Just as fairies have been talked about in folklore around the world for centuries, similarly fairies do exist in Kashmir too, but there they are considered a little evil. A fairy's real form is like that of a woman having two wings. They are considered shapeshifters who sometimes take the form of an animal and sometimes of a bird. But usually, they are depicted in the form of beautiful women. There is a belief in Kashmir that fairies usually live near springs in the midst of forests, which attract young boys to their side and befriend them. Later they get married to them and live like a supernatural partner. If they become happy with someone, they can make their life much better, but they also have an evil side.
If the person who comes in contact with them does not accept their friendship, they can even kill them by drowning in water. They often use tricks to kill people and confuse their minds. The people who are familiar with them, on encountering, they go their way quietly without seeing them because doing so does not harm them. Also, if a person befriends a fairy, he cannot marry for the rest of his life, but if he does, then the fairy puts many obstacles in his marriage. But still, somehow the marriage takes place, she can trouble the person's wife in many ways and kill her. These fairies are usually invisible but they can be visible to whomsoever they wish.
An anecdote from the 18th century is quite famous in Kashmir when a sheepherder was targeted by a fairy. This shepherd lived in a small village in Kashmir and used to go to the forest a short distance from home to graze sheep. He was very simple in nature and did not use much brain. There was a spring inside the forest where many people claimed to have seen a fairy. One day the shepherd walked around in the forest leaving the sheep to graze. Suddenly he started hearing some voices which did not scare him, rather he followed the voices and reached the spring. There he saw a beautiful woman, the shepherd kept looking at her and did not react. But then the fairy started the conversation first and the two became friends.
Now every day the shepherd started visiting the spring to meet the fairy as if he had come under her fascination. Now in a few days, the shepherd was about to get married, about which the fairy got some news. After this, she started torturing the girl (future wife) and her health deteriorated. But when the elders of the village came to know about this, they told the shepherd the way to get rid of that fairy. There is a belief in Kashmir that if one hair of a fairy is acquired, then one can get rid of it through a special ritual. The shepherd did the same and took the help of a Tantrik. The Tantrik captured the fairy with the help of that hair, after which the shepherd got married happily.
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