By Dr Kripa Nautiyal
Detailed ethnographic study reveals centuries-old practice where trained mystics communicate with deceased souls to solve mysteries surrounding untimely deaths.
In the remote villages of Jaunsar Bawar, when death strikes unexpectedly or claims someone too young, families don’t simply grieve in silence. Instead, they turn to an extraordinary tradition called “Mashan Jagana” – a sacred practice where specially trained individuals claim to communicate directly with the souls of the departed to uncover the truth behind their deaths.
When the Living Seek Answers from the Dead
The practice of Mashan Jagana is reserved for particular circumstances that leave families with unanswered questions. When someone dies in an accident, meets an untimely end, or when a young person’s life is cut short, the bereaved often feel compelled to understand exactly what happened and why. Rather than accepting the mystery, they seek out a “Mashanua” – a person who has achieved “siddhi” or spiritual accomplishment in the ancient art of communicating with deceased souls.
Recent ethnographic research undertaken by me, documented in a book, “Beyond Polyandry: Changing Profile of an Ethnic Himalayan Tribe”, provides rare insight into this secretive practice that has been passed down through generations in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand.
The Sacred Setup: Materials of Mystic Communication
The Mashan Jagana ritual follows a precise protocol that has remained unchanged for centuries. The ceremony begins with careful preparation in a dark room within the deceased person’s home. The Mashanua arranges specific sacred materials: a mustard oil lamp provides the only illumination, while a bronze plate filled with water holds scattered grains of urad dal (black lentils).
The most crucial element is a raw cotton thread that creates what practitioners believe is a physical connection between worlds. One end of this thread is tied to the flickering mustard oil lamp inside the dark room, while the other end is secured to soil from the cremation ground – earth that has been collected in advance and kept outside the house.
This seemingly simple thread represents the bridge between the living and the dead, the conduit through which communication flows.
The Mashanua: Guardian of Ancient Knowledge
Not anyone can perform Mashan Jagana. The role of Mashanua requires achieving “siddhi” through traditional methods, often learned from one’s father in a lineage-based transmission of knowledge. According to research findings, this specialised training can be obtained at Sangota in the Jaunsar-Bawar region, where the ancient techniques are still taught.
A seventy-year-old who I interacted with during my field work for research represents one such practitioner. Inspired by his father to undertake this spiritual accomplishment, he continues to receive requests for Mashan Jagana, though he notes that such queries have decreased over time as modernisation reaches even the most remote valleys.
The Ritual Unfolds: Voices from Beyond
Once the sacred setup is complete, the Mashanua takes his position in the prepared room and begins the delicate process of establishing contact with the deceased. The ritual starts with repetitive chanting of the dead persons names, calling them back from whatever realm they now inhabit.
What happens next challenges conventional understanding of communication and consciousness. The Mashanua claims to hear and engage in dialogue with the deceased soul, discussing not only the circumstances and reasons for their death but also addressing post-death events and concerns that may be troubling the departed spirit.
Throughout this otherworldly conversation, the Mashanua serves as both participant and interpreter, simultaneously engaging with the unseen presence while narrating the dialogue to anxious family members gathered nearby. The responses and explanations received from the deceased are shared in real-time, providing families with detailed accounts of their loved one’s final moments and the reasons behind their untimely departure.
Community Trust and Convincing Revelations
Perhaps most remarkably, family members who witness Mashan Jagana sessions consistently report finding the explanations provided by the Mashanua convincing and satisfactory. Multiple community members interviewed during the research confirmed having witnessed such occasions, lending credibility to the practice within the local cultural context.
This acceptance suggests that the ritual serves a crucial psychological and social function, providing closure and understanding that helps families process grief and move forward. In a region where official death investigations may be limited or inconclusive, Mashan Jagana fills a vital gap in the community’s need for answers and resolution.
A Living Tradition in Transition
The documentation of practices like Mashan Jagana reveals the complex relationship between traditional knowledge systems and modern life. While the 70 year old Mashanua I met notes that requests for death communication have decreased over time, the practice persists, indicating its continued relevance for at least some members of the community.
This decline reflects broader patterns affecting indigenous cultures worldwide, where urbanisation, education, and changing worldviews gradually erode traditional practices. The fact that such detailed ethnographic documentation exists becomes even more valuable as these ancient knowledge systems face an uncertain future.
Beyond Belief: Understanding Cultural Function
Whether one accepts the literal reality of communication with the dead or views Mashan Jagana as an elaborate form of traditional therapy, its cultural significance cannot be dismissed. The practice represents a sophisticated system for addressing trauma, providing closure, and maintaining social cohesion in times of crisis.
The ritual demonstrates how traditional societies developed complex mechanisms to meet psychological and spiritual needs that modern systems sometimes struggle to address. The Mashanua functions not just as a mystic but as a counsellor, helping families process difficult emotions and find meaning in seemingly senseless loss.
Preserving Indigenous Wisdom
The detailed documentation of Mashan Jagana in my research is meant to serve a crucial purpose beyond academic interest. As globalisation and modernisation transform even the most remote communities, practices like these face extinction unless they are properly recorded and understood.
Such ethnographic studies provide windows into alternative ways of understanding death, grief, and healing – knowledge systems that developed over centuries to serve specific cultural needs. They remind us that human societies have created remarkably diverse approaches to universal challenges like mortality and loss.
The Thread Continues
In the dark rooms of Jaunsar Bawar villages, where mustard oil lamps cast dancing shadows and cotton threads stretch between worlds, the ancient practice of Mashan Jagana continues. Though fewer families may seek its services today, the tradition persists as a testament to humanity’s enduring need to understand death and find meaning in loss.
For the people of this Himalayan region, the boundary between life and death remains permeable, connected by something as simple yet profound as a cotton thread – a reminder that some mysteries of human experience transcend the material world and demand their own forms of ancient wisdom.
The research documenting these practices was conducted as part of ethnographic fieldwork in the Jaunsar Bawar region and is detailed in the book “Beyond Polyandry: Changing Profile of an Ethnic Himalayan Tribe”
(The author is a Defence and Strategic Studies expert turned Anthropologist. He is an alumnus of United States Naval War College, holds a Master’s degree in Defence and Strategic Studies and PhD in Cultural Anthropology. He is a retired Additional Director General of the Indian Coast Guard.)
