# Posthumous Humanity: A Study of Phantoms/Answers

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ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS.
QUESTION I.
Baroda State.
Baroda.—The belief of the people of the district I reside in at present, Baroda, and of my native district, Zilla Satara, Bombay Presidency, is that Vayu Loka is a portion of space surrounding our earth. The earth is said to have seven covers, of which Vayu, or air, is one; lightning (electricity) another, &c. The word Káma Loka is not known among the people, but as the souls or Beings are supposed to live in it with only their Sukshma or Linga Shariras (or bodies of desire, shaped according to the strongest desire they had at the time of their death, that is, at the time of their throwing off the outer visible corporeal bodies), the space they live in may be called Káma Loka, or the world of desire. Some of these souls may be so earth-bound, that is, so attracted to this earth by strong desires, that they may even remain in the regions inhabited by man. There are various narratives given in "Yoga Vásistha," a standard work on Adwaita philosophy, of deceased persons with special attractions to the houses they ​had lived in, and of some who had strong desires at the time of their death that they should be kings, &c., lingering in those very places; the consequence of which was that their souls, being cut off from the normal evolution from material existence towards the spiritual state, were tied or tethered, so to say, to those places, and there they enjoyed imaginary worlds or kingdoms begotten of their strongest desires.
Southern India.
Madura.—According to the popular belief in this part of Southern India, Káma Loka has nothing to do with the soul, if the latter be taken to mean Atma (the immortal spirit). According to "Brahmasutra," the jivatma, when it deserts one body and leaves one state of existence, enters another body and another state of existence, with the latent potentiality of future births in various states of existence (bhûtasukohna).
The Teluga phrase, Sathupaya (literally, "Sat is gone"), shows actually the idea of death as entertained by the Hindus.
The lower principles belonging to the earth, that cannot go beyond the earth's sphere, commonly called shell or reliquæ, alone belong to the state of Káma Loka.
Nizam's Territory.
Hyderabad.—The belief of the people of the various parts of the country I have visited, about ​Vayu Loka and Káma Loka, is that the former is a region of the atmosphere, and that the latter forms but a part of the Vayu Loka. It is believed that in the Káma Loka human monads of the lowest type hover about and await future progress in the scale of evolution.
Oudh.
Bareilly.—The ideas of the people here about Káma Loka (or, as is more generally known here, Yama Loka) are mostly derived from "Garud Purana." The popular notions are too hazy and vague to be taken into account. The book, "Garud Purana," may be regarded as a mythological work, which gives an idea of the state after death in an objective form, so as to bring it within the range of common conception. It deals mostly with the sufferings of evil people when they die. The pangs to which they are subjected are, as gathered from the descriptions contained in it, of a mostly physical nature—perhaps intentionally made so, to restrain people from evil deeds, as a purely subjective punishment would hardly have any meaning to them. Yama Loka is considered as a region between this physical world and Swarga or Naraka (heaven or hell), as the case may be. An entity has to pass through this loka, settle the account of its Karma, and then pass on to establish itself either in heaven or hell.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—Káma or Vayu Loka is a locality of which the people have but a vague notion in this ​province. The Bhuwas, of whom a detailed account is given in Dalpatram's book, and who, as a rule, are themselves mediums and induce mediumistic conditions in others, being an illiterate class, have no definite notion of the Káma Loka.
The people who are a little higher in the scale of intelligence believe that the Káma Loka is Yama-puri, mentioned in the "Garud-purana."
Bengal.
Calcutta.—The people—I mean the general mass—living in and around my present residence, i.e. Calcutta, have no notion of Káma or Vayu Loka. A few very learned men are, of course, excepted.
The people of Hugli believe in the existence of Preta Loka (Káma Loka), whither, generally speaking, every one has to go after death, and there remain for some time, according (a) to the life he or she may have led, and (b) according to his or her mode of death.
Malabar Coast.
Cochin.—Vayu Loka (the etheric region between earth and heaven) is the abode of devils and elementaries, according to the Hindus. The denizens are, of course, subject to the influence of Káma (desire) and Krodha (anger), but the term "Káma Loka" is probably Buddhistic. Vayu Loka is the ​gulf between birth and emancipation. The souls of good and bad men must pass into Vayu Loka; the good souls passing through to Swarga, and the bad souls wandering in it for a time, and then returning to the earth.
The trials of a chela in this Vayu Loka and the "Aramyam," or wilderness of temptations of the Mahabharata and Rámayána and the Bible, are only typical of Vayu Loka. The object of all sacraments while in the flesh, as well as the Srádha (ceremonies performed by relatives for the deceased), is to strengthen the soul against the devils and elementaries of this Loka. Devil is the term opposed to Deva, and both are superhuman beings. Elementaries (the undissolved ghosts of human beings) are drawn towards them in Vayu Loka, according to their Karma and affinities. Preta is the Sanskrit name for all disembodied souls. The devil-ridden only are put en rapport with weak mediums by the Black Magicians, but the deva-protected sometimes annoy their relatives and friends, just for prayers as helps to cross on to Devachan, or Swarga. The pitris are the devas of dead worthies.
Coromandel Coast.
Godavery and Kistna Districts.—The popular belief in this part of India respecting Káma Loka is that it is a state of existence to which must pass the souls of men whose desires for this world have not been satisfied. The popular notion is not uniform as to the nature and locality of this Káma ​Loka. But one thing is pretty uniform, so far as my information goes, and it is this—that this state of existence is far from desirable. Some of the ceremonies performed for the sake of the deceased are aimed at the deliverance of the soul from this loka. In our parts of the country a young bull is, amongst certain classes, let loose, after the chanting of some mantrams on the last day of the funeral ceremonies. The popular belief is that at that time the departed soul is carried by the ceremonies daily made through the greater portion of its journey in Káma Loka, and at that stage there is a stream to be crossed, and that this bull is necessary to help the soul in crossing it. It appears to me that the difficulties which the manas or karana sariru has to go through before its reaching the Devachanic state, and the help that the relatives of the deceased can render to the manas so circumstanced, are given to the populace in parables; and time working, the spirit of the thing is lost and the shell retained. But the anxiety in the mind of the deceased's heir or relative about the deliverance of the soul from all the troubles which it will have to encounter before reaching the swarga (which, I think, corresponds with Devachan), and the belief that unless the sradhs are performed with scrupulous exactness such deliverance cannot be had, still remain. I am not speaking about the notions of our Anglicised young men, but about the notions of the orthodox portion of our community. The ideas of the people about this matter seem to be pretty consistent. It is only a man who is connected ​with this world that requires these funeral ceremonies and this help from mantrams; because up to the last moment of his life he will be thinking of this world's things, desiring this and shunning that, panting after the accomplishment of this object and wishing that another thing should never happen, anxious for not knowing whether his B.A. son will become a big man or not, or discouraged about the future prospects of his more stupid son, and so on; entangled, as it were, in the network of human desires and aspirations, his soul cannot be free from the effects of such desires, which are so many forces drawing his soul earthwards, and his relatives' assistance through mantrams is necessary. But when a man renounces the world and becomes a sanyasi, he is no longer bound to the earth, and no ceremonies are necessary, and the belief seems to be that, as the soul at once gets into the swarga even the cremation of his body is not necessary. His soul has had a clean severance, if I may so say, from the body, and there is no tie between the two which remains to be dissolved. To such blessed souls there is no Kámaloka.
Of Vayu Loka I have never heard anything. The expression is scarcely used by ordinary men, and is perhaps confined to the learned pundits.
QUESTION II.
Southern India.
Madura.—Káma Loka is no place; it is simply a state of existence of the shells until they are ​distegrated in the ordinary course of nature. This disintegration is only a matter of time. It occurs speedily when the manas (physical intelligence) of the deceased was under the control of his Buddhi (spiritual intelligence) during his lifetime, like a well-broken horse under an experienced rider. It takes a long time in a case where his Ahamkara (egotism) was allowed to get the better of his Buddhi. But in the end it must disintegrate. All the ceremonies performed by the Brahmins during the ten days sueceeding the death of a person are calculated to aid the disintegration of the shell. The ceremonies, be it observed, are not addressed to the Atma, but to the Préta. The word "préta" literally means "gone" (pra, prefix, meaning intensity, and "ita," gone, from the root "e," to go)—that which is left when the "sat," or the "being," is gone. The general purport of the mantrams used in the funeral ceremonies is this: "I pour this water to satisfy the préta's unsatisfied thirst. I make this offering of rice and sessamam seed to satisfy the préta's unsatisfied hunger, &c." Among very rich persons, as soon as a man is dead thirty-two balls of rice and curry are prepared and spread before the préta, who is supposed to be invisibly present. One end of a cord of Kusa-grass is bound by mantrams (words of power) to the préta and the other to a poor Brahmin. The latter is then made to eat the rice, he being paid for this act an enormous sum, sometimes from ten to a hundred thousand rupees. But as the general belief is that the Brahmin will not live out the year at the utmost, this ceremony cannot be performed by all; therefore in ​the case of ordinary people the balls are put into the fire with the appropriate mantrams.
The number represents 32 Kalas, of which 12 belong to the sun, 16 to the moon, and 4 to the fire; these being the original Tatwas, which are reckoned at 96 by a further subdivision of each into Satwa, Rajas, and Tamo gunas.
In the case of suicides, persons dying by accident from fire, water, wounds in battle, &c., the funeral ceremonies cannot be performed till at least six months after their death. The reason for this is that in the case of these persons the annamaya kosha, or the physical body, alone is destroyed, the other principles are not destroyed; therefore, as there is no death in the proper sense of the word, the funeral ceremonies cannot be performed with effect at the time.
Nizam's Territory.
Hyderabad.—I do not think they could be localized in any particular spot; they are in that stage of existence through which the soul must pass before entering a higher one.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—A short account of Yamapuri, the abode of the elementals and elementaries, is given on pages 6 and 7 of "Bhût Nibandh." That the "Garuda-purana" should contain all that is alleged about Kámaloka is very suggestive; for is not Garuda, the eagle of Zeus Pater, symbolical of astral light—Akasha?
Any distinction as to whether Káma Loka is a ​place with geographical limits, or a state of being, does not exist in the popular belief, although the Shastris—I do not mean the very learned ones—do make some kind of distinction, but it is so vague that it cannot bear any close scrutiny.
That there are certain very high elementals who act as familiars of the gods themselves is a belief that is very common. I may even assert that these elementals, and even the lower ones, are looked upon as gods that must be worshipped as such.
Baroda.
Usually the Vayu Loka is considered to be a region much higher than the atmosphere which modern physical science recognizes as surrounding our globe, and the souls living in Vayu Loka are considered to live there, but as they have Linga Shariras (astral bodies), in which the element of air (Váyú) preponderates, they can move about swiftly from one region to another as they desire.
Many souls are regarded as living in this condition for a long time before, by rebirth among men, they take another visible physical body (Sthúl Sharira); but many also are thought to pass at once to another superior or inferior world of the universe, such as the Brahma Loka, Surya Loka, or the Yama Loka, &c., according to the intensity of their merits or demerits.
Bengal.
It is generally believed that men after death must go through Preta-yoni. The place has no ​geographical boundaries, but is thought to exist somewhere in the Southern quarter of space. Every soul must pass through it. Violent or accidental death causes the Preta to be earth-bound, and many legends are told regarding it. It is the duty of the Brahmins daily to give oblations of water, tulseed, or gangilly, called (tarpan), to the forefathers, to keep them pleased, as well as to benefit their departed souls. It is one of the daily duties of a Brahmin to make tarpan at the time of his daily worship. Just before the Doorga Pooja, in the dark aspect of the moon, it is incumbent on almost all Hindus to make tarpan in the river Ganges.
II.—A state of existence; as regards locality, earth.
Oudh.
Malabar Coast.
Only a state of existence through which the soul passes.
Mysore.
Vayu Loka is not a geographically circumscribed locality, but an interior plane of existence, embraced within the Akasha, and intermediate between the earth-life and that supreme spiritual state called Swarga (heaven).
Coromandel Coast.
They never give it geographical limits or boundaries, but they think that this loka has a specified locality in space. Exoteric language says so; but the esoteric meaning seems to be that it is a state of existence through which the soul must pass before entering a higher one. Our purobits themselves understand the subject so little that they are scarcely better off in their notions about these things than the ordinary people. When the soul is very much earth-bound owing to the strong desires it entertained at the time of death, it is supposed to wander upon the face of the earth, appearing to some and possessing some others, as opportunities occur. From this it may be inferred that the Káma loka begins with this earth, though it is not confined to it. But the notions of the people in general are so vague that it is difficult to say whether the Káma loka is entirely on the earth, or partly on it and partly elsewhere; and no two people, perhaps, agree in all points as to the nature and locality of Káma ​loka. Some people think that the soul must pass through many lokas before entering Swarga, whereas some call the whole of the path Káma loka, and subdivide it into different stages.
QUESTION III.
Mysore.
The soul of every deceased person passes into Vayu Loka, and lingers there a longer or shorter time until the ties engendered in that particular birth are broken. The natural term of this sojourn in Vayu Loka is believed to be from ten to about sixteen days, and the funeral ceremonies (Shraddh), of prayers, &c., &c., are regulated in different parts of India according to the local or sectarian belief as to the length of this term. If a religious person dies with some strong earthly longings unsatisfied, he or she becomes a brahma-pisácha—an earth-bound soul of a certain sort; if the person was an infidel or atheist (nastika), he or she becomes a pisácha—a malicious soul, a devil. The Shraddh ceremonies are believed to help the soul through Vayu Loka and on to Swarga. Soldiers killed in battle pass at once into Swarga; but their employers, if their cause be an evil one, suffer corresponding punishment. Persons dying by accident or suicide have to linger in Vayu Loka as many years as they would have existed in the body had they lived out their natural term. There are three lokas in the Akasha—Vayu, Naraka, and Swarga, or Indra, lokas. The first is a transitive state; the second one of punishment (hell); the third one of ​happiness (heaven). The stay of a being in either of the two latter continues until his evil or good deeds have been fully compensated, or, as Hindus say, until the Karma is exhausted. The being then returns to earth-life and takes birth in accordance with previous, but not yet exhausted, Karma. In the realms of torture and of happiness there are non-human beings, or spirits, the agents of the supreme deities presiding over those realms. These spirits are not employed by magicians or sorcerers to work phenomena (miracles) or injure living persons; but bhûtas, pisáchas, and other human unliberated souls, are thus employed.
Kathiawar.
From my inquiries I find that the races inhabiting the Kama-loka are looked upon as human and sub-human, as well as superhuman. The innate spirit of veneration is so far developed in this country that they are, I believe, all looked upon as objects worthy of worship and veneration (as if they were all gods themselves) by the people who believe in them and fear them. The intelligent classes who believe in them do, at any rate, look upon Bhairava and all others like him as gods, higher than human beings, and to be worshipped as such by prayers, sacrifices, &c. It is a very difficult task to find out whether the Màtàs or the Shaktis are elementals pure and simple, or goddesses, or symbols representing the attributes of the superior gods. There is such a hopeless confusion in the modern Hindu mind, that it would be vain to expect to come to any definite conclusion.
​Following are the names of a few prominent Màtàs evoked by the Bhuwas in this province of Kathiawar:
Meladi, Khodiar, Chàmund, Gátrál, Mágal, Momái Raveshi, Chhinkotora, and Varndi.
In the Southern Mahratta country, where I was for very nearly five years, I used to hear much of a Màtà called Yellammá—a most powerful Màtà, but I was assured by intelligent orthodox Brahmins that she was beyond the pale of the Hindu pantheon.
I have no means of ascertaining which of these elementals are purely Hindu and which are purely aboriginal. Anyhow the general belief is that they are superhuman.
Southern India.
Madura.—The beings that inhabit this region are called by various names: Gandharvas, Kinnaras (literally sub-human), Pisácha (lit. flesh-eater), Bhuta (lit. those who can fulfil their desires, not disembodied spirits, as they are called), Guhiakas (lit. guardians of hidden treasure), Siddhas (lit. possessors of anima mahima, &c., Siddhis). They are none of them considered to be above man in the scale of creation. They may sometimes wield power greater than man; but that does not make them superior to him, any more than the elephant or the lion. The received idea about these beings is this. There are five Bhutas, or original elements, viz. Akas, Tejas (light), Vayu (air), Ap (water), and Prithivi (earth). Every thing or being in the created universe is a combination of these principles. It is only when ​the primitive portion of a being predominates that it becomes an object of perception to the ordinary man, as distinguished from those who have the gift of second sight by nature, or who have acquired it. These beings are considered to have less of the Prithivi Bhuta, and so are imperceptible to the senses of ordinary humanity. They are said to have more power than man over fire, water, akas, &c., according to the particular bhutam (element) that predominates in their constitution. They may also do things which are impossible for man in his present state, by reason of their familiarity with certain laws of nature which appertain to their state of existence. They are believed to be capable of assuming any animal form, and making themselves visible. But all these do not make them superior to man, but, on the contrary, they are the absolute slaves of the adept who can control thein completely and compel them to carry out his will. Such of these semi-human beings as are of mischievous tendencies can be coaxed into carrying out evil behests by the black magicians. To keep up their goodwill the latter sacrifice animals to these beings periodically, generally on new-moon or full-moon days.
Hyderabad.—Either equal to, or lower than, humanity, but never higher. This is the prevalent notion. I may be permitted to mention here, that sometimes the greatest sages have to halt for a short time in the Káma Loka, by way of expiation for some trifling error, or for some wrong desire they might have cherished within themselves during their lifetime. I have known a clairvoyant who ​used to hear (clairaudiently) the bemoaning cries of these creatures, at times innocent, at times mischievous, but always anxious to escape from the un-enviable sphere.
Baroda.
The forms of the Linga Shariras of the souls living in the Vayu Loka may be varied—human or otherwise—according to the strongest desire at the time of death, that is, at the time of leaving the Sthula Sharira. These souls can, if possessed of higher powers, assume other shapes for a short time and become visible to men. But most of these last are earth-bound, and live in the regions inhabited by man.
Oudh.
They (the residents of Yama loka) can see and hear from any distance, and can appear instantly at any place. There is a distinction of sex there; i.e., there are both men and women. The residents of Yamaloka include entities that were once human—giants and demons (elementals) of terrible shapes, and Yama's messengers, who are kind and gentle to pious souls, but extremely hard on the evil ones.
Bengal.
Some are considered superhuman; but, according to Hindu belief, it is considered a calamity if it is thought that the soul has become earth-bound; ​and many are the rites and formalities which are prescribed in our ancient books to elevate the soul from such a state. There is a Hindu ceremony, called Sraddha, which is performed to free the soul from such condition. Especially it is said that by giving oblations at Gya the soul is freed. It is said that sons are needed to do this ceremony. The word "Putra" means the male issue, who has the power of relieving the soul from the hell called "Put."
Coromandel Coast.
People call the souls inhabiting it Pisachas. They do not consider them human. In some respects Káma Loka is considered as sub-human, for those Pisáchas which inhabit it are pitied as being in an undesirable condition. But they (Pisáchas) are believed to be superhuman in their power either for good or for evil. People believe that the soul of a friend and relative may be watching its connections still on earth, and protecting them from Pisáchas, and sometimes from other dangers. It is also believed in some quarters that these Pisáchas sometimes give warnings to friends or relatives of coming dangers.
QUESTION IV.
Southern India.
Madura.—They are not believed to have any feeling of either hostility or friendliness for man-kind. Some of them are by their nature more mischievous than well-disposed, and vice versâ; ​but the generality are an indifferent combination of both. They attach themselves to, or possess, persons whose nature and disposition are similar to theirs, or whose extreme passivity attracts their influence. The general belief is that men attract to themselves such of these beings as are in sympathy with their habitual thoughts and predominant passions or tendencies. "Like seeks like."
Hyderabad.—Humanity, all the world over, is divided into three main classes: (1) men of Satva Guna; (2) men of Rajo Guna; and (3) men of Tamo Guna. The people of the Káma Loka are unable to do any harm to human beings of the first order; but those of the third are, as a rule, accessible to them. I may here cite the case of a grammarian of Mysore, which I heard of some time ago. His knowledge of the Sutras of Panini, &c., was profound. Day and night his zeal was to impart his knowledge to others; but, in the midst of all his solicitudes, death cut off his life. His unsatisfied desire, that chief goal of his ambition, to teach his grammatical lore to humanity, made him a denizen of the Káma Loka. Every evening he used to haunt a tree in the back compound of his house, from whose top he used to recite verses for the edification of those pupils of his who were eager to profit by his instructions. It is said that the students who were allowed the privilege of hearing him were able afterwards to rightfully construe some of the doubtful passages of the Vedas. Of the pranks and mischief committed by the Káma Loka entities upon men of ​Tamo Guna there are hundreds of instances. Their contact is always injurious, and no good whatever results from their intimacy with the third class of human beings.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—It would be difficult to answer this question satisfactorily. The Bhuwas and other Black Magicians look upon their familiars as very friendly to themselves; but at the same time I cannot help imagining that they have a secret dread of them, for they are extremely careful with regard to certain ceremonies and observances, which they must perform daily, so as to avoid displeasing them.
I think that the Hindus, as a rule, look upon the superhuman elementals as gods or Devatas.
I know of a case, easily verifiable, where the wife of a friend of mine, who is a medium under the control of a Mohammedan elementary—a venerable old silvery-bearded gentleman—looks upon him as friendly; for he has in her dreams often predicted future events, consoled her in her misfortunes, promised his help, and has even gone so far as to assure her that he does not belong to the class of bad spirits, and that she should in no way distrust him, as he is pious and good in every way.
But it should be remembered that the majority of the intelligent class of orthodox Hindus look upon most of them, if not all, as hostile to us, and treat those who dabble in such practices as unworthy of encouragement. Their belief is that they would all turn elementals or elementaries themselves, without any hope of Moksha.
Mysore.
Both Brahma-pisáchas and Pisáchas obsess or take control of living persons; but the former are not malicious: tricks, persecutions, and foolish phenomens are done by the latter. The bhúta has some desire to satisfy, and if that is gratified he will be released and go away. The Pisácha seems to delight in causing confusion and trouble, inflicting pain, gratifying low appetites, and taking life. A perfectly pure and good person, if of a religious mind, will not be attacked by an evil spirit; but any vicious habit attracts them. Ignorance of religious things, also, renders persons liable to their influence.
Baroda.
Of the earth-bound souls, some are of good tendencies, but the large majority are considered to be of bad tendencies. If they died with special strong affections to some human beings, they are friendly to them; if with special hatred to some, they are hostile to them. It is believed that they can be utilized, according to their natural tendencies for good or evil, by those living human beings who can control them.
A dying man's unsatisfied desire for a woman, or a woman's for a man, will tend to attach them after death to that person, if there exists in him or her any responsive desire, however carefully masked by social conventionality for there is then a positive mutual attraction, and the living cannot repulse the dead until that is extirpated.
Bengal.
There are no different classes that are hostile or friendly; but it is believed that in most cases they are hostile. Both men and women are possessed, but generally women. I may mention here, that in some cases bad women feign possession; but nowadays the English doctors call these hysteriacs.
II. All are hostile to ordinary individuals; kind only to those who propitiate them and lead a peculiarly unclean life.
Oudh.
The djinn (elementals) are supposed to be both friendly and hostile. Elementaries (Bhátas and Pretas) are generally considered to do injury to men who are evil.
Coromandel Coast.
It is believed that these beings are hostile to their enemies and friendly to their friends. They are supposed to be hostile to the weak-minded.
QUESTION V.
Southern India.
The injury they do us is either physical or mental. The former is perceived by a gradual diminution of vital activity, culminating in death. This death sometimes takes place in a moment. But in either case no trace will be perceptible of the manner of the wound or disease causing death. No physical remedy will withstand it; but any one accustomed to manipulate these forces will be able to cure the ​malady. As for the mind, the man gradually develops disposition in one particular direction, and some tendency either for good or bad, which he had formerly, and which was not observed hitherto, begins to grow to intensity at the expense of all the rest. The man becomes a monomaniac, harmful or harmless according to the being that controls him.
They attack men, women, and children indiscriminately, producing fever, hysteria, and many nervous complaints.
Baroda.
Earth-bound souls can do us injury by entering our visible physical bodies and giving them pain, and by tormenting us even to death. It is thought that these earth-bound souls, the bad ones of them being called Bhútas or Pisháchas, have very strong earthly desires for food, &c., but that they have not the physical instruments, viz., the corporeal bodies, by means of which they can satisfy their desires; they have therefore to enter the corporeal bodies of others, and satisfy their desires by that means.
Mysore.
In person, women are more subject than men to their attacks, but only after attaining puberty. The victim loses health, appetite, and interest in domestic affairs; constantly broods over the controlling Pisácha, and, when not controlled by it, seems stupid and absent-minded. She is often ​made to gratify his lust, believing that the marital act takes place between them; and she feels the strongest repugnance to her husband and any other man.
Kathiawar.
They are capable of doing us harm in a variety of ways; by depriving us of our "means of subsistence;" by depriving us of children and near relations; by bringing about sickness, madness, leprosy, &c., in the family; by the death of the medium or the exorcisers themselves; in short, by every imaginable means that might bring about death and ruin in any of their forms.
Bengal.
When it is said that a woman is possessed by an elemental, she acts like a mad woman, and her health gradually decays and her whole appearance changes for the worse.
II. Bodily injury; in persons of peculiarly mild temperament mental injury is also done.
Oudh.
Elementaries can do injury by obsession and frightening.
Coromandel Coast.
They are supposed to injure us by possessing us, and thereby deranging our minds, and in various other ways. They phenomenally deposit rubbish in our boxes and rice-pots, tear our valuable cloths ​and such other things which involve the disintegration or destruction of tangible matter. In one instance the "devil" used to throw some babe in the house among thorns, where it was often found in the morning. This is an incident connected with the family of a relation of mine, and took place when I was a boy of about ten years. Many relations, who are still alive, can testify to the facts as having been seen by them. Sometimes stones are pelted at men and into the houses. I know a case which was a matter of great notoriety in the town in which I am now living. There is a house which now belongs to a near relation of mine. During the time of its former owner, and for some time after it came to the hands of its present owner, one peculiar phenomenon was often witnessed by many men now living. This house stands close by a masjid where there are some tombs of Mohammedans. This masjid is supposed to be haunted, even up to this day. What occurred was that huge stones would fall into this house and compound from the side of the masjid. For some time it was supposed to be due to human agency, but all attempts to prove it so failed. One thing which is very peculiar was this, that the stones would invariably fall just by a man or a vessel; but though they say that stones without number fell in this way, not one was observed to have injured either a human being or any material object. No human skill can, I think, be so exact in its aim as that. In this case the devil is supposed to have played tricks with the inmates of the house for some reason best known to ​itself. Some time after a certain man came and, by mantrams, put a stop to these innocent but rather terrifying pranks. The popular idea seems to be that there is nothing impossible for a devil or Pisácha, and that it can only be controlled by mantrams chanted by a magician of great skill.
QUESTION VI.
Baroda.
It is considered a bad thing for mankind to encourage intercourse with their earth-bound deceased friends or other persons, because these earth-bound souls, having become earth-bound through strong worldly desires, cannot really give such instruction as will emancipate the soul of the living man, which is the highest goal that should be aimed at; and, secondly, because these earth-bound souls are likely, by their intercourse, to inflame such desires in the living persons as will make them also earth-bound at their death. The state of these earth-bound souls is considered not at all a desirable one; for they continue in this state for a long, long time, tormented by desires which they cannot satisfy. This existence retards the progress of man towards final emancipation.
Mysore.
A bad thing: no respectable family would encourage such intercourse; only sorcerers do so, and they always get punished for it. If they omit the least part of their magical ceremony, or in any way do anything to weaken their acquired will-power ​over their "spirits," they are instantly killed by the latter. A sorcerer is said to have been thus destroyed by fire in the streets of Calcutta. It is considered a wicked act of selfishness an interference with the order of nature and the law of God.
Bengal.
It is generally considered a calamity when a person is possessed by an elemental; but we can find in some of the Tantric works how an elemental could be invoked and commanded to do the biddings of the human invoker: this is what is called the "Black Art." Those people who have control over the elementals do not command a very high respect, although they are dreaded. It is a common belief that it is not good to invoke elementals to have anything to do with them. In many Hindu families children wear madoolies, or some other charms, to protect them from elementals. The metal iron, is much used for the purpose. The customs regarding this protection are various.
II. Injurious in all cases. None of the higher castes would attempt it.
Southern India.
Madura.—This matter is viewed with such abhorrence among people here that any one who is even distantly suspected of having any such dealings is at once excommunicated by his caste; he becomes a chandala, or pariah.
Hyderabad.—In some cases intercourse with deceased friends and relatives does take place. Such ​an intercourse is deemed favourable in a few cases, and the reverse in others, according to the good or bad motives with which the intercourse is opened, and according to the development of the imparting entities.
Malabar Coast.
Invoking the spirits of deceased relatives on annual occasions of anniversaries is a sort of intercourse. The non-performance on the fixed days renders the defaulter subject to penance and penalty. The performance is calculated to be an honour to the family. Any misfortune or domestic calamity is attributed to the wrath of the Pitris, or the departed ancestors.
Cochin.
No good can ever come of intercourse with the bad pretas, who will only inflame the physical cravings of weak girls and men by "possessing" them, and assist black magicians for the sake of offerings of drink, flesh, and lust. They are known as "Chathan" on the Malabar coast, where Christians, Brahmans, and of course also black magicians, play the exorcists. They are powerless, when directed against good men of virtue and self-control.
Oudh.
In all cases whatever, intercourse with elementaries and elementals is considered to be ominous, and is looked upon with disgust by the Hindus.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—It is certainly considered by the ​intelligent classes that intercourse with deceased persons is highly dangerous.
Coromandel Coast.
There seems to be a wide-spread belief that intercourse with deceased persons should be avoided as much as possible. If the soul of the departed is invoked it is only with a view to find out the wishes and other particulars about the devil which possesses a man, whose cure is put in the hands of a mantrika (one who knows mantrams), and, by satisfying those wishes or otherwise, to deliver the patient from the hold of the devil. Even this is not done by mantrikas, who are supposed to be of the higher class. They only go through the mantrams and expel the devil, or Pisácha, without any invocation or any apparent intercourse with it.
QUESTION VII.
Southern India.
Madura.—I am about to state a certain accident in my family, some fourteen years ago, in connection with the death of my elder maternal uncle. I was living with my said uncle's son, named Narayanasamy, in Combaconum, at a distance of 150 miles from my village, Melur. My uncle was attacked all of a sudden with paralysis, while at a neighbouring village for cultivation business, and was brought to the house by two servants. About thirty days after the attack he breathed his last. The sickness was not communicated to us, as it was thought it would interfere with ​his son's appearance for a certain university ex-amination. One night, when I was half-awake, I saw my uncle, who was much attached to me, standing before me near my bed. He stayed about two minutes and then disappeared. I immediately got up, but was much depressed. Next evening at 4 P.M., a servant from home, who came to take us to our village, informed us of the death of my uncle three days previously. I saw him in the night of the second day after his death.
Southern India.
Hyderabad.—I answer this question in the affirmative. I may cite an instance I have drawn from a trustworthy source. About three years ago an oilmonger died within the vicinity of Arnee, whom I will call, for the sake of convenience, A. Sometime after his death, a kinsman, or friend of his, whom I may name B, also appeared to breathe his last. But the latter, a few hours after the apparent stoppage of breath, came to life again, and the first thing that he said was that he had seen A somewhere in the other world, adding that he had received peremptory orders from him, which required his relatives to pay off a debt he had contracted in his lifetime as soon as possible.
A second case of the kind in question is as follows. It occurred at Darapoorum, where a rich merchant of some celebrity died. A few years after, a friend. of the deceased also appeared to die; but, as in the above case, he revived. As soon as he was able to speak, he said he had a message from the deceased ​merchant to be delivered to his living nephew. During the apparent cessation of life, he had seen him (the merchant) somewhere in the other world (Káma Loka), commissioning his nephew to lose no time in building a temple, for which he had reserved a sum of money in his lifetime. The relatives of the deceased, who had assembled to hear this strange story, were moreover told that, unless the wishes of the departed were carried out by his nephew, there was no hope of any diminution of the sorrows he had to undergo in some disagreeable regions. The nephew was told that if he wanted to see his uncle free from posthumous pains he must set to work at once to construct the temple, and so fulfil the unsatisfied desire which kept his uncle earth-bound. The nephew did what he was ordered to do, and this seems to have given rest to the troubled soul of his uncle.
Mysore.
In 1858, I being at Madras and an uncle of mine at Tirippatur (about 80 miles away), he suddenly died at about daybreak. At about eight o'clock that morning I waked from a doze, and saw him before me. I was startled, and tried, but was powerless, to rise. Two females and two males were in the room with me, and saw my agitation; but none but myself saw him. Six years later I was prostrated with jungle fever, with no medical aid available, and for a day and night was insensible. The next day, at about noon, I regained consciousness, opened my eyes, and saw my deceased uncle before me. He ​asked me why I was lying there? I said I had no medicine, and no nurse to care for me. He told me to open my box, and use the medicine I should find there. I opened the box, found some greyish powder, wrapped in a paper, and took it in water. It had a sweetish taste. I broke out into a profuse perspiration, which continued all the afternoon. At the end of six hours I was quite well. Since then I have seen him in dreams only. I never saw any other deceased person.
I am a pensioned ressaldar (troop-leader) of the Mysore Horse, and my service took me much into various districts, among others Shivamoogah, where it is a common thing for people to have intercourse with Pisáchas. Some possess mantrams, or spells, by which they control them. They compel them to guard their property. If a thief lay his hand upon any article in the house, or any fruit in the garden of a man so protected, he is unable to stir from the spot or withdraw his hand until the owner returns, and not even then until the spirit is ordered to set him free. A Pisácha so employed is called a chowdi; by accepting his help for such a selfish purpose, the sorcerer gives him a stronger hold upon himself, and he has to exercise all the more caution, lest he fail for a moment to keep the control, and thus lose his life. Sorcerers can transfer the services of their chowdis, and it is a common thing for the purchaser of a garden to take from the seller the mantram by which the guardian chowdi is controlled; otherwise he would not be able to enjoy the fruits of the field or ​orchard. Pisáchas sometimes take possession of a house, a well, or a tree. They are driven away by a mantriki (one possessing knowledge of mantrams), by reciting charms, suspending juntras (cabalistical signs inscribed on sheet-copper plaques) on the walls, sides, or branches, as the case may be, and other devices. Sometimes, when the Pisácha (spirit-control) is expelled from a medium he is obsessing, the mantriki will cut a lock of her hair, wrap it about an iron nail and drive the nail into a tree; the Pisácha is then bound to the tree until the nail rusts away.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—Mediumistic phenomena are very common indeed in this part of India. Possessions and obsessions manifest themselves in tremors of the whole of the body, but the Western medium and his or her cabinet and psychography are, as far as we find, unknown here. Materializations during a Bhuwa's séance we have never heard of.
The following are a few particulars which may interest students of occult lore.
To appease the "control," the Bhuwa exorciser, with his assistant's or Jogi's peculiar mode of heat-ing his hand-drum and his peculiar plaintive chant, demands of the control what sacrifices would suit it. If it is a goat or a sheep which has to he sacrificed, we have heard from many that when the poor animal is brought before the trembling medium, and when accepted by the control, it soon begins to tremble in a most unusual manner.
​The trembling medium, or rather the control, is compelled by the exorciser, by incantations or threats and objurgations, to declare who it is that possesses or obsesses the medium, and how it is to be pacified. These objurgations sometimes take days before any decisive issue is reached, during which time the exorciser frequently invokes his favourite Mata, by his own tremors, to compel the control, elemental or elementary, to leave the patient for good.
The Jogis adopt different modes of beating the drum for different Matas.
The exorciser, of course, has the greatest reverence for his Mata; an image of her is religiously kept in a niche in his house, which he constantly worships, and to which he offers his oblations and sacrifices.
In many of his ceremonies he uses alcoholic drinks; but he is very chaste, for he really believes that unlawful sexual intercourse will offend his controlling Mata.
Baroda.
I have seen some such mediums at two places viz., at Narsoba's Vádi, near Kúrúndwád, Southern Maratha country, and at Mirá Dátár's mosque at Unjá, in the Kari Division of the Baroda State; but at both places I found that the mediums were tormented by the earth-bound souls, and they (the mediums) had resorted to these holy places to get rid of their intercourse with the said earth-bound souls.
Bengal.
Calcutta.—It is not often that people dying with ​some earthly desires come back or become earth-bound; but it is supposed that mostly people dying suddenly by accident or committing suicide become earth-bound. Such souls obsess some members of the family. I have no personal knowledge of such cases, but have heard many stories about these, some of which I have no reason to doubt, as they are well authenticated.
II. Very rare; we think it a misfortune.
Oudh.
Bareilly.—I know a case (about which I have written to you already) in which a departed lady materialized herself to a friend in the Central Provinces, and said that she had, without the knowledge of her husband, lent money to some persons from whom she wanted to recover the sum.
{{c|Coromandel Coast. I have heard of many cases and seen some of this sort; but I have never observed any, in my mature age, under test conditions. What I have observed may, for aught I know, have been mere hallucinations. But almost every orthodox man believes that such things do occur. A case happened in my own family in 1875–76, where the patient used to tell me (I was standing by and assisting the patient) that she could see the devils (three in number) sitting by her and beside her, as well as she could see myself. When the devil was to fall on her, she used to tell me: "Now look here! the devil is preparing and girding up her loins to fall upon me. Be on the alert." Immediately after that, I used to ​observe the usual convulsions in the patient. The patient used to pre-announce the hours of attack by the devil, and she was so sure of it that she used to tell us (the assisting men) to go away on our business, but be ready by the hour and minute predicted. I always found the prediction true. At last the obsessing devil stated all the particulars of her unsatisfied desires to us through the lips of the patient, with a request that before driving her out by mantrams we should satisfy them. The devil said, she (it was the spirit of a woman) died full of desires which were not yet satisfied. We complied with her wishes, and till this moment we have been free from further annoyance. The devil has kept its word. The man who subdued this spirit was a well-known "white magician," who was respected by one and all of the community in which he lived. He was known to be an extraordinarily good, pious, truth-speaking man. I saw him several times, and I was always inspired in his presence with awe and respect. He told me that the devil above spoken of had many conversations with him, in which she plaintively requested him to see her desires satisfied.. I say she, because, of the three devils above spoken of, one—the most important of them—seemed to be the spokesman of the rest.
I have had no other experience worth mentioning.
QUESTION VIII.
In reply to this question, a gentleman, who does not wish his name mentioned, says:
"My mother used to tell me that her grandmother-in-law had become earth-bound, though she was a ​good-natured lady, through intense affection for her young children whom she had left behind at her death. Her husband was an eminent magician, and she had constant opportunity of seeing obsessed persons, and it was believed that these scenes had probably something to do with her having become earth-bound. Her medium was her daughter-in-law, that, is my mother's mother-in-law. Some members of the family did not believe in the truth of the manifestations, and regarded the medium as only pretending to be possessed by her mother-in-law. One day her son became suddenly ill; all medicine failed, and it was thought that he would die in a short time. Suddenly the medium became obsessed, and began to say that if any members of the family thought the obsession mere humbug, they might try all the medicines in the world and save her son if they had the power. The family members implored that the earth-bound soul which manifested itself through the medium, and was the guardian angel of the family, might save her son. The obsession ceased for a while, but reappeared soon afterwards, and the medium began to say that she, the earth-bound soul, had to take very great trouble to drive off the evil earth-bound souls that had entered the house along with a certain idol that was brought into the family from a distant country, and that the idol should be at once removed and taken out of the house. This was done in the dead of night, and the medium scratched up a little earth from the ground and applied it to the forehead of her dying son, after which he at once got better and recovered. ​The medium used to become obsessed whenever there was great danger to any member of the family, and the earth-bound soul used to relate, through the mouth of the medium, that her strong desire for the children made her a Bhût or Pishácha (earth-bound soul), and that that state of existence was not at all desirable; and when her son was about to start for Benares on pilgrimage, she suddenly manifested herself through the medium, and said that she was tired of her existence as Pishácha, and that her son should perform at Benares the rite for her called the Pishácha mochani (the rite of emancipating an earth-bound soul from the earth-bound state), so that she would be delivered from the condition of a Pishácha. The rite was per-formed, and the medium never became obsessed after that time. Mediumship is not considered a thing to be proud of, but rather the reverse."
Madura.—Such an occurrence is considered to be a great misfortune it brings the family into bad repute. As soon as it occurs no trouble or expense is spared to get rid of it at once by some costly ceremony or pilgrimage to distant shrines, or whatever other thing may be demanded by the deceased through his medium.
Such an order is regarded either with pleasure or pain according to the means or otherwise of those who are commanded to carry out the wishes of a deceased friend or relative. If the order go to a rich man, it will give him great pleasure, and he will consider himself blessed; but by one who is not in a position, or one who has not the wherewithal to ​satisfy the wishes of the deceased, it will be received with positive sorrow.
I here cite an example.
There was a member of a Brahmin family living in a village of Sholinghur, where there is a famous temple, who happened to die about a century ago. There are some intelligent members of the same family yet living, two of whom are pleaders. My information comes from one of the latter, and hence I think it has all the more claim to credence.
It seems that whenever any marriage ceremony was to be performed, or any Sraddhas were to be celebrated, one of the younger daughters of the family would be attacked with some malady. On every festival a younger girl was sure to be the victim of some bodily suffering. At length, after many enquiries, the true cause of such occurrences was ascertained. It seems that a member of the family, who had died about a hundred years before, had met with an unnatural death, or, as he said himself, he was throttled by some one in the family; whence came these unfailing visitations on every festive. occasion. To assuage the spirit of the man who had met with a violent death, poojahs were offered to avert any evil consequences, with beneficial results to other members of the family.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—Such occurrences are not regarded, as a rule, with pleasure; on the contrary, they are looked upon as misfortunes in the family.
It is strange that in India mediumship, except in ​very rare instances, is looked upon as a misfortune, whilst the spiritualists of the West seem to encourage it as a means of communication between the living and the dead, or between men and the angels. It is sad to think what terrible misfortunes they are bringing upon their several communities by thus ignorantly breaking down the barriers erected by nature between the two worlds. Our knowledge has been bought by the miseries of ancestral experience, and perhaps the Western nations will have to journey by the same road.
Bengal.
People consider it a calamity when the soul of a member becomes earth-bound.
II. The reverse, certainly. It is a great misfortune and disgrace.
Oudh.
Never with pleasure; just the reverse.
Coromandel Coast.
Such an occurrence is never regarded with pleasure, or as something to be proud of. It is always considered to be some bad fate for the soul which appears as the devil, and some misfortune to the patient possessed.
Of mediums proper, as known in the West, I know nothing; nor have I heard anything.
QUESTION IX.
Malabar Coast.
There are rites:
(1) to control the spirits of the elements; e.g., it is considered the duty of the Hindu rajahs to ask the learned Brahmins of the district to assemble and perform what is called the Jala-japam, the efficacy whereof is to bring about immediately a good shower; generally done on occasions of drought and scarcity. It is recorded that on a recent occasion of the Murajapam ceremony, continuing, once in twelve years, at Trevandoum for fifty-six days, there was no water in the tanks and wells, and that by this Jala-japam there was instantly brought on a shower, enough for the purpose.
(2) To cure diseases. The magician and astrologer are allied to some extent. Immediately a child or man gets suddenly ill, or is confined to bed by any disease, the astrologer is consulted. He invariably tells you the name of a particular magician, receipt from whom of a charm will alone serve the object, like a doctor advising his patient to have his prescription made up at a particular chemist's only.
(3) To get knowledge of buried treasures. The "art of reading through ink," some time ago described in the "Theosophist." In 1879 a pamphlet was published. It contained certain mantrams to be recited, often at dead of night on a dark Amavasi day, several thousands, or lacs, of times. It also prescribes certain materials, such as skulls of females who have died during delivery, &c. The ​reciter must be completely naked, and must have no thread on his body.
There are a few persons who, although they do not practise as a profession, know the spells by heart. Formerly different tribunals used to be assisted by such persons in detecting cases of theft of movable property. Even now police officers and a few magistrates send for persons who are reputed to be members of the trade, to see if they can get any clue.
(4) To win the affections of persons of the opposite sex, &c. There is a general belief in the existence of certain herbs, &c., which, if mixed up and administered, tend to influence the mind favourably. Similarly, to injure an enemy, a magician is often consulted, to prescribe counteractive measures. This is called Kaio-visham (lit. hand-poison.).
Southern India.
The districts of Madura, Tinnevelly, and the native kingdoms of Travancore and Cochin abound in people who do all the things mentioned in this question
Hyderabad.—All the incidents mentioned in this question often happen in the Malabar district, the borders of which are only twenty or twenty-five miles distant from my native place, Coimbatore. I have heard that such occurrences are not rare in those parts of India.
I have also heard from a friend of mine the case of a Pariah who was in communication with a spirit. He used to live in Sarun, a village about ten or ​twelve miles distant from Bulsar, in the Bombay Presidency. The man had his séances every Tuesday and Sunday, and hundreds of men used to flock there asking him numerous questions. These questions were not put verbally, but every man who had some inquiry to make put a pie and some rice on a piece of wood before the Pariah. About a hundred such pies were placed in rows before he commenced his work. In the beginning he would untie his hair, take a brass plate and beat it vigorously, swinging his head to and fro. This process continued for about half an hour, when all at once the brass plate would fall from his hand, and the Pariah, continuing to swing his head as before, answered the questions put. My friend, who saw the man himself, said that many questions were rightly answered, and almost all those who came to consult him went home satisfied with his answers. Many were cured of diseases; lost articles were found; discarded wives. once more reconciled to their husbands; unfortunate persons in search of employment were commanded to go to a certain country in quest of their object; and, in short, many cravings of greedy humanity were satisfied by the spirit which inhabited the body of the Pariah. A mamlatdar had been robbed of some jewels by a servant of his. Upon inquiries at a séance the Pariah indicated the very spot under a tree where the jewels were buried. All this is authentic, and you are authorized to make any use of it you like. Similar cases occur even now all over India.
Madura.—I have lived with Ramanuja Yogi for ​three years. He was an Iyengar by caste. He died about four years ago; and although I am a Tamil Brahmin, I alone performed funeral ceremonies for him. He has taught me something, and I am trying to lead the life to the best of my ability and circumstances. The following are one or two of the actions I have seen him perform on several occasions.
I. He ordered my nephew, a child of a year old, to be brought to him. The child was made to sit on the floor in front of us. He said he was going to show some wonder, and that I could ask any question of the child, in any language I chose. He then covered himself with his rettarium, and touched the child with a light rattan he had in his hand. The child immediately sat in the posture known as Virásanam, and gave me a learned discourse on Raja Yoga in beautiful Tamil verse. I was so struck with this wonder that I did not then avail myself of his permission to ask the child questions, but continued to be a passive hearer. While this was going on I looked at the Yogi, and found that his body was motionless and rigid. I thought he was in a trance, and tried to wake him. His body was at first like a corpse; but in a few seconds he got up, and at the same instant the child began to weep very loudly. His first words were, "Take the child away, and give it milk instantly." This was done.
II. On another occasion there was a trial going ​on, in the High Court of Madras, of a case in which I was interested. On the day appointed for hearing the case I was in Madura, and felt anxious about the result. The Yogi was then with me, and to him I communicated my anxiety. In a few seconds there was a bright spot before me of the size of a rupee. Gradually it increased, and I was in the midst of the light. I found that I was in the High Court, in the midst of the people there, and that the trial had already closed. I asked one of the parties present in the court the result of the trial. He told me that judgment was given against him. After this the Yogi touched my shoulders, and the light was gone. Subsequently, when I saw the same person, he described everything as I had seen it. But he knew nothing of my asking him the question.
III. On one occasion I left, through forgetfulness, my sampudam (a small circular brass vessel, containing ashes, money, &c., usually kept in the fold of the cloth about the waist) by the river where I had bathed. As soon as I returned home I looked for the sampudam, and missed it. I was sorry. The Yogi, who was then with me, told me to unlock a certain room of my house and search a particular corner. I looked in the place, and there was the sampudam as I had had it on the river bank.
IV. On another occasion he was talking of various things while on the river-bed, when we were performing japam, and all of a sudden he asked me to confess before him all the sins I had committed. ​I told him I had nothing of importance to tell him. He then ordered me to bring olai and iron stylus. He then made a seat of sand in a square shape, wrote on it some letters, and asked me to sit on it. After I had taken my seat, he gave me a smart blow with his rod. I then all of a sudden began to write. I was conscious I was writing, but had no control over what I wrote. I could not but write; some mysterious force compelled me to do it. I yielded. I felt a sort of mild intoxication. About half an hour afterwards the Yogi snatched the ola from my hands, splashed cold water over my face, and took me out for a walk. He then, after some time, gave me the ola to read. But what was my amazement when, in my own handwriting, I found a detailed and circumstantial account of all my disgraceful peccadilloes which I would not for the world have had anybody know, much less the revered Yogi. He took pity on my state of mind, tore the ola into pieces, and directed me to prostrate myself before the sun, which was then setting in the west, and devoutly pray God that all my sins might be consumed in His eternal jyoti (light).
Cochin.
They are invoked by the sorcerer for a bribe to gratify the enemy of the victim. Setting fire to houses and clothes, causing stone-showers, putting unclean things into food, making noises or loud raps, cutting off the locks, driving into hysterical ravings, and injuring cattle in the illusive form of a furious bull, are the phenomena of the day to which living testimony can be had. No sorcerer in India ​would dare to exhibit experiments at séances, as he would at once be shunned and punished as a wicked man. Yet spiritualistic phenomena seem to be in request in this sceptical age to prove that an inner man survives the death of the body. It is certified by many, including government officials, that a low-caste man at Shoranou, and one at Alattoor, also an astrologer, give fairly accurately the past incidents and present ailments of the questioner, as well as valuable information in respect of thefts and other crimes. I am unfortunate in finding them to be failures. Their success seems to be in proportion to the credulous anxiety of the questioner.
Bengal.
I know of several persons who are professionally elemental invokers. Their services are required when any case occurs in which a person is possessed by an elemental.
II. Yes, to cure diseases, and for the welfare of distant friends; these are called "Santi-sastayana."
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar. The question can be easily solved. Every one of us here knows that there are such black magicians, who are capable of doing wonders, and who can do all that is enumerated by Colonel Olcott in this question. In fact, we can safely say that those of us who take an interest in occult lore find that, as an unmistakeable sign of these degenerate times, in our country we constantly hear much more of Black Magic than of White Magic.
Baroda.
There are several such persons in Baroda, but I have no personal experience of their powers.
Oudh.
In plenty, and the black magicians make money by it. It is, even in these sceptical days, a lucrative trade.
Coromandel Coast.
It is the undoubted belief of the people at large that there are such magicians. I know some men who profess to be such. I have also observed some performances, but they are not of a high order, except two cases (that I can now recall to my memory) where I observed extraordinary cures by mantrams.
QUESTION Χ.
Nizam's Territory.
Hyderabad.—Two cases of this kind I have known in my lifetime. One is the case of my second granddaughter. The night before her death I was sitting in a chair on the balcony of my house in Hyderabad; at about 11 P.M. my second daughter, who was on the ground-floor, cried out that she had seen my grand-daughter coming downstairs hastily from the upper floor. The room where her bed was placed was facing the east. Coming down she rushed into a room facing northwards, adjacent to her own sick-room. Following her immediately, I ​went into the room she had entered. Finding no traces of her there, I rushed at once into her sick-room, where she was lying, as I suppose now, in a trance. I called her, asked her many questions without getting any answer. She was fond of me; I think her Double went up to give me intimation of her approaching end. She died next morning at about 7 A.M.
The case of a Moodeliar, by name Manallee Chinnya, may also be mentioned here. He was once a very rich and famous man of Madras, and was the factotum of the Raja of Tangore. It so turned out that before his death he had a great mind to give a certain sum of money to a Brahmin friend of his. A little before his death he told the members of his family that he had a great mind to give some money to the Brahmin in question; but as death was at hand, should the Brahmin not turn up in time to receive the gift, he enjoined them to give it to him without fail. So saying, he put the money in a purse, deposited it under his pillow, and breathed his last. The Brahmin, who had already started from his house for that of the deceased, was walking slowly on his way; all of a sudden he saw Chinnya coming towards him in a palanquin. The Moodeliar said that he was going to a distant country, whence he might probably not return; and as a remuneration for many services he wished to give him some money, which the Brahmin might receive from his (Moodeliar's) relatives. The Brahmin was, moreover, told that the money was deposited under the pillow of his bed. The next ​day the Brahmin arrived at the house of Chinnya, which was about ten or twenty miles distant from his place. The funeral had already taken place. The relatives were in deep grief, but he would not trust his ears when he heard of the death of the very man whom he had seen but a few hours before seated in a palanquin. However, at length he had to give way. The money left under the pillow was made over to him according to the dying dietates of the Moodeliar. Our southern people do not scruple to concoct stories, but this one I have heard from more than two or three sources. Similar cases other than this are also known. The death of Chinnya, and his Double appearing to the Brahmin, took place in the daytime.
I may also add that, in connection with Question X. you may refer to the "Theosophist" for 1880–1881, pages 81 and 84.
Another story of the same kind is as follows.
A friend of mine, by name A. Parthasárthi Moodeliar, now about fifty years of age, is a theologian of the Tamil Vedas, which he used to recite every night before several people from a book called "Nalayar Prabhandham." His recitations made him a great favourite among his neighbours. About thirty years ago he was invited by a family at Madras to recite the Vedas. The distance between his own house and that of the family where he had to go to recite verses was about a mile. Every night he returned to his own house. The recitations were kept up for thirty or forty nights. One night, when, he was returning home as usual, a Shrivaishnava ​Brahmin crossed his path from under a large tree and accosted him, accompanying him all the way as far as his house, talking on religions philosophy, and removing many of the doubts of Parthasarthi. The Brahmin added that he was very much pleased with the recitations, which he took very great care to hear from a corner in the house in which they took place. He was much gratified at seeing him take such a zealous interest in religious subjects at his young age. It was for that reason, the Brahmin told the Moodeliar, that he liked to accompany him on his way home. Night after night the Brahmin kept up his practice. When the Moodeliar was going home at night, a boy of fifteen used to accompany him, and whom he asked one night if he heard all that passed between the Shrivaishnava Brahmin and himself. Upon receiving an answer in the negative, Parthasárthi grew a little suspicious, and thought that the man who daily met him was not an earthly creature. As usual, the next night the Brahmin put in his appearance; all of a sudden the Moodeliar stopped thunderstruck and dared not move on. He looked stedfastly at him and found, to his no small surprise, that the feet of the Brahmin did not touch the ground, but were some twenty inches above it. Seeing his learned friend stand like a statue in the middle of the road, the Brahmin undertook to lift him up on his shoulders in case he was tired that night. The Moodeliar answered that exhaustion was not the cause of his stopping thus abruptly, but that his mind was filled with grave doubts about this curious creature who held ​intercourse with him every night. Whereupon the Brahmin narrated his whole story as below.
"When I was a tenant of the world to which you belong, I devoted my life to the study of the Vedas and Shastras. Through ignorance I transgressed the rules of mantras, which circumstance has now, entailed upon me the body of an elementary. The chief cause why I like so much to hear you recite from the Nalaiyar Prabhandham is that by a devout attention to the verses therein contained I may purge off my past misdeeds, and thus minimize the effects of bygone karmas for my own benefit. After you have done reading the book at the place where you daily go, I shall wend my way to Rajmandri. Rest assured I will not injure a hair of your head."
Accordingly, when the recitations were over, the Brahmin as usual accompanied him, and with tears in his eyes took leave of the Moodeliar by prostrating himself at his feet—a form of respect which the latter also did not forget to offer to the spirit who used to accompany him.
Kathiawar.
Prince Harisinghji tells me that he has been assured at Sihor of the truth of the story of a ghost, fully materialized, asking water to drink from his widow, at a well, a long time after the man was dead and gone. This was in the presence of many witnesses, and in the daytime.
We have heard of innumerable instances where the dead have made themselves visible under every variety of circumstances.
Mysore.
I have never known of a dead person being visible to all bystanders, hence such cases as have come to my knowledge are probably subjective apparitions.
Oudh.
Yes, I know of an apparition making herself visible both by day and night. The apparition has been seen by at least half a dozen persons—sometimes when two were together. The witnesses were mostly intelligent, and one or two very calm ones, who have discoursed with her for about an hour at a time. She has been seen at noon, in the afternoon, in the morning, and, in fact, at all the hours of the day and night.
Bengal.
In the year 1859 or 1860, on a dark night, at about midnight, my mother going out (we were then living in a large dilapidated house, belonging to a relative of ours) saw what she fancied to be my paternal grandmother's sister. She called her, but got no answer. Returning, she found my grandmother's sister in her bed. My father, who was awake, on being called, got up and began to watch the apparition. It was a white thing, looking like a person in very white clothes in a sitting position. After some time the thing got up, rose in the air and vanished. Besides my parents, two or three others saw the apparition.
QUESTION XI.
Bengal.
In my own case only once. A relative of mine appeared in a dream and told me something which was fulfilled.
Mysore.
Not by phantoms; but we have in Mysore fortune-tellers (ooduku) who make certain ceremonies to invoke the Devatas, higher non-human spirits, call up the soul of any deceased person you name, and become, or pretend to become, possessed by the same, and to deliver predictions. Sometimes these come true, but oftener not. They will also read your thoughts.
Other correspondents answer this question in the negative.
QUESTION XII.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—We have heard of such instances, of which the following can be verified.
N. B. informs me that he knows of a Brahmin who has met with such strange experiences. The Brahmin's sister once had the usual mediumistic tremors, and the control, being questioned as to who it was, declared that it was a living sorceress, who felt aggrieved with the patient because of not having been properly treated by her. The Brahmin, who was a bold and dare-devil sort of a fellow, ​compelled her to leave the patient by burning her hand with a small torch, and similar harsh measures. Next day he, being a Bhikhshu (mendicant), purposely went to the sorceress and asked for a handful of rice, his dole. She looked at him wistfully, and gave him the dole with her left hand; for evidently she meant to conceal the burn of the previous day on her right hand. He, nothing daunted, chaffingly said, "Why, madame, do you give me the rice with the left hand, and not the right? I know why. Your right hand was burned yesterday. Do your worst, let us see;" or words to that effect. Being a man of "brass," the woman could not do him immediate harm; but after some time he fell ill; he became very weak, and the woman began to trouble him with the nervous tremors. He was helpless, and in his helplessness was advised to appease the woman. He did so, and after many months of entreaties he recovered, "a sadder and a wiser man.".
Kathiawar.—I have a friend at R, a Parsi, a shopkeeper and merchant. He has a son, P., about twenty years old, a nice young man, but physically weak, who was for very nearly a year subject to wild ravings and fits, which his father, a man of sound common sense, at first attributed to hysteria. No medicine would cure him, and the boy became more and more violent, and his father assures me that in his fits he would talk in purer Hindustani than in his sober moments; that he was forced to suspect at length, much against his will, that there was something uncanny about it. He took him to his native place, ​E., not far from Surat, in Gujerat, and consulted an exorciser Brahmin who was sent for from Surat. It is one of the most interesting features in this remarkable case that on the first occasion after the arrival of the Brahmin, when in a violent fit, P., or rather his control, eyed a pot of mesmerized water that the Brahmin had prepared beforehand, yelled in a highly excited manner, and said that there was fire issuing from the pot, and the lambent flames were striking on him with deadly effect. Evidently he could see the antagonistic aura of the exorciser issuing from the pot. In accordance with the Brahmin's instructions, the father rubbed a small quantity of the water on his chest, and P. got relief. This was continued as often as the boy got the fits, but the control never left him for good. His father consulted many others known as exorcisers, but P. failed to get permanent relief from the vampire. At length his father was advised to go to R. with his son, and consult a Sanyasi there. This holy man gave P. a string, evidently full of his pure magnetism, to be tied round his arm. By all accounts, as far as I know, P. is quite well now.
The control in this case was very often asked to leave the patient, and not to worry him any longer; and when matters had grown very serious his father, being inquisitive and desirous of studying his case thoroughly, induced him to say who he really was. After some trouble a very strange revelation was made. The control said that he was a beggar at R., and was employed by the wife of a rival shopkeeper to annoy, by his magical arts, M. in some way or ​other, and that he had chosen his favourite son as a victim. On being reminded that P. had often shown him favours by giving him food and money, and that his conduct towards him was very ungrateful, the controlling sorcerer, evil and mean as he evidently was, did not seem in any way moved by such appeals. He used to give further proofs of his identity, and it was found that the sorcerer was then in the land of the living, and not dead. The father was advised by his friends not to speak to the man "in flesh and blood," and, for aught I know, he has never spoken to him about his unwelcome and objectionable visits to his son.
This circumstance appears to us noteworthy,—that controls, elementals and elementaries, when they are pressed to do so, declare themselves who they are; but it seems strange, nay, contrary to what one should expect, that the controls of living sorcerers should reveal their identity when they know, or ought to know, that such a confession is prejudicial to them, as they are still alive.
In this connection, perhaps, I may draw the attention of students of occult lore to a belief entertained by some knowing ones whom I have talked to, about black magicians—that persons who dabble in the black art lose all their power if beef, or water from the pot of a tanner (Chamár), in which he soaks leather, &c., is administered to them clandestinely. How far this is true we have at present no means of ascertaining.
Bengal.
When we were boys, we often used to see in our ​village people being attacked by Dyeens, or witches, the symptom being an hysterical one, when persons who were experts in these matters used to come and utter certain incantations, and the djin then left its medium. Once I saw a patient walk out, holding with the teeth a ghurra filled with water, and then fall down quite cured.
Southern India.
I have heard that in the Malabar district sorcerers appear in the shape of animals, attack, injure, and persecute living beings, if they are inimical to them.
QUESTION XIII.
Nizam's Territory.
Hyderabad.—There are some persons, whose special subject is Black Magic, who are able to exorcise evil spirits from anybody, and take measures to prevent further visits from such unwholesome creatures. Such persons are to be found in the Coimbatore and Malabar districts. I have no more particulars on this subject.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—Such victims get relief by appeasing in some way or other the originals, or by the powerful magnetism of a pure Yogi.
QUESTION XIV.
Malabar Coast.
About four or five years ago a well near Porrany, a seaport town, to the west of Tirver railway station, ​was reported in the papers to possess special curing powers. For a few days persons flocked thither for leprosy, &c.; but nothing has been heard of it since.
The temple of Guruvayoor (sacred to Krishna) has a reputation for the cure of all sorts of rheumatic complaints; there are several such temples in Malabar. Just as famous as the above is Cranganore, sacred to Bhagavathi (goddess of smallpox, &c.). There are pagodas which have a simply local reputation only. They are numerous; offerings, or vows of offerings, are calculated to cure a man if ill, or to secure an object in view. I do know persons who have performed the vows, and have got cured of their complaints.
At Guruvayoor aforesaid, a silver or gold eye is offered (if the complaint is in the eyes), a similar figure of any other part of the body (as the affection may be), or the whole body itself. There are these figures ready made there; people have only to pay according to their means or intentions. In fact, a few sets of figures serve for generations. A religious stay at the station for a particular number of days is also calculated to do, and does, much good.
About three hundred years ago, a Brahmin scholar became cured of a bad rheumatic complaint, and, sitting in the Mandapam, there composed a work of above one thousand slokas in praise of Krishna, and recounting his exploits.
The god there is also known as "Vathalayesen," or the god who removes cases of rheumatic complaints.
About twelve miles to the west of it is an ancient pagoda of Rama, offerings to which place are ​particularly voted for asthma, &c. About six thousand rupees are annually collected on one head alone. The cash is expended for the firing of popguns, or kathinas—the Mofussil substitute for cannon, and always used on festival-days at temples. The rate is three guns for 4 as. 8 p. The largest number vowed is 101 for any particular object. The net proceeds (after expenses of firing gunpowder and of servants), are devoted to the charitable feeding of Brahmins.
These guns are held specially sacred to Sri Rama. Jemadars of the neighbourhood have set apart funds for firing guns at particular hours every day.
There are not many shrines sacred to Hanuman (the so-called monkey-god), son of the "god of the winds;" but when a boat is at sea or on water and a heavy gale threatens, it is usual for a vow or offering to be made to Hanuman, invoking his assistance to lower the wrath of the high wind, so that the boat and persons or goods in it may not be stranded. The nivedyam generally consists of bitter rice (ávil), cocoa nuts, and jaggery.
At the village of Kolloor, at the northern end of South Carara (included in ancient Malabar), is the temple of the goddess of letters (Sarasuati). The place is called Mookamli (because an asara named Mookan was killed by the goddess there). The swallowing of a sweet preparation, offered as nivedyam to the goddess, turns the devotee into a man of accomplishment in some "fine art" to which he has the greatest desire. The Brahmin priests make a fortune out of it. They seldom give what is really offered as nivedyam except for a good consideration, ​There are several people on the coast who have resorted there and afterwards become good songsters, poets, &c.
There are several spots on rocks on hill-tops where pure water springs on certain Amavasi occasions. They are considered sacred Theerthaws, and persons often resort thither on such occasions. The water is taken and sprinkled on the head and face.
The foot of a hill at Kallati Kotan, near Palghaut, is the seat of a few experts in the black art, who train, under a masonic pledge, persons in the mode in which their business is to be done. "Kallati Kotan" is the place known all over the district as the resort of all would-be magicians. "Pischa" (devil) is a word often in abuse used to a naughty child. Mothers frighten their children to sleep with stories of the devil, and hence the superstition is instilled early in life.
A few miles to the east of Ponani, a seaport town fifty miles south of Calicut, is a village called Porandakat, with an ancient Siva pagoda. Pilgrims go there in virtue of the supreme efficacy of the local deity to cure cases of ghostly obsession, especially children, cases of epilepsy, &c. Pregnant women go there and stay days together religiously, so that children in the womb may be born without defect or complaint. Weighing the body with equivalent in kadali plantains is the most favourite vow.
Bengal.
I know the temples of Baydo Nath, of Tarkeswar, and many others where many sick are cured. They ​lie down in Dhunna, i.e., without taking any food or water for days together, and mostly on the third day they get an Adesh in a dream as to the way in which they will be cured. Besides the temples mentioned above, there are many places of such nature in and around Bengal.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—Such places are usually temples dedicated to Mátás: their name is legion. The Bhuwas and the people here have, we often hear, great faith in the famous temples at Prawás Patan, in Kathiawar, and Bahachraji, near Mount Aboo, for the cure of ghostly visitations.
Mysore.
There are various Sivaite and Vishnavite temples which are famed for relieving pilgrims of obsessing pisáchas. I myself have seen the phenomenon a score of times at the Hanumanta, the Vishnu, and the Durga temples in Bangalore. My wife has seen the same at the Minakshi temple in Madura. A pisácha medinm will not sit quiet to hear the Ramayâna read; she will jump up and run away.
Southern India.
Madura.—Almost all temples in India are considered to be places for the cure of obstinate diseases. In cases of ordinary diseases people do not resort to the temples. They generally remain for forty-five days in the temples, leading a strictly ascetic life. There are many cases in which various ​diseases, leprosy included, have been so cured. The belief of the individual that he will be cured, his strictly ascetic life, during which he eats only once a day, and even then confines himself only to rice, milk, pure water, and plantain fruits—how far each of these acts on his bodily system to produce the desired result is for science to determine. But sick people do resort in great numbers to all holy temples for Bhajana, as it is technically called.
During the Navaratri (Dasra) all persons, male and female, obsessed by ghosts resort to the Madura pagoda. Every year the number amounts to nearly two hundred. They all go away cured by the ninth or Saraswati puja day. Their wild pranks and their howlings, their superhuman actions in some cases, all make the pagoda a regular pandemonium in those nine days. At San Kara Nainar Kovil, in Tinnevelly, this takes place all the year round. At Tiruvathir, near the seaport of Tondi, in the Madura District, is a famous temple. There is a small tank in it, and whoever bathes in it is said to get cured of diseases. Every Friday a large crowd gathers in the temple. Whoever is bitten by a cobra is taken to the temple, bathed in the tank, and made to eat the leaves of the margosa-tree on its bank. He is then cured.
At Nanguneri, twenty miles south of Tinnevelly, there is a well, where is gathered the oil, ghu, &c., used in washing the idol. It has the reputation of curing diseases, and people pour into the well sessamun oil, and take an equal quantity of the contents of the well and use it for curative purposes.
​Hyderabad.—Yes; I have heard of one or two temples possessing the wonderful power of effecting cures. The temple of the goddess Minaxi, in the city of Madura, is specially gifted with this power.
At Narsoba's Vadi, near Kurundwar, Southern Maratha country, there is a small temple of Dattatraya, on the confluence of the Krishna and the Cunch Gangá. I saw several obsessed persons there when I visited it some fifteen years ago, several. of whom were, as their relations told me, in a fair way towards recovery. The place is very famous for curing people suffering from obsession. Priestcraft has not much scope there, because generally the obsessed person himself gets a dream or a manifestation as to what he should do for his cure. Hundreds of cases are, it is said, cured there. At Mira Dátár's mosque at Unjha, Kari Division, Baroda State, also, I saw several cases of obsession. The place is famous for curing such cases.
Madura.—In my native place, Permagoody, Madura District, there is a temple near the Agraharam (Brahmin quarters) dedicated to the Deccata Hanumar. The structure of the temple is very simple. In the heart of a compound there is a venerable ancient tamarind-tree, hollow throughout a greater portion of its trunk, with a raised peedam (raised basement) all around; at its base there are half a dozen images of Hanumar, a cluster of five bells overhanging them from one of the branches of the tree. The origin of this temple is full of deep meaning to a student of occultism. About the beginning of this century, the districts of Madura ​and Tinnevelly were troubled by the factions of the Poligars of the south. The country was overrun by numerous bands of brigands. In their looting and plunder they had petty quarrels among them-selves; petty skirmishes were fought between rival factions of the Poligars. One of such skirmishes was fought at Permagoody; a small body of Maranars, of Sinaganga (they say one hundred in number), that had sought shelter from their inimical faction in the Ramnad chuttrum at Permagoody, were massacred to the last man. In consequence of this incident, the chuttrum and the adjoining Brahmin quarters became haunted by the disembodied spirits of the dead. The poor people of the agraharam were tormented by these spirits; all sorts of howlings would be heard in and about the chuttrum; murderous sounds and groans would be loudly ringing in the haunted grounds. For one year the place around the chuttrum presented a deserted appearance. About that time a Bairagi pilgrim from the north, who was on his way to Ramaesmaram, happened to break his journey at Permagoody, and to put up in the haunted chuttrum. The devils also tried their pranks upon him. Finding the place haunted, he instituted, at the base of a big tamarind-tree that then stood hard by the chuttrum, the worship of Hanumar. The images that are now found are later introductions. By chakara sthapanam (burying in the ground a square copper plate, with certain occult diagrams inscribed with certain letters) of the powerful Deccata Hanumar, he enchained, as it were, to the tamarind-tree ​the disembodied spirits that were hovering about, and thereby relieved the people of Permagoody of their afflictions from these pisáchas. The tree stands in full vigour even to this day. The power of the Deccata, that has been focused (if I may use that phrase) in the mystic copper plate buried near the foot of the old tamarind-tree, still seems to be in full swing, as persons of refractory possessions resort to it as the last place of final cure.
P.S.—This was communicated to me by my old grandmother, who is dead. It has been confirmed by many old residents of the place. A local inquiry will satisfy a sceptical mind.
QUESTION XV.
Mysore.
I know of no such thing being done by sorcerers; but about forty years ago there was at Bangalore a very holy and respected Yogi, named Ramavadhudha, who was known to have appeared at distant places, while his physical body was here. He stopped for about four years in the garden of my uncle, the late Dewan of Mysore, C. Kristnama Naidu. One day he went miraculously to Benares, where Bangalore people saw him bathe in the Ganges, make his ceremonies and eat. The next day he was back again. Another time he similarly visited Combaconum. Another time he similarly attended the festival at Sivagunga Hills, about twenty-six miles from Bangalore, and was seen by several Bangaloreans, ​among others by one Combulingan Pillai, now living, but blind. While the festival was in progress his physical body was in a locked room in the Bangalore bazaar, where it was confined twenty-four hours. When the door was unlocked the next day, the body was there as it had been left. Shortly afterwards an officiating priest of the Shivagangam Temple came inquiring the whereabouts of this Yogi, saying that he had been at the temple the day before, and had left his brass drinking-tumbler and brass spoon, which drinking-tumbler and spoon he, the pujari, or priest, had brought with him. The Yogi was awakened, and the brass utensils delivered to him by the messenger.
I once knew another Yogi, a holy man who lived in a forest in the Bellary District. My troop was stationed about six miles from the spot, and I rode over one day with the Inam Commissioner to try and find him. Men were sent in various directions, but could not discover him. We then sat down in a house to eat, and had just finished our meal when the Yogi suddenly appeared at the house. After saluting him, we placed him between us, and gave him a portion of food sufficient for six or seven men. He consumed this, and then drank a corresponding portion of water, which he had retained only for a few minutes before he spat out a quantity in a glutinous state, like a colourless jelly. It was quite unmixed with food. After stopping with us perhaps a quarter of an hour, he rose to go. We presented him with two cloths of the kind commonly worn by Hindus, throwing them over his shoulders, as he ​made no offer to receive them in his hands. He moved towards the house-door, we following close behind him; he stepped over the threshold, and instantaneously disappeared from under our very eyes. The two cloths fell to the right and left where he had stood. Some people were just outside the door, but they did not see him pass them. This man is reported to be of a fabulously great age, three witnesses, grandsire, son, and grandson, all elderly men, having known him for a century as appearing no younger nor older than he seemed when I met him as above stated. When he appeared at the house, he said that as he knew we were so very anxious to see him, and our messenger could not find him, he had come.
Malabar Coast.
It is popularly believed that a low caste of people practise Oti. The word literally means "bending." A person assumes the shape of a dog, a cow, or an elephant; walks about at night, and injures people. Generally a plurality of men are engaged in the profession, naked. They bend their physical body and walk together in such a manner that ordinary persons think they are natural dogs, cows, or elephants. They waylay passengers, kill cattle, &c. Contact with a human being is supposed to convert the figure into its original natural figure. Several cases are reported by respectable friends to have occurred within their experience.
Practising this branch is considered the basest of conduct; therefore low-caste men only are credited with it. I have heard that a particular root is placed ​behind the ear, which has some power to help the sorcerer cast the desired glamour over the sight of the intended victim.
Occasionally one hears that, through the intervention of a sorcerer, some one causes serious annoyance to his enemies by introducing unpleasant things (e.g. excrement) in the plate of rice (while being served or eaten), causing the fall of small stones on house tops and terrifying people inside, &c. On the most vigilant search no trace of a human being would appear in the neighbourhood.
Magicians are believed to have the art of causing the entry into the womb of a pregnant female of something, for instance, an earthen pot, &c., and of taking out the fœtus. Such a case of sorcery, com-bined with murder, came up for trial (in a reported case) before the Court of Farjadore Adaulaut in 1834. The prisoner was convicted; but the judges there repudiated the suggestion, and "pitied the superstitions" prevailing in the district. Cases of abnormal or extraordinary dissolution of the fœtus in the womb are even now attributed to sorcery.
Last year (1885) there was a case in Calicut District, where the evidence showed that a murder was committed because the deceased had been suspected of interfering with the murderer's female relatives against his wish; the approach of the sorcerer to his victim having been effected unnoticed, under the illusive appearance of a dog.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—We have heard of cases in which ​the Doubles of black magicians have made themselves visible, and even materialized as human beings or, very rarely, as animals; it is a general belief that only the most powerful ones can do so. Well-authenticated instances it is at present impossible for us to give.
QUESTION XVI.
Kathiawar.
Bhavnagar.—We have many instances of wraiths making themselves visible. Many of these can be easily verified.
One of us, N. B., saw his sister's wraith, some years ago, appearing before him, when alone and in his room, at the very hour at which she was subsequently reported to have died, some thirty miles away.
A European friend of mine, J. A., used to assure me, some eighteen years ago, at a time when I was a great scoffer, that he had, when in Bombay away from his wife, who was at Madras, in a dream actually seen his wife on her death-bed. He heard her saying, "After all, I forgive you, John, before I die," or words to that effect. He was so horrified that he awoke, wept bitterly, large drops of perspiration suffusing his body, and related the whole incident to a friend sleeping in the same room with him, who himself was startled to find J. A. in so much distress, and who at first thought that J. A. had taken a drop too much. After some days, J. A. was informed by post, by his wife's brother, that she had died at that very hour, on that very day, her ​last words being the very same that J. A. had heard in his dream or trance.
One of us, K. I., a Parsi, tells me that his father died at Quetta, some five years ago, one morning at four or five o'clock. The news of his death was telegraphed to him by his father's friends at once. But before he got the telegram in Bombay, at about half-past nine, he dreamed that a very bright ball of light shot across the sky like lightning, whilst he was standing in an extensive plain that he had never seen before, and in a strange land. The brilliancy of the ball of light was so sudden that he woke up, to find the telegraph-office peon at his door, ready to hand over his telegram. He took the telegram, without opening it, to his mother, in another part of his house; and he assures me that something prompted him to tell his mother that the unopened telegram contained the news of his father's death. He opened the telegram, and found that it was too true; he had died almost suddenly. K. I.'s father, it may be mentioned, was a highly virtuous and honest man, loved and respected by all who knew him.
A friend, G., a Brahmin, assures me that, some years ago, when he was travelling in Upper India in search of manuscripts, in the company of a well-known antiquarian, he one day halted under a tree; and in a state between waking and sleeping, whilst he was lying under that tree, he distinctly saw his uncle standing before him, and then vanishing away in a most mysterious manner. In his note-book, G., on awaking, instantly put down the date and ​the hour. Some two or three weeks afterwards he received a letter from his relations at A., in Kathiáwar, informing him of his uncle's death at that very hour, on that very day, his last words being, "Where is G.?"—for he was very much attached to G.
The cases are evidently cases of clairvoyance, superinduced by the aura of the dying or recently deceased persons.
K. I. was, some years ago, a naval engineer in a vessel plying between Jeddah and Aden. He tells me that a brother-officer, named Shayers, one night, on their way to Aden, got suddenly wild, wept and cried bitterly, and told K. I., and afterwards every one on board, that he had dreamed his wife was dead in Bombay on that day. His friends ridiculed the idea, and thought that it was all owing to his having taken a drop too much. Two days afterwards, on their casting anchor in Aden harbour, a telegram was received by Shayers. He handed it over to K. I. to be opened and read aloud; for, he said, he would not read a telegram conveying the sad news of his wife's death. K. I. opened it, and found that Shayers was right.
Bengal.
At the time of the death of my own mother, my grandmother (mother's mother), who was living at a distance, saw my mother in a dream the evening she died, and sent a man to inquire, my grand-mother being quite unaware of my mother's illness. I know of another instance of a highly respectable ​man, travelling in a railway first-class carriage, the evening his brother died, who saw a corpse lying on the bench opposite.
Coromandel Coast.
There is one peculiar case I have heard of from a respectable relation of mine, who is an eye or rather ear witness to the phenomenon. In a certain place there was a gentleman who was a very pious man. He was seriously ill, and could not move about. My relative above named and some others were seated at a place which, for our purposes, may merely he described as far distant from the sick gentleman. This invalid was a rich man, and used to go about always in a palanquin, with a certain distinguishable sound of the bearers—a monotonous sort of refrain to which they would keep step. Now where my relative and others were sitting they heard exactly the same sound as that which always attended the palanquin of their sick friend, and they at once got up under the momentary impression that he was coming. There was, however, nothing to be seen; but, on inquiring, it was found that at that very moment when they heard the sound the invalid had breathed his last.
* ↑ Adhyaya 8, pada I, sutra I. Tadantara-prati-paitau ramhati sampari-shwaktah.
* ↑ "Bhût Nibandh." Translated from the Marathi, by A. K. Forbes. Bombay (circ. 1849).
* ↑ The city of Yama.
* ↑ Partly true. Buddhists in Ceylon recognize the Kama Loka, and call its inhabitants Káma-wachera—beings still controlled by unappeased desires.—H. S. O.
* ↑ A yojana is about nine miles.
* ↑ See "Theosophist" for 1880–81, pp. 101, 102.
* ↑ Upper garment.
* ↑ Ghurra, a clay water-pot.
* ↑ Distance from Bangalore to Benares, about 1200 miles as the crow flies, or about 2000 by rail.