Born into the Mangalathu household at Kanjiracode and known in some accounts as Chiruthevi (also Sreedevi), she was a celebrated courtesan at court. After being murdered (accounts identify betrayal by a palanquin-bearer) and suffering extreme marana-vedana (death-throes), she was reborn as a yakshi. Legend says she initially took up residence in a massive Kanjiram (Strychnine tree) — the place-name element 'Kanjirottu' is said to derive from that tree. As a yakshi she seduced and terrorized men and drank their blood; in several variants she was later constrained by ritual negotiation, oath, or clerical intervention and became associated with temple ritual life, ultimately believed in some traditions to reside in Vault B of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
Traditional accounts emphasize that she appears as an exceptionally beautiful courtesan; sources state she 'magically transformed into a bewitchingly beautiful woman moments after her birth' as a yakshi. Temple paintings at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy shrine portray both 'enchanting and ferocious' forms of the yakshi, reflecting attractive and fearsome aspects in local iconography.
Narratives attribute seduction and deadly predation to her: she seduces men, terrorizes them, and is said to drink their blood. She may pursue specific individuals from her human life (stories cite persistent harassment of the still-living Kunjuraman, whom she desired). Variants record that she was capable of entering into binding oaths (she 'swore on ponnum vilakkum') and could be tamed or reformed by ritual specialists or by becoming a temple devotee, after which she was represented within temple ritual geography.
Weaknesses
- ritualOath-bound constraint (sworn on 'ponnum vilakkum')
- ritualTaming by a ritual specialist (e.g., Kadamattathu Kathanar in some accounts)
- conditionInstallation as a temple devotee (becoming a devotee of Narasimha and being installed at a temple)
Wards
- ritualTemple installation and devotion (installation at a temple and becoming a devotee of Narasimha)
- ritualNegotiated oath with a ritual specialist (Govindan's agreement that set temporal and devotional conditions)
- otherSanctuary or refuge within a temple (seeking refuge at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple)
Yaksha
Nature spirits of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cosmology — guardians of forests, treasures, and wilderness. Ambivalent beings, capable of great benevolence to the respectful and terrible harm to the greedy.
Brahmarakshas
The most learned and terrible of spirits — the ghost of a Brahmin who misused his scriptural knowledge in life and was condemned after death to be both demon and scholar, haunting places of learning.
Pishacha
Flesh-eating spirits of Hindu mythology that haunt cremation grounds and are associated with disease, madness, and possession. The lowest class of demon in the Vedic hierarchy.
Stree
A vengeful female spirit from Chanderi who abducts men during festival nights. Warded off by the inscription 'O Stree, kal aana' — her legend, still practised on walls across Madhya Pradesh, inspired the 2018 Bollywood horror-comedy.
Bhoot (bhoota)
A bhoot (also bhoota, bhoot, bhut) is the culturally specific term across parts of the Indian subcontinent for a perturbed, restless spirit generally understood to be the ghost of a deceased person. Sources describe bhoots as arising when a person's death or post-death circumstances prevent them from moving on — for example violent death, unresolved affairs, or failures in funerary rites — and the term appears frequently in modern South Asian media and discussions.
Adi Vinayaka
Adi Vinayaka (Ādi Vināyaka; also called Nara Mukha Vinayaka) is a named iconographic and devotional form of the Hindu god Ganesha portraying the deity with a human head, described in sources as the form before the episode of decapitation by Shiva. It is rarely worshipped and appears in a small number of South Indian shrines and in devotional/musical repertoires.
Agastya
Agastya (also Agathiyar/Agasti) is a revered Vedic and later-period Indian rishi (sage) figure credited in textual traditions as an inspired seer, ascetic, teacher, culture-founder, and attributed author of Vedic, Puranic and Tamil works; in South Indian tradition he is associated with origins of Tamil grammar and Siddha medicine and is identified astronomically with the star Canopus.
Agiya Baital
The fire-form of the Vetala — a cremation ground spirit of UP and Bihar that manifests as a wandering flame rather than a corpse-inhabitor, leading night travellers off roads and into marshland or flames with a dancing fire that seems always just ahead.
Agniveśa
Agniveśa is a legendary rṣi (sage) in the Ayurvedic textual tradition, traditionally credited as the pupil of Punarvasu Atreya and as the attributed author of the lost Agniveśa Saṃhitā / Agniveśatantra. Later Ayurvedic compilers, notably Charaka, are described in the sources as having compiled, edited, and modified material attributed to Agniveśa into texts such as the Charaka Saṃhitā.
Ahiravan (Mahiravan)
Ahiravan (also Mahiravan) is a rakshasa-king of Patala in Ramayana-derived narratives who abducts Rama and Lakshmana to sacrifice them to a goddess. Presented as a brother or trusted ally of Ravana in eastern Ramayana recensions, he is defeated and beheaded by Hanuman with divine aid.
Aiyanar
Aiyanar (Aiyaṉār, ஐயனார்) is a Tamil rural tutelary deity venerated chiefly in village contexts of Tamil Nadu and among Tamil communities in Sri Lanka. Portrayed as a martial guardian often mounted on a horse or elephant and accompanied by attendant spirits, he functions primarily to protect village boundaries, people, and livestock and has later been syncretized with the Sanskritic Sastha tradition.
Aiyyanar
Aiyyanar (also spelled Aiyanar) is a Tamil rural village deity venerated in South India and Sri Lanka, primarily among rural Tamil communities. He is associated in material culture with large, colorful roadside and temple statues often shown with companions and mounted on horses or elephants, and functions as a local protective/patronal figure within village devotional practice.
Akṣayakumāra
Akṣayakumāra appears in the Ramayana as the youngest son of Rāvaṇa and a warrior sent to oppose Hanuman in the Ashoka Vatika episode; described as about sixteen, he fights bravely from a chariot and is killed by Hanuman.
Alakh Niranjan
A doctrinal and devotional formula in the Nath-yogi tradition denoting the unseen, unblemished ultimate reality (Nirguna Brahman/Atman). Used as a salutational invocation, theological name, and signifier of realised Self rather than a personified supernatural being.
Alakshmi
Alakshmi is an inauspicious female supernatural figure in Hindu tradition, presented as the negation or shadow-counterpart of the prosperity-goddess Lakshmi. She personifies poverty, grief, jealousy and social discord and is managed in domestic ritual and festival practice.
Alamelu
Alamelu (also Alamelu Manga / Alarmel Mangai) is a South Indian devotional name for the goddess Padmavati, identified in sources as an avatar of Lakshmi and the consort of Venkateswara; the name is also used widely as a female personal name and in titles of cultural works in Tamil and Telugu contexts.
Aleya
Ghost lights of the Sundarbans delta — flickering flames over swamp water said to be the souls of dead fishermen, luring the living off safe paths into drowning waters.
Community Record
- [1]Kanjirottu Yakshi — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Kanjirottu Yakshi,' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Kanjirottu Yakshi — Wikidata entry Q16277645. Wikidata entry Q16277645, 'Kanjirottu Yakshi' (labels include 'folkloric vampire').wiki