All untoward occurrences in domestic affairs, all bodily ailments and unusual natural phenomena, inexplicable…
- Date of account
- Published 1914
- Source
- Folk Lore Notes. Vol. I—Gujarat
- Reference
- Folk Lore Notes. Vol. I—Gujarat · selected passage 4
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-25
Record summary
All untoward occurrences in domestic affairs, all bodily ailments and unusual natural phenomena, inexplicable to the simple mind of the villager, are attributed to the malignant action of these nameless and numerous spirits, hovering over and haunting the habitations of men
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyAll untoward occurrences in domestic affairs, all bodily ailments and unusual natural phenomena, inexplicable to the simple mind of the villager, are attributed to the malignant action of these nameless and numerous spirits, hovering over and haunting the habitations of men. [1] The latent dread of receiving injuries from these evil spirits results in the worship by the low-class people of a number of devas and matas, as they are called. The poor villager, surrounded on all sides by hosts of hovering spirits, ready to take offence, or even to possess him, on the smallest pretext, requires some tangible protector to save him from such malign influences. He sets up and enshrines the spirit that he believes to have been beneficent to him, and so deserving of worship, and makes vows in its honour, often becoming himself the officiating priest. Each such deity has its own particular thanak (sthana) or locality. Thus there is hardly a village which has not a particular deity of its own.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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