008 | The Demons of Disease | Illness, myths, and the Spirit World
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008 | The Demons of Disease | Illness, myths, and the Spirit World
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About this listen
This episode focuses on Maha Kola Sanni Yaksha, often described as the chief of the eighteen disease demons in Sri Lankan folklore. Drawing on an 1866 journal entry from the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, we explore accounts of his origin and how he and his Yaksha retinue came to be associated with specific illnesses.
We look at how the Sanni Yakuma ritual serves as both a cultural performance and a form of healing, blending satire, community, and sensory immersion. What happens when illness is anthropomorphized? And how do ritual, belief, and medicine intersect?
Topics in this episode:
- Origin stories for the Maha Kola Sanni Yaksha
- The 18 Sanni Yaksha and their disease associations
- Changes in the yaksha list over time
- The Sanni Yakuma ritual as a healing practice
- How Christian colonialism confused our perception of “demon” and “spirit”
If the podcast resonates with you, consider following the show and sharing it with others who are interested in folklore, history, and belief systems that are shaped outside the Western canon.
For more about this podcast and its narrator, visit https://dmdealwis.com/about/.
Show notes can be found here: https://www.dmdealwis.com/008-the-yaksha-maha-kola-sanni/