Jagar, the Ceremony of Summoning Spirits in Kumaon (Uttarakhand, India): Cult Vocabulary and Possible Interpretations

The central ritual in the Kumaon region (Uttarakhand, India) is the jagar ceremony, which is based on communication with a deity or a spirit through a medium in trance. The vocabulary denoting the basic concepts of jagar is in many ways similar in Kumaon and Nepal. Since the cult itself is characterized by strong regional variability, the words associated with it are rather difficult to interpret and etymologically analyze. But the analysis of cult vocabulary is important, because on the base of it conclusions about diachronic typology of the ceremony can be drawn.