Churel

Also called: chudail, churail, petni, shakchunni, pichal peri

Folklore and mythUndeadVariesA bad death or burial1500 to 1899

The churel is the dangerous dead woman of South Asian folklore, the returned form of someone who died in childbirth or through ill-treatment. She seduces and destroys men, beginning with her own male relatives. The precautions taken against her are aimed squarely at the corpse: it is pinned, bound, broken and buried face down under thorns and stones. Those measures closely match anti-revenant burial practice in Europe.1

Battle it

First recorded

1880

Described in colonial-era ethnography, including William Crooke's study of North Indian folklore (1894)

Origin

South Asian

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal

What causes it

A bad death or burial

A woman who dies in childbirth, in pregnancy or during ritual impurity, or by cruelty, returns.

How you become one

Death in or around childbirth, or any unnatural death; in Bengal, dying unmarried or with desires unfulfilled.

How it moves

Varies

Waits near trees and lonely places and leads men away into woods or hills.

Intelligence

Clever

Weak spots

filling the grave with thorns and piling stones on top
nailing or binding the fingers and toes with iron
breaking the legs, sewing the eyes shut with thorns and burying the body face down
sowing mustard seed along the funeral route
carrying the body out through a side door