144 Abode of Gods

their female forms are the principal objects of worship, but with,
them, either as their emanations or as separate divine entities,,
the representations of the holy demonistic cults of the older tribes
are objects of worship both in temples and in domestic cere-
monies."1 The religion that prevails in Uttarakhand is one of
the oldest forms of Hindu religion.

Gods, demons and devils

The type of worship prevalent in Kumaon and Garhwal is
more of the character of demonism than of animism. It is
startling to find that the Idea of possession seems to be its very
life and soul. It is believed that there exists a multitude of gods
or spirits, some of them being old kings or members of the royal
families of Kumaon or Garhwal in former days; others, grote-
sque goblins, like those of our Europeon fairy stories; others
ghosts of deceased persons who have died a violent death,
committed some great crime, or differed in same way from the
ordinary run of people—ghosts of women who have died in
child birth, of men whose funeral ceremonies have been neglec-
ted, and so on. These are nearly all malevolents by nature,
and all calamities and diseases are attributed to one or other of
them. When a man imagines he is under evil influence of some
god or spirit, he goes to a professional wizard, named egantuar
who professes to find out what demon is tormenting him. By
appropriate means he brings himself into relation with the deity,,
becomes 'possessed' by him, and then as his mouthpiece, orders
what offerings or penances are raquired by the god. There we
have an ingenious system of priestcraft the possibilities of which
it is easy to perceive. Sometimes, quite a number of people, by
dancing for a long time on certain ceremonial occasions, succeed
in hypnotising themselves, and believe themselves to be possessed
by one or even several deities.

Gantua—the mediator

In Garhwal or Kumaon when any person is suffering from
any calamity he seeks out the deity or ghost to be propitiated,
by going to a gantua. The relations of a man attacked by serious.

1. Atkinson, Himalayan Districts.