Bhut

**Also known as:** Bhuta; feminine: Bhutini

**Origin:** India

Bhuts were originally ancestral spirits who, if propitiated and venerated, protect and provide for their descendants. However, if dead souls are not propitiated; if they lack descendants or living people to honour them; if they were not given proper funeral rites, then they can transform into malevolent, resentful spirits. These hostile spirits are also known as Bhuts. Since they’re not being treated as honoured ancestors, these Bhuts may kill off other people’s descendants.

The most famous Bhut is a type of restless ghost—souls of those who died unexpectedly, especially by violence and/or lacked correct funeral rituals. Thus a lone traveller, set upon by thieves and killed in a lonely spot, whose body is never recovered is a likely candidate to transform into this kind of Bhut. A Bhut may have been a very good person in life; in death, they are frustrated and resentful. (As Bhuts tend to linger near the scene of their deaths, they may also be lingering near their killers or those who failed to help them.)

At their most malignant, Bhuts are vampires who drain the life-force from the living. Bhuts cause fatal illness, even epidemics. Targets tend to be children and women, especially brides and the visibly pregnant. Bhuts unable to feed off the living will lurk near cemeteries, feeding on intestines and excrement of new corpses. A Bhut can also enter a corpse and reanimate it.

While less publicized, other Bhuts are venerated ancestral spirits who are invited to possess mediums in order to deliver oracles during all-night rituals featuring dance and drumming. This type of Bhut derives from India’s ancient tribal spiritual traditions and was not integrated into Hinduism. Thus they are considered subversive and may be lumped together with malignant Bhuts. Ancestral Bhuts may not be anonymous: many possess names and personal identities and are familiar to their devotees.

If propitiated on a regular basis, even an initially malignant Bhut may become a protective guardian spirit. Because they are powerful and do not love anyone other than the family or individual they serve, Bhuts are coveted as dangerous protective patrons and spirit bodyguards. Alternatively those perceiving themselves as vulnerable to malevolent Bhuts, especially households with pregnant women or nursing babies, may make regular offerings just to divert the Bhut from its primary target.

* The scent of burning turmeric repels Bhuts. Throw a pinch into a fire or burn fresh turmeric in copper bowls.

**Manifestations:** Bhuts are shape-shifters; they can take any form. They are generally experienced as shadowy figures lurking in cemeteries, ruins, or lonely, remote places. They are most active at night when they draw nearer to human habitations.

Some Bhuts travel in the entourage of Shiva, who may enforce their good behaviour.

**Altars:** Special shrines called Bhandara or Bhutastans, created so that the Bhut can rest, be sheltered, and eat, are built outside on stilts. Offerings are placed on the shrine. Brass or terracotta images of the
Bhut may also be included on the altar.

**Ritual:** The Kola is the festival held to honour Bhuts.

**Offerings:** Bhuts crave milk; they attack babies in order to suck out the mother’s milk the baby has consumed; Bhuts are propitiated and redirected with offerings like coconut milk or rice balls cooked in milk. Offer flowers, fragrant incense, coconuts. (Break the coconut and place it on the altar for the Bhut.) Treat the Bhut as you would treat a beloved, respected family member.

**See Also:** Ancestor**;** Ghost; Shiva; Vampire; Possession

## Information Source

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes