Gwats in Baloch Folklore

Deep inside Balochistan along the Makran coast, there exiss tales of a Djinn/Demon of the Winds. 

A shapeless child of the  shadows which possesses innocent people until they’re driven insane and kill themselves. 

Gwat or Gwad both mean winds in Balochi. However, they’re also names attached to a horrid entity found in Baluchistan, a Djinn of the winds! 

But this Djinn is much different to other Djinns since it doesn’t have a physical form. 

The Gwat is a force of darkness,  a child of the shadows. It has no body and no form yet it exists. It is body-less, invisible. It lurks where humans don’t and whenever a human enters its lair,  it makes sure to latch onto it until that person is driven insane. Due its extremely abstract existence, many do not even consider it a Djinn, rather a shapeless spirit of the winds. 

It’s descriptions reminds me of the Hamzad, the spiritual alter of every human being. A spirit like entity that is attached to each human and lives with us.

Though the concept of Hamzad is very interesting in itself, let us not concern ourselves with it for now. 

The name of the Gwat and its attachment to the winds is solely due to the properties described above. It arrives like the wind and seeps into the heart and mind of man. A person suffering from the possession of a Gwat generally goes pale and complains of a heavy heart, as if something was clenching it. 

Apart from the general loss of health, the Gwat makes the human do abnormal activities such as dance profusely and yank out their own hair.

Some suffer from the illness for so long that eventually they go insane and end up committing suicide. Then the Gwat leaves the body and travels elsewhere, to inhabit another human and drive them insane.

Though all hope is not lost for the victims. There exist certain women known in Balochi as Gwat-e-Mat i.e. the mother of Gwats. 

Gwati-e-mat is a woman who has knowledge on the Gwats and how to control them. This knowledge is passed down generation to generation by the women.

The Gwati Ilm (knowledge of Gwatis) is not something that can be learnt through books, it is completely oral. A family matriarch learns it and passes it down to his daughter, who does so with her daughter and so on. 

The ritual to rid the Gwat is called the Gwati-e-Leb. 

The Gwati-e-lib is somewhat of an offering kind of a ritual done for the Gwati to force or coax it to leave the body. It has 2 stages, in the first a person is isolated for 3 nights and washed every night with a mixture of various herbs and oil. On the 4th night the person is considered ready for the ritual. A large feast is prepared apparently for the Gwat. Though the family members also eat, a portion of it is taken to the sea and left at a cliff, with bones being buried there. This offering is for the Gwat only.

After this the ritual portion begins. A band of musicians play a melody of music which resonates with the wishes of the Gwati-e-mat. The victim is forced to dance who eventually goes into trance and dances so much that it falls conscious. 

This method takes place over and over again until the Gwat finally leaves the body and the person is pure again. Though the Gwat is neither killed, nor banished, it is merely expelled. 

It still roams with the winds, waiting for its next pray. 

Interestingly the name of Gwadar also comes from the word Gwat-Dar: Door of the Winds. 

Does the Gwat here signify the winds of the Makran coast or a rather forgotten reference to the Gwats who infest the darkness in Makran? Who knows, I certainly don’t.