The Ojha Shamans And Sufi Faquirs of Bangladesh (A Study on Traditional Healing Practices: Introduction) Anwarul Karim
Introduction
W
hen I was young I visited my village along with other members of our family. A relation of mine had a daughter, the first child. The daughter was then three years old and was beautiful and healthy, but she suddenly fell ill and died within two days. It was discovered that some of her hair had been taken away, and there were marks of scratches on her chest. Everybody in the family believed that it was the work of a sorcerer, who caused the girl to die in order to bring a cure to a certain childless mother whose babies had all died shortly after birth. The family called a faquir, a mystic and native healer who was capable of detecting such a sorcerer's crime with the help of magical methods, such as the use of a magic glass known in Bengali as ainabharon. The faquir explained that the sorcerer took away some of the hair and chest skin of the victim and put these into an amulet either on a Shanibar (Saturday) or Mongolbar (Tuesday) during the night of the new moon, or amavasya, and then closed its mouth with wax from a bee's comb. The faquir further said that the victim in such a case must be a mother's first child, and that the death of the child would procure an off-spring for another childless mother. The offspring who was thus procured would continue to live as usual. The faquir added that if the crime of the sorcerer was detected before any damage was done to the life of the victim, this was to be brought at once to the attention of everybody in the village. An announcement should be made that the sorcerer had taken away the hair or nail or chest skin of the victim. Then all the victim's hair should be cut, burnt, and buried at the meeting point of three roads. The victim would then be safe. During our stay in the village, we 120
came across another incident in which the hair of a child was cut. At once the villagers were informed by an announcement, and a ritual was performed accordingly and no damage was suffered by the victim. This kind of sorcery is not uncommon in rural Bangladesh. Although sorcery for malevolent use was condemned, the story of a childless mother suggests that such actions could be done also for benevolent intentions. It had been used to facilitate childbirth and to procure offspring for barren women. It also helped cure ailing children. A sorcerer is capable of using both magic and witchcraft for fulfilling his designs. He can destroy a person but at the same time can explain misfortune and reveal the cause of sickness with the help of supernatural powers (see Lessa and Vogt 1979, 332-333). In fact, sorcery has two aspects. It may be used for destroying someone or this may be used as a part of curing a sick person. Black magic is used for evil purposes, while white magic is for healing. Faith healing is also commonly used for sick patients. In this study I shall discuss the role of the Ojha Shamans and other traditional healing practices in Bangladesh The term “shaman " is believed by scholars to have its origin in Asia, though it is used to describe similar phenomena in many parts of the world, which are found not only among hunters but also in contemporary peasant nomadic and urban communities as well (Eliade 1964). In Bangladesh people are not associated with the term shamanism. They have understanding about ‘ojha’, ‘gunin’ ‘yogi’ ‘tantrik’ or ‘kapalik’ ‘faquir’ or ‘peer’ and ‘ mullah’, ‘guru’. In fact, Many of them pursue with Shamanistic activities. Shamanism is a kind of occultism in which black magic and white magic are used for
