Note 20 — Chapter IV · WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS AND SAINTS.

Bhuts and pishāchas—ghosts, male and female—can be prevented from doing harm by recourse to certain processes. For instance, the wife of a Nāgar of Gadhadā became a witch after her death and began to torment the second wife of her husband by throwing her out of bed whenever she was asleep. To prevent this, the husband took a vow to perform a shrāddha at Sidhpur in the name of the deceased wife, after the performance of which the ghostly presence stopped harassing the new wife of her husband.20