Death’s shadow in the garden
A supernatural encounter as a mortality narrative within a Farshori community in North India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22422016 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Badruddin Badruddin (0009-0000-4300-1431, Institute of Computer Vision and Applied Computer Sciences, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-13 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mortality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1357-6275 • E-ISSN: 1469-9885 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13576275.2026.2704552 |
| OpenAlex | W7168426412 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
This narrative ethnography examines how a supernatural encounter functions as a culturally embedded mortality narrative within the Farshori community of Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, India. Centring on a childhood account involving an elderly orchard watchman, Kamulla Dadu, the study documents an episode in which spectral beings confront him with a ritual demand known as Manas Gandh (‘human smell’). Kamulla’s reported transformation into a youthful, otherworldly form, followed by his unexplained death, is interpreted within the community not as superstition, but as a symbolic submission to metaphysical obligation. Rather than dismissing the episode as hallucination or folklore, the analysis situates the narrative within local oral traditions and community memory, framing it as a culturally meaningful discourse on death. Drawing on the anthropology of death, symbolic interactionism, and ethnographic approaches to cultural memory, the paper explores how ritual speech, spectral agency, and illness operate as symbolic mechanisms through which mortality is negotiated. A comparative perspective situates this case alongside other death-related supernatural traditions, revealing shared symbolic structures through which communities mediate death, liminality, and obligation. The study argues that such narratives offer meaningful frameworks for understanding death beyond purely biomedical interpretations.
Ethnography · Fieldnotes · Framing (construction) · Narrative · North india · Shadow (psychology) · Shamanism · The Symbolic · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |