Guest guest Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 "zAp" / "shaapa" It is curious that ancient rishis could just utter a "zAp" and make the concerned person go through disasters which, according to the zAp-giver, are appropriate given the person's vice. And a rishi like Durwas utters a zAp purely out of his anger caused by his personal discomfort and not due to his perception of a wrong act. Even if we prefer to overlook the unbelievable magical power of a zAp-giver to cause some physical, real changes in the world, the act of zAp- giving seems to have a believable logic. In the Marathi language, an ordinary person, on whom some person inflicts some pain out of sheer malice, quite naturally says that that person will suffer his "TalaTalAt". The difference between uttering a zAp and uttering words of TalaTalAt seems to me that while the latter is a private utterance, a temporary act of comforting oneself by saying that one will again have a normal, happy life and the wrong-doer will have to suffer, the former appears to be a public act with its well-established conventions. So there might be formal eligibility conditions as to who can utter a zAp and who will have to suffer it and who can escape. There might also be elaborate means to utter or evade a zAp which are recognized by a community. Do my intuitions have any ground? Can you suggest me a book or article? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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