Churail

(perhaps from the Sanskrit word cur,
meaning “to steal”) Feminine malignant
spirit believed to be the ghost of a
woman who dies childless, in childbirth,
or with her desires somehow unsatisfied. These frustrated desires lead such
spirits to seek revenge by harming others,
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Chola Dynasty
particularly children, to destroy the happiness they were denied. For further
information about churails and other
unquiet spirits of the dead, see
Lawrence Babb, The Divine Hierarchy,
1975; Ann Grodzins Gold, Fruitful
Journeys, 1988; and Sudhir Kakar,
Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors, 1991.