Superstitions Related to Home

Svayaṃhārikā—

The word svayaṃhārikā means the voluntary thief.^[1] This evil spirit destroys grain from granaries and houses, milk from the cows and ghee and the products from prolific things. Also she is even addicted to concealment. She consumes the half-cooked food from the kitchen and whatever is kept in the store house and she always consumes whatever food is being served up along with the person who eats this. Also this evil spirit takes the remains of food, the success which men have accomplished. Also she takes the fluid and milk out of cows udders and women’s breasts, ghee out of curdled milk, oil out of sesamum, the spirituous liquor out of the liquor-stores. The colour out of saffron and other coloured objects and cotton cloths thread. For taking protection against her, one should make a pair of peacocks and an artificial woman and draw the picture of Rāksasas on the house and should avoid the remains of food. Again the vessels of milk and other things should be cleaned with the ashes of incense offered to the gods in the sacrificial fire.^[2]

Sarvahārī, Ardhahārī, Vīryahārī—

These three mean who steals the whole (sarvahārī), who steals the half (ardhahārī) and who steals one’s vigour (vīryahārī) accordingly. These evil spirits become pleased living in the houses of those who do not wash their mouths after meals, who are of bad behaviour, who enter the kitchen with dirty feet. In such places all these evil spirits fittingly sport and become pleased.^[3]

Besides these, the interpretation of dreams is also said to be a superstition. There are some beliefs like various omens and portents, dreams, signs of approaching and impending deaths which are considered to be partly natural phenomenon and partly dreams.^[4]

The religion and philosophy are related to each other from ancient times. In Indian religion and philosophy, the omnipresence of the god is an acknowledged fact.^[5] It is noticed that, most of the Purāṇas have a philosophical and religious background where most of the purāṇic verses show interesting facts about the philosophy and ritual.^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

F. E. Pargiter, The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa, p. 223

[2]:

Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa, 48.31 b-38

[3]:

Ibid., 48.99 b-101 a

[4]:

Ibid., 40.2

[5]:

cf. īśā vāsyam idaṃ sarvaṃ yatkiñca jagatyāṃ jagat /
tena tyaktena bhunjithāḥ ma gṛdhaḥ kasyasvid dhanam // Iśopaniṣad, 1

[6]:

Sushil Kumar De, Aspects of Sanskrit literature, p.113