[Personal diaries and notes of Komal Kothari]

This is a diary containing notes and personal writings of Komal Kothari. A large section of the diary is dedicated to research notes on Bhopas, posession rituals and rituals related to death and grief including details of shrines, pre-fieldwork notes on posession and ancestral worship, and documentation of actual incidents of transformation of dead ancestors into deities in the regional myhtology. This section also contains notes on spirit posession in a rural area of North India by Morris E Opler. The second half of the diary contains transcription of songs, Kathas and storylines of regional epics. These include the story of Rani Bhatiyani heard from Pempa and Sakar Khan, narratives and songs from the Daval tradition, Ratijaga ke geet from the Kamar community and the storyline of Bagrawat as heard in Chawandiya village. The diary also documents visits to shrines like Pabuji ro Than in Barwalo near Budsu and Kesariya Kunwar Singh ji ka Than at Biraj village. Custodial history: Collection of Komal Kothari, housed at Rupayan Sansthan. Administrative context: Personal Diaries and Notes. Extent and format of original material: Diary has 158 pages, Notepad contains 7 pages of which 3 are loose pages. Of these pages 92 are handwritten while rest of the pages are blank. Physical characteristics: Diary is in Red synthetic jacket. The jacket has three folds, first two incorporates a diary, while the third portion inculdes a notepad. Interior part of jacket is of light brown colour with light textures. This interior part is used as the front cover of the diary. Diary is softbound book. Its pages has turned yellow and has stains in first few pages. Three loose pages of the notepads were kept inside the diary. Owner(s) of original material: Komal Kothari. Author(s) of original material: Komal Kothari.