Artist: Charlie Forbes
Artist: Doug Forbes
Sending Pishachas from the Field
This is no seraph,
Dipping down,
To kiss the blessed—
This one has teeth.
Small child in the field,
Digging brown earth,
Pulls up a claw and spits
Blood over wheat stalks.
So we beat the grasses
To drive out all devas.
No help:
“You are possessed by demons.”
The old men describe them as gods,
But they wail and devour flesh.
In their presence resides possession
By the undesirable hunger.
That night we encountered
Ancient flesh-eaters. Perceiving
The dripping claw, the gods wept
with ancient abhorrence.
We listen to our elders:
“The demoniac must speak
The language of a child, and
Feed the appropriate goddess.”
“Each field possesses a goddess.
But this demon will devour
Before she may settle her soft foot
Upon the bosom of the growing earth.”
“They feed on the weakened children in the field.
Where the Pitris reflect emaciation,
Your uncooked ancestors are devoured
By these horrible Pishachas.”
So we enacted the rituals of our elders.
We departed the field as devas,
We struck the ground and beat the grasses
incessantly, threatened the demon.
And offered rotting meat
In seven baskets,
To send away the Pishachas,
The demons with awful fangs.
These rituals we performed,
These ablutions we conducted,
The prayers were made, for
The Pishacha will not leave the grave
Of our fathers, because of their nature—
Except that these words are spoken,
But for these good actions, enacted
By the pure-souled.
If satisfaction is offered in person
To the voracious demon,
Demand that it refuse flesh,
That it spare the child in its talons.
Then killing comes out, comes out
of the fields. Such action when threatened,
at last teaches the Pishacha
respect for the gods.
Written by Tom Lewis
—
Commentary
The ghoulish, flesh-eating Pishachas arise in ancient Hindu mythology. They are first described by the eleventh-century Kashmiri folklorist, Kshemendra Vyasadasa. His translation of an older chronicle of Indian history was described as based on “goblin language” (actually a derogatory term for “low” dialects spoken by North Indian common people). The origin of the name “Pishacha” is obscure, but we find Manvas, Nagas, Pishachas, among others, in the list of ancient Kashmiri tribes. These people were known for exorcising their fields before attempting to cultivate them.
Haunters of fields of the dead, these demons eat human flesh, can change shape or become invisible, and are acknowledged masters of possession and insanity among their human victims. Welcome neither in heaven nor in hell, Pishachas can only be killed with a blessed sword, but exorcism rites can dispel them from a given area, if performed correctly.
sources: Wikia Education: Pishacha, Early Kashmiri Society & The Challenge of Islam
A History of Sanskrit literature (1900).
Demoniacal Project:
The idea behind the Demoniacal Project is a simple one; have the talented poet/writer Tom Lewis create a description and poem of an obscure demon and then collect a bunch of visual artists to find inspiration in the text to illustrate how the demon may look. Subscribe to NotAsPretty blog and look for the Demonical project every second Monday of the month.
