Having written and/or illustrated several myself it is fair to say that I have a soft spot for encyclopedias / guides to folkloric entities and beasts, especially the darker beings. Folklore is such a vast and diverse field and unless you are multilingual so much of it still remains hidden from many readers. Therefore it is a welcome treasure for me when English language tomes covering creatures from the lore of different cultures becomes widely available. Khanna and Bhairav’s book is such a treasure – especially as it caters to my other book bias in being illustrated throughout. And though the mysterious ‘they’ say never judge a book by its cover, the sleeve design of this book is beautiful making it a pleasure to hold and behold even before it is opened.

Airi. Illustration by Appupen (George Mathen)

Many examples the world over display that folklore and its entities can be pretty darn weird and Asian lore certainly excels in those stakes. Japanese lore of Yurei (ghosts), Yokai (demonic spirits), Tanuki (racoon-dogs with huge testicles) and many other denizens of night parades and kaidan (ghost stories) are relatively well known in the west but India’s otherworldly beings, despite being as rich and weird and despite the familiarity of the pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses, are a lesser known gathering. Khanna and Bhairav have worked hard and done extremely well to bring a multitude of spectres and monstrous creatures to a wider audience. They have scoured the subcontinent and surrounds including not only India but Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives and Iran, and the various religions, folktales and superstitions of these areas and across the ages in their bid to assemble an A to Z of bizarre beasts and malign entities.

Baak. Illustration by Shyam Sankar.

Though I was previously familiar with Naga, Kali, Dev, Blemmyae, Gog & Magog, Rakshasa, Chudail, Yeti, Jinn, Manticore and Bhuta the vast majority of this chunky book was a revelation to me.
Between Aavi (a mist-like, mournful ghost) and Zunhindawt (an entity that possesses people compelling them to drink from puddles of urine!) writhe hundreds of pages devoted to incredibly strange and frequently sinister specimens.
Contained between the covers are such strange individuals as the Moila Deo (a spirit of jealousy manifest as an ash-coloured dwarf with long dirty hair), the Than-Thin Daini (a disembodied head of a witch that eats the entrails of sleeping people), the Ghorapaak ( a shapeshifting devourer of fish and murderer of fishermen), the Rav ( a creature that comes into existence should seven tigers die at the same moment and which causes its victims to vomit blood), the Gomua Bhoot (the ghost of a cow that died whilst calving, which can climb trees and turn into a pumpkin), the Penchapechi (a ghost in the form of an owl that can consume people whole) and many, many more besides.

Bram Bram Chok. Illustration by Vidyun Sabhaney.

Ghosts, Monsters and Demons of India is a great book for folklore collectors, aficionados of India, artists and writers seeking phantasmic inspiration, kids with ghoulish tastes (of which I was one and would have loved this book), and anybody who fancies flipping a page open on a long, dark witch-season night to see what nightmares unfold.
The book is replete with peculiar, scratchy, quirky black and white illustrations by Appupen, Rashmi Ruth Devadasan, Shyam Sankar, Samita Chatterjee, Vidyun Sabhaney, Misha Michael, Priya Kuriyan, Pankaj Thapa and Osheen Siva making it an ideal, unusual gift book for Halloween or any occasion.

Reviewed by Andy Paciorek