning has shifted over time. It is related to the Persian word Ahura, which signifies a kind of angel in the Zoroastrian faith. Many linguists believe it comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root as the word Aesir — the clan of deities in Norse Paganism that includes Frigg, Odin, and Thor.

In the oldest Hindu texts, the word Asura is used for any and all supernatural beings. The Rig Veda refers to gods such as Indra, Rudra, and Agni as Asuras.

In later texts, the pantheon of deities is divided into two main camps: the mostly-benevolent Devas and mostly-malevolent Asuras.

The Asuras are further subdivided into many clans. A few of the major ones are:

• The Adityas, led by the god Varuna. In most stories, these deities are pious and good.
• The Daityas, descended from the earth goddess Diti and the sage Kashyap. These beings have a mixed reputation. Some are worshipped as deities, but many other legendary Daitya kings became power-mad and warred with the Devas. In several Indian languages, Daitya is used to mean “giant”, or any enormous monster.
• The Danavas, sons of Danu. These are usually evil, or at least up to no good. The monstrous drought-demon Vritra is the eldest of the Danavas.
• The Nivatakavachas, beings who wear impenetrable armour and reside at the bottom of the ocean. In the Ramayana, they are allied with Ravana, the Asura king of Lanka. In the Mahabharata, they are finally destroyed by Arjuna.

Ashwatthama. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Ashwatthama

Ashwatthama is not exactly a ghost, for he never died; but he still manages to haunt the present, thousands of years after his birth.

The Mahabharata tells us that Ashwatthama’s father was the sage Dronacharya. For many long years before his son was born, Dronacharya had practiced intense asceticism, praying to Lord Shiva for a boon.

As a result of his father’s devotions, Ashwatthama was born with a magic jewel in the middle of his forehead. This gem gave him special powers. No illness could affect him; he could feel neither hunger, nor thirst, nor tiredness. He could stay alive even without needing to breathe. He was a chiranjeevi — one of the very few “immortals” who will survive until the end of Kali Yuga, the current aeon, more than 400,000 years in the future.

In the Kurukshetra War, Ashwatthama fought on the side of the Kauravas against the Pandavas, led by Arjuna. He was a ferocious warrior with deadly skill on the battlefield, and he dispatched many opponents.

Then the Pandavas killed Drona, his father, and Ashwatthama became even more dangerous. Consumed by murderous rage, he aimed a powerful supernatural weapon called the brahmashirastra at the womb of Uttara, Arjuna’s daughter-in-law, in an attempt to put an end to the Pandava lineage.

In this he was thwarted by Lord Krishna, who restored Uttara’s child to life. Krishna then removed the gem from Ashwatthama’s forehead, and as punishment for having targeted an innocent unborn child, he cursed him to suffer for the whole of Kali Yuga. He left Ashwatthama roaming the forests, howling in pain and wishing for death, with his skin slowly melting away.

Arakkan. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Arakkan

In Tamil folklore, Arakkans are gigantic humanoid monsters, usually depicted as muscular male creatures with red skin. They live in solitude at the tops of forested hills.

An Arakkan will rarely bother humans unless they trespass in his lair or offend him in some way. In this case the angry Arakkan might hurl a giant boulder at the intruders, instantly crushing them to death.

Alternatively, the Arakkan might decide to take the humans captive. Such captives usually end up wishing they had been smashed by a boulder, for Arakkans are sadistic taskmasters who force their prisoners to do backbreaking, repetitive work.

One folktale tells of a Paataal Arakkan from the jewel-studded netherworld of Paataal Lok, who became enamored with a human woman and abducted her. This Arakkan had the power of turning his enemies to stone. He had also had the power of hiding his soul outside his body, so that he would be impossible to defeat in battle.

The imprisoned woman kept refusing to marry him. Finally, she agreed, but on a condition: he should tell her where he kept his soul, so that as his dutiful wife she might be its caretaker. The Arakkan told her that he kept it in the form of a snake.

Apsara. Статья из «Призраки, чудовища и демоны Индии»

Apsara

In mainstream Hindu and Buddhist mythology, Apsaras are beautiful celestial angels or nymphs — dancers, singers, and seductresses in the service of the gods. Their Sanskrit name, a-psaras, means “shameless” — a reference to their promiscuity.

The best-known of them are Urvashi, Tilottama, Menaka, Rambha, and Ghritachi, all of whom are important figures in mythology. Dozens more Apsaras are named in the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics. For the most part, they are benevolent, though they sometimes throw curses when they are very annoyed.

In some local traditions, the Apsaras can be more sinister. They may simply be amoral creatures, who think nothing of murdering humans on a whim.

The word is sometimes used as a synonym of Pari, or of the Kumaoni ghosts called Anchheri.

In Assam it is said that a person who steps on an Apsara’s shadow, or who angers the Apsara in some other way, will be put under a magic spell that will cause him to wither away and die.

Apsaras are always women. Their male consorts are the Gandharvas.

Ref: 391. Vetschera, T. (1978). The Potaraja and Their Goddess. Asian Folklore Studies, 37(2), 105-153. doi:10.2307/1177634

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