Ghost illness of children in north India

This analysis of the relationship of infant and childhood illness and death to ghost beliefs is based on holistic fieldwork in the late 1950s and the late 1970s in Shanti Nagar (a pseudonym), a village in North India. Illness and the supernatural world are linked by the concepts of ghosts and Fever, the latter an index of ghost illness, deriving from a supernatural being. The links between ghosts, Fever, and ghost illness involve basic Hindu beliefs, tales from Hindu and Sanskritic texts, ancient curing practices, stress, and local and family histories. A limited number of cases from the many in Ghosts: Life and Death in North India (R. Freed and S. Freed 1991) are here presented to illustrate particular points and general characteristics of ghost illness, including ghost possession, when found in children. The village health culture includes curing practices from the Atharva-Veda (the most ancient Sanskritic literature), Ayurvedic Medicine, Unani Prophetic Medicine, and Western Biomedicine.