The Uttar Pradesh shrine of what is said to be a trapped ghost draws the 'possessed,' hoping to rid themselves of whatever haunts them.
A strange calm hangs over the village, one that hardly appears to be in the midst of a famous mela. The heat is peaking, the fields around lie desolate and I have the odd feeling of being lost while trying to put some of my own ghosts to rest. Located 20 km from the district headquarters of Mirzapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, this is Belahara. A dusty, rocky village, it comes alive once every year during the festival of Navratri, when the 'possessed' from around the country converge at the temple of Mohan baram baba.
On the surface, the fair resembles the regular confluence of the rural colour palette, where jalebis are fried next to stalls selling underwear. But the truer reality is hidden. Walking down a street lined with flower shops and incense, I reach the low walls of the temple compound. There, a bizarre scene unfolds, as the temple area is full of the cries of people in the midst of ridding themselves of whatever demon had possessed them. There is no drumbeat, no smoke engulfing the compound, but the possessed are nonetheless deep in trances, leaving their loved ones staring at them in disbelief. A pool of muddy water is the final stage of cleansing. A few women float in the water; a man sings two lines of a Bhojpuri song over and over before finally doing a somersault, sending up a huge splash. The echoes of chanting – baram baba, baram baba, baram baba – get louder.
The cult of the baram is popular along India's cow belt of Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, especially in the villages. How does one become a baram, though? I go back to Prakash, under whose stall I had left my shoes. "In the past," he says, "when a Brahmin was unable to attain moksha, he would get stuck on Earth and haunt the village until he got a following to pray to him. He would become a baram," he says. Unconvincing though the explanation is, the popular belief in the area is that there are 108 baram floating around.