CHAPTER XI.
MALEFICENT WATER-GOBLINS.
So far we have met beneficent spirits of the divine sea and blessed springs and wells. Let us not forget that there are also maleficent deities and mischievous water-goblins infesting ill-omened streams and wells. In India where the lives and fortunes of cattle and people alike hang on the precarious seasonal rainfall, the water-spirits are as a rule regarded as friendly dispensers of life and fertility. Even the sea-gods are on the whole beneficent beings. The Darya-Pirs of the Luvanas (merchants) and Kharvas (sailors) are devoid of mischief and are regarded as patron saints. Elsewhere, however, the perils of the deep and rapid rivers and treacherous pools gave the water-spirits a bad name and their fury emphasized the need for propitiating them with sacrifices. Thus it comes to pass that western folklore abounds in blood-thirsty water-demons who are very often conceived as hideous serpents or dragons. But, as we have already noticed, people of India also have their mischievous water-sprites, the Mâtâs and Shankhinies who haunt wayside wells and either drown or enterthe persons of those who go near their wells. These ghosts and goblins—bhuts and prets—are known as Jalachar, i.e., living in water, as contrasted with Bhuchar, those hovering on the earth. One has to propitiate these malignant deities and spirits.
It is believed that most of the demons haunting wells and tanks are the spirits of those who have met death by drowning. There are also the spirits of those who die of accidents before the fulfilment of their worldly desires or the souls of the deceased who do not receive the funeral pindas with the proper obsequies. These fallen souls in their avagati or degraded condition reside near the scene of their death and molest those who approach the water. There is a vav called Nilkanth vav near Movaiya, in which a Pinjari (a female cotton carder) is said to have been drowned and to have been turned into a ghost, in which form she occasionally presents herself to the people.
Another vav in Vadhwan is haunted by a ghost called Mahda, who drowns one human being every third year as a victim. But a male spirit, named Kshetrapal, resides in the kotta (or entrance) of the vav, and saves those who fall near the entrance. Those who fall in any other part are, however, sure to be drowned.
There is in Mirzapur a famous water-hole, known as Barewa. A herdsman was once grazing his buffaloes near the place, when the waters rose in fury and carried him off with his cattle. The drowned buffaloes have now taken the form of a dangerous demon known as Bhainsasura, or the buffalo-demon, and he lives there in company with the Naga and the Nagin and none dare fish there until he has propitiated these demons with the offerings of a fowl, eggs and goat.
Until recently the Bengalis believed that a water-spirit in the form of an old hag called Jaté Buddi haunted tanks and ponds and fettered with an invisible chain the feet of persons who approached her territories. Even to this day the name of this witch is taken to frighten naughty children. Another Bengal spirit, called Jakh, was believed to reside in tanks and to guard hidden treasure. Woe to the man who threw covetous eyes on that treasure! The Sion Indians believe in a water-demon called Unk-tahe who, like the Siamese spirit Pnuk, drags underneath the water those who go to bathe in it.[39]
Corresponding to these haunted wells are the water holes in Scotland, known as the “cups of the fairies,” and the Trinity Well in Ireland into which no one can gaze with impunity, and from which the river Bayne once burst forth in pursuit of a lady who had insulted it.