DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0253
Demon-worship and Spirit-worship. 241
demon in consequence of a curse pronounced on him by the
sage Agastya for his excessive pride in having gained by
penance the rank of Indra and then insulted some of the
Rishis (Maha-bh.V.343; Vishnu-purana, p.413; ManuVII. 41).
Furthermore, all the diseases that either human or bestial
flesh is heir to are personified and converted into demons—
such as the demons of small-pox, of cholera, and of various
forms of typhus and jungle fever, and of cattle-disease. And
this idea of personifying and demonizing diseases is extended
to unseasonable calamities and disasters, such as hail-storms,
drought and blight, which all do duty in the devil army.
Indeed, I found to my surprise that some villages in India
possess a professional exorciser or charmer, called Garpagarl
(probably for Gar-apakari, gar in Marathi meaning 'hail'),
whose sole business consists in repeating incantations to
charm away the hail-storm-demon from the growing crops.
It is important, however, to bear in mind that there is in
Hinduism a per-contra side to the vastness of the demon-host.
For if it is an awful thought that year after year, and even day
by day, men and women are themselves through their sinful
habits causing fresh accessions to the demon-armies, it is, on
the other hand, a comforting reflection that the ranks of good
demons and benevolent spirits are continually recruited by
the deaths of righteous men, saints and sages, who are ranged
with the gods on the opposite side of the battle-field, and
are ever contending with their fiendish antagonists.
It is, then, these lower forms of evil demons—once the
occupants of human bodies—that are most dreaded by the
generality of Hindus, and therefore most worshipped. Such
demons fitly take rank with devils.
According to some authorities they may be grouped under
the three classes of Bhuta, Preta, and Pisaca, each class
having a distinct origin.
A Bhuta, they say, is a spirit emanating from a man
who has died a violent death either by accident, suicide, or
R
demon in consequence of a curse pronounced on him by the
sage Agastya for his excessive pride in having gained by
penance the rank of Indra and then insulted some of the
Rishis (Maha-bh.V.343; Vishnu-purana, p.413; ManuVII. 41).
Furthermore, all the diseases that either human or bestial
flesh is heir to are personified and converted into demons—
such as the demons of small-pox, of cholera, and of various
forms of typhus and jungle fever, and of cattle-disease. And
this idea of personifying and demonizing diseases is extended
to unseasonable calamities and disasters, such as hail-storms,
drought and blight, which all do duty in the devil army.
Indeed, I found to my surprise that some villages in India
possess a professional exorciser or charmer, called Garpagarl
(probably for Gar-apakari, gar in Marathi meaning 'hail'),
whose sole business consists in repeating incantations to
charm away the hail-storm-demon from the growing crops.
It is important, however, to bear in mind that there is in
Hinduism a per-contra side to the vastness of the demon-host.
For if it is an awful thought that year after year, and even day
by day, men and women are themselves through their sinful
habits causing fresh accessions to the demon-armies, it is, on
the other hand, a comforting reflection that the ranks of good
demons and benevolent spirits are continually recruited by
the deaths of righteous men, saints and sages, who are ranged
with the gods on the opposite side of the battle-field, and
are ever contending with their fiendish antagonists.
It is, then, these lower forms of evil demons—once the
occupants of human bodies—that are most dreaded by the
generality of Hindus, and therefore most worshipped. Such
demons fitly take rank with devils.
According to some authorities they may be grouped under
the three classes of Bhuta, Preta, and Pisaca, each class
having a distinct origin.
A Bhuta, they say, is a spirit emanating from a man
who has died a violent death either by accident, suicide, or
R