Churel

What it is

The churel is a female spirit in the folklore of South Asia and its Caribbean diaspora, described as a revenant, that is, a dead person who comes back. She is said to appear when a woman dies badly: in childbirth, while pregnant, unmarried, or through cruelty. In her own shape she is drawn as hideous, with a black tongue and feet turned the wrong way, and she can take the form of a lovely woman carrying a lantern. Men are her usual targets. Tales say she leads them into woods or hills, drains their strength or blood, and leaves them aged, or keeps them until they die.

Where it comes from

The legend is said to have come from Persia, where such spirits were described as women whose desires were left unfulfilled. In South Asia the churel belongs to a wider set of beliefs about women who die outside the proper order, and many communities explain her differently. The Korwas of Mirzapur tie her to a death in the room where women give birth. The Pataris and Majhwars say a girl who dies pregnant or unclean returns as a pretty child in white clothes. The Bhuiya name a girl who dies before she is twenty days old. In Gujarat and western India, any woman dying by violence or mischance is thought to become one, and early accounts said only a woman of low caste did.

How it is done

Most of what people do about a churel is prevention. Care for pregnant women is the first precaution. If a woman dies in a way thought likely to make her one, the usual cremation is set aside and she is buried instead, with the rites performed carefully and her name remembered in songs and prayers. The grave is filled with thorns and piled with heavy stones so the spirit cannot rise. Mustard is sown where she died and scattered along the road her body took. A coffin may be burned and then buried or given to a river, and in Tamil areas priests gather to make her offerings.

Tools and materials

Mustard seed is the commonest item in these customs: sown where the woman died, thrown along the path of the corpse, and strewn by a spirit doctor on the way to the graveyard. Thorns and heavy stones close a grave. Iron rings bind all the thumbs and big toes together, and among the Oraon thorns are used to sew shut the eyes of the worst churels. In some places the body is treated with five products of a cow while texts are recited. The Bengali Petni is pictured in a red and white sari with shell bangles, the marks of a married woman.

What it is for

The churel's purpose in the stories is revenge and hunger. A woman ill-treated in life is said to come for the men of her own family first, beginning with the youngest, and to move on to others once she is finished with them. Some tellings say her appetite went unsatisfied while she lived and that she seeks out every man she meets. Unmarried teenage boys and new mothers are named as targets. Those who hear her night call and answer it, or who eat the food she offers, are said to die, or to return home as old men.

Who does it

Those who deal with a churel are specialists. The Baiga, described as a person who drives off evil spirits, is said to be the only one who can stop her, and a goat is killed first in that account. In Tamil country priests come together to make her offerings. Medicine men, who mixed herbs and spoke incantations against evil, were called in when a boy was troubled by nightly visits, and a spirit doctor may follow the body to the graveyard, scattering mustard and saying prayers. In many households the family itself manages the burial and the precautions.

Peoples and places

The belief runs from Pakistan and northern India through Nepal, Bangladesh and eastern India, and it travelled with Indian labourers to Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname. Each region has its own name: Pichal Peri in Punjab, Petni or Shakchunni in Bengal, Pontianak in Malaysia and Indonesia, and jakihn, jakhai, mukai, nagulai or alvantin in western India. Communities within India describe her differently. The Oraon, Gond, Bhuiya, Bhumia, Kharwar, Korwa, Patari and Majhwar each keep their own account, and in the hills the ground where a pregnant woman died is scraped clean and sown with mustard.

What people believe

Behind the churel lies a set of rules about dying well. A woman is held to be impure during her period and for twelve days after giving birth, and a death in that time, or in pregnancy, or in childbirth, is thought to leave her spirit unfinished. Unsatisfied desire, a marriage that never took place, and cruelty from a husband's family are all given as reasons for her return. In Hindu belief she is linked to the Mother Goddess and to the Rakshasi, and some say churels become dakinis serving the goddess Kali. Mustard sown on the grave is meant to keep her content.

When it is done

Churels are said to leave the grave at nightfall and be back before dawn, which is why the mustard trick works: while she stoops to gather the scattered grains, the sun rises. One tale has a young man return at daybreak to find himself aged. In India, a death during Diwali is singled out as a case that produces a churel, and death during the menstrual period or after childbirth is treated the same way. The protective rites belong to the funeral, immediately after the death.

Compare and confuse

The churel is often called a witch in everyday speech in India and Pakistan, though she is a spirit rather than a living woman. Names for the same figure vary by place: Pontianak in Malaysia and Indonesia, Pichal Peri in Punjab, Petni and Shakchunni in Bengal, and jakihn, jakhai, mukai, nagulai or alvantin in western India. She is also grouped with the Rakshasi, and with the dakinis of Hindu belief who are said to serve Kali.

Today

The churel stays alive in books, film, television and radio. Writers who have told her story include Rudyard Kipling, Rabindranath Tagore, Humayun Ahmed, Satyajit Ray and Sukumar Ray, and she appears in Bengali children's collections such as Thakurmar Jhuli. The Bengali film Putuler Protishod (1998) has a murdered woman return as a churel for revenge, and the 2020 film Bulbbul retells the legend. Sightings are still reported from rural parts of South and Southeast Asia.

Days linked to Churel

Questions people ask about Churel

Good reading and sources

• Churel on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data