the ojha shamans

The Ojha Shamans And Sufi Faquirs of Bangladesh

(A Study on Traditional Healing Practices: Introduction)

Anwarul Karim

Introduction

When 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 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

"Buddha Gayá, the hermitage of Śákya Muni”, 1878

benevolent or malevolent purposes. It includes witchcraft as a kind of secret or hidden practice which is undertaken by practitioners, such as ojha or Faquir Bangladesh who has hold over the supernatural elements, Witchcraft is a kind of magic and the users are in a position to perceive and interact with a spirit world and ‘channel these transcendental energies into this world’. He or She while being involved in some kind of ritualistic practices, as of trance, has an easy access to the spirit world and acquires power to influence the spirits for benevolent or malevolent cause.

In Bangladesh, the ojha is also called as faquir as he is involved in a kind of healing practices when affected by spirit possession. Ojhas in Bangladesh are very often found engaged in curing patients of snake-bite. But as they are believed to have supernatural power they also are found involved in practices of spirit possession. They may be either from Hindu or Muslim community. There are ojhas in tribal communities also. The word Faquir refers to Muslim mystics, belonging to Sufi cult. They are specialized in spirit possession. Besides them, there are a number of healers, many of whom are either engaged in faith healing or use herbs and natural healing practices. The natural healing practices include water therapy, music therapy or psycho-therapy.

In Muslim society, there are religious leaders like Pir or Peer. They are found engaged in religious teaching and training and have Khnkas or religious resort. They are also faith healers and many of them have control over the spirits known as Jinns. Besides them, there are Mullahs who are religious persons but are known as faith healers.

In Bangladesh there are few practitioners who are known as kabiraj or baiddya and hekim . They follow herbal or ayurvedic practice. They are either Hindu or Muslim. Bauls who belong to Muslim Sufi mystics are occasionally found curing patients who are spirit possessed but mostly they are singing minstrels who move through villages and live by begging and performing music. In Bangladesh, Bauls are also called for faith healing. But they are very often engaged in performing Baul music when a community suffers from diseases such as cholera, small pox or diarrhoea. This happens because the community people in rural areas believe that the disease might have been caused by spirits. In such cases, Bauls perform music for three days invoking God or Spiritual leaders.

Among the Hindu Vaishnava, there are mystic practitioners who are also engaged in spirit possession and faith healing. Again, there is a community of medicine man and women who are known as bedey who also belong to healing community using special kind of techniques and herbs for remedy. They are snake-charmers and have powers to cure snake bitten patients. They also use herbs.

There is another kind of Shaman who are known as Kapalika. They are known as Tantrik Shaman and many of them go naked. They smear their body with ashes from the cremation ground, and have faith in the Bhairava form of Shiva. They are found engaged in rituals with blood, meat, alcohol, and sexual fluids. They are now disappearing or have left Bangladesh for India,

The term ‘ Shaman’ is believed to have its roots in Paganism and animism and thereafter it was gradually found working among the Turks and the Mongols. It also became a part of Zoroastrianism and Taoism. It was prevalent in Asia and Africa.

Mircea Eliade writes, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = 'technique of religious ecstasy'." Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/ illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within 123

the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.

Beliefs and practices that have been categorized this way as "shamanic" have attracted the interest of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peerreviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. In the 20th century, many westerners involved in the counter-cultural movement have created modern magico-religious practices influenced by their ideas of indigenous religions from across the world, creating what has been termed neo-shamanism or the neoshamanic movement.[6] It has affected the development of many neo pagan practices, as well as faced a backlash and accusations of cultural appropriation, exploitation and misrepresentation when outside observers have tried to represent cultures they do not belong to.

Shamanism is assumed to have originated in association with hunting and gathering (Lessa and Vogt 1979, 301). It is commonly held that the shamans are a kind of mystic and can cure sickness by virtue of their techniques of ecstasy and magic. The shaman can “see “the spirit and he himself occasionally behaves like a spirit. He can leave his body in a trance and travel in ecstasy in all cosmic regions. He recognizes various diseases through mystical insight or with the help of his " pet-spirits " who are at his disposal, and he is capable of curing these diseases with his healing techniques. Although he has a number of auxiliary spirits at his disposal, he is not possessed by them.

Bangladesh is a small country with an area of over 55,000 square miles and a population of over 100 million. It has 68,000 villages and few cities. At least 80% of the people live in rural areas where people are mostly illiterate and have limited health and medical facilities.

There is one physician for 7,810 people and one hospital bed for 4,000 people (Government of Bangladesh 1985). Although Bangladesh is a land of rivers, these are dry most of the time, and people must depend on the rainy season which, in fact, is a gamble on the monsoons. They live in houses built of mud with thatched roofs and narrow rectangular windows. These people still drink water either from the river or ponds and suffer from various diseases including diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice and fever. Cholera and dysentery often break out in epidemic form. Their farming is still primitive and at a subsistence level. In the absence of proper diet they suffer from acute anaemia and malnutrition.

A recent study of mine in three Bangladesh villages reveals that 90% of the rural men and women use indigenous health care. Shamanistic and herbal care are common. The persons engaged in shamanistic and various ways of herbal health care include both men and women.

Shamanism in Bangladesh, which evolved as an integral part of folk or animistic religion, later was assimilated into Hinduism and Buddhism, especially Tantric Buddhism. With the introduction of Islam by the Sufis, who syncretised different religious ideas and incorporated the same into mystic Islam, shamanism became an integral part of folk life. It may be pointed out here that although shamanism is rooted in animistic culture, it is intended for correcting disturbances in the individual's social order. The shamans perform the same role in a traditional society as psycho-therapists in modern society.

The objective of this paper is to present the role of the shaman in traditional Bengali society. The study is based on the author's personal observation as an insider in three villages of Kushtia, a western district of Bangladesh bordering West Bengal. The paper suggests that a shaman is a healer who uses magic and witchcraft for benevolent purposes. He is not a sorcerer who is engaged in malevolent activities. The paper's key assumption is that Bangladesh as a traditional society still holds to animism as the basic belief and guiding source for the cultural attitude of the people.

Rural Life in Bengal; illustrative of Anglo-Indian suburban life; more particularly in connection with the planter and peasantry ... Letters from an artist in India to his sisters in England ... By the author of 'Anglo-Indian Domestic Life' ... Illustrated with one hundred and sixty six engravings [Signed: C, i.e. Colesworthey Grant.]"