ABSTRACT
This book is based upon fieldwork carried out in Rajasthan, India, between September 1992 and September 1993. Its specific ethnographic focus is the small village of Mehndipur, which is situated in the district of Sawai Madhopur (see Maps 1 and 2 on the previous pages). Mehndipur is a famous Hindu pilgrimage centre, attracting visitors from the whole region of Rajasthan as well as from other north Indian states. The village of Mehndipur was selected for purposes of research, not only because many people journey to it in search of cure from affliction by malevolent spirits or ghosts (bhuts and prets1), but also because of the daily rituals performed there on behalf of those held to be suffering from spirit malaise. Because I wanted to investigate spirit possession and its treatment in north India, and since little in-depth fieldwork at the time had been undertaken in Mehndipur itself, I decided to conduct research in the village.
