Pramathas
The Pramathas are the night-wandering attendant spirits of Bhagavān Śiva. They are present everywhere, yet no one can see them except a chosen few. They harm people who live in a state of ritual impurity or moral fall. They have no power over those who keep certain protective practices.
In the Pramatha-Rahasya, which is Chapter 131 of the Anuśāsana Parva, the devas, the pitṛs (ancestors) and the ṛshis ask the Pramathas directly how they harm mortals and what keeps them away. The Pramathas answer in full.
Whom the Pramathas harm
The Pramathas said that they harm, and in a sense “consume”, the following people:
- those who often have maithuna (sexual union) while in an unclean (ucchishṭa) state
- those who raise the base above the worthy
- those who eat meat out of delusion
- one who sleeps with his head at the foot of a tree
- one who keeps meat on his own head
- one who sleeps with his feet where his head should rest
- those who pass excreta or urine into water
All such people are counted as ucchishṭa (impure, left over). They are the rightful prey of the Pramathas. The Mahābhārata gives this in the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 131.
Whom the Pramathas cannot harm
The Pramathas have no power over:
- one who is anointed with gorocanā
- one who, with śraddhā (faith), keeps vasā (fat) or oil on his head
- one who keeps away from meat altogether
A household where a fire burns day and night is also safe from them.
A household that holds any one of these things cannot be harmed even by the most dreadful rākshasas: a hyena skin (tarakshu-carma), a horn, a giri-kacchapa (a mountain or land tortoise), the smoke of a ghṛta-homa (an offering of ghee into the fire), a cat, or a black or pale-brown (piṅgala) goat. These things are called rakshoghna, which means destroyer of rākshasas. Where they are kept, both the Pramathas and the terrors of other lokas leave people to move about in peace. The Mahābhārata gives this in the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 131.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 131