Nair - Supernatural Beliefs

Supernatural Beliefs

Nairs believed in spirits, which on some occasions they attempted to tame by performing various rituals. According to Panikkar, they believed in spirits such as Pretam, Bhutam and Pisachu. Pretam is the spirit of prematurely dead people; Bhutam, Panikkar says, "is seen generally in marshy districts and does not always hurt people unless they go very near him"; and Pisachu is spirit of bad air causing illnesses. Believing Pretam to be wandering around the place of death, they warned people to stay away from those areas between 9 am and 3 pm. They also believed in a mythical figure called Kutti chatthan, which Panikkar describes as,

Kutti Chattan (sometimes merely Chattan, Kutti means boy, a term of endearment, Chattan is supposed to be a corrupted form of Satan) is in no sense a god. He is something like Puck, very much inclined to mischief. He is supposed to be a dwarf, though he can assume any other form or remain invisible as he chooses. He never goes out of his way to harm anyone, but if anybody injures him once, Kutti Chattan never forgives and troubles him for life. His favourite method of annoying anybody is by throwing stones at the house or dropping unclean things in the food. He may do so without interruption, which would render life almost impossible. He is supposed to have no fingers and, therefore, his vices can be thwarted by people who know it. For example, he cannot pick up things if kept in a place high above his reach unless, of course, there is something near by on which he could climb. He cannot untie a knot, as he does not possess fingers, though he can open the strongest lock.

They believed in evil eye — that compliments from others had negative effect; they also believed that utterances of a person with kari nakku (black-tongue) had a similarly bad effect. They also believed koti from a poor man watching someone eating a delicious food will cause stomach-aches and dysentery.