Spirit is strong

God's own country finds your columnist searching for antique animal figures of boars, buffaloes and deer.Sculpted in bronze, the figurines were originally made as votive offerings to spirits called bhutas.The scientist accompanying the scribe says bhuta kola or the practice of worshipping a guardian deity is very ancient and that some of the spirits are believed to be Shiva’s attendants or ganas.Others are said to be totemic spirits such as Annappa Panjurli, the boar or Pili Chamundi the tiger; Then there are bhutas representing local gods, goddesses and cultural heroes such as Kodamandayya.There’s also talk about spirit possession and sessions of trance displayed during bhuta ritual dancing.This reminds your columnist of The Exorcist and its eerie neck-wrenching and speaking in tongues.It's nothing as sinister, reassures the scientist. But the possessed person does hold a dialogue with devotees, the scientist clarifies, even as he or she continues to behave like an incarnation of a particular spirit, listening to the woes and problems of the devotees, offering to mediate and to heal, warning and comforting believers.The scribe then wonders if this is something akin to what James Cameron has in his blockbuster film Avatar.Where a paraplegic marine animates a nine-foot-tall blue clone doll with a tail that serves as a connecting cord; and how can we forget the chain-smoking woman scientist who has her own avatar of a bioengineered clone, to possess and to prance about on planet Pandora?That would be like confusing bhuta kola with Coca-Cola, the scientist replies while leading the scribe to an antique mart near a national highway.Here the scribe and the scientist are offered an ancient menagerie that's allegedly encrusted with the patina of centuries.Whatever their provenance, the figures seem to be crafted with exquisite skill.But, alas, they are priced exorbitantly. When it comes to forking out the money or moolah (root that supposedly sprouts all evil), your scribe's spirit is most willing.But his flesh is weak indeed. Predictably, negotiations spiral towards breakdown.Then the dealer casually inquires about the scribe's ancestry.Udipi is mentioned as is the great-grandfather, pioneer publisher who loved Yakshagana.And before you can say spirit, the hoard is sold for a song! Flesh is humbled indeed.