Shamanism in India is not one practice but a scattered family of regional and tribal traditions, mostly tied to specific peoples and places rather than to mainstream Hinduism: the oracle-priests of Rajasthan, the spirit mediums of the Himalayan hill villages, and the animist practices of tribal communities across the Northeast and elsewhere. None of these groups call what they do “shamanism” themselves. The word is borrowed from Siberia, and applying it to India is useful shorthand for outsiders, but it should never be mistaken for a single Indian tradition.
It is also worth saying plainly what this is not. It is not mainstream yogic or Vedantic philosophy, and it is not the spiritual tourism built up around towns like Rishikesh. Those are real and significant parts of Indian spiritual life, but they are a different phenomenon from the oracle and possession traditions described here, which mostly survive in rural, tribal and folk contexts rather than in ashrams.
| Tradition | Region | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Bhopa / Bhagat | Rajasthan | Oracle-priests possessed by folk deities, tied to the Pabuji epic and its painted phad scrolls |
| Ojha / Dev Rishi | North India, widely | Spirit mediums working with exorcism and healing |
| Jagariya | Garhwal and Kumaon hills | Oracle possession tradition close in form to Himalayan and Tibetan practice |
| Tribal animist traditions | Northeast India (Naga, Khasi and others) | Spirit mediumship and nature-spirit practice within each tribe’s own cosmology |
What is the Bhopa tradition of Rajasthan?
In Rajasthan, the bhopa, sometimes called bhagat, is an oracle-priest who becomes possessed by a folk deity to answer questions, diagnose illness and resolve disputes on the deity’s behalf. The best documented version of this tradition is tied to Pabuji, a deified local hero whose story is told through the phad, a long painted scroll unrolled scene by scene during an all-night performance. The bhopa sings the epic while his wife, the bhopi, holds a lamp to the scroll, and at points in the telling he enters trance and the deity is understood to speak directly through him. This is one of the clearest living examples in India of oracle possession woven directly into an oral epic tradition, rather than practised on its own.
Who are the ojha and dev rishi, and what do they do?
Across large parts of North India, village communities turn to figures known as ojha or dev rishi when a problem is read as spiritual rather than purely medical: an illness that will not respond to treatment, a run of bad luck, a suspicion that someone is possessed or under the influence of a malevolent spirit. The ojha works as a medium and exorcist, entering a working trance to communicate with the spirit believed responsible and to negotiate, command or remove it. This role sits closer to the European idea of the folk healer or cunning man than to the dramatic ecstatic figure most people picture when they hear the word shaman, and it survives today mostly in rural communities, often alongside, not instead of, conventional medical care.
What does shamanism look like in the Indian Himalayas?
The hill regions of Garhwal and Kumaon, along with parts of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, hold a form of oracle possession known locally through figures such as the jagariya, who works through nights of ritual (jagar) to call a deity or ancestral spirit into a chosen medium. Geography matters here. These are the same mountains that border Tibet, and the practices share real structural similarities with Tibetan and Bon oracle traditions, and more distantly with the Siberian root the word shaman itself comes from: a layered cosmology, a specialist called to the role rather than choosing it, and a trance state used specifically to let a non-human voice speak through a human body. Ladakh in particular sits at a genuine crossroads between Indian, Tibetan and Central Asian spiritual worlds, and its oracle traditions reflect that position directly.
What tribal shamanic traditions exist in Northeast India?
India’s Northeast, home to dozens of distinct tribal nations including the Naga and Khasi peoples among many others, holds its own animist traditions, each specific to its own people and cosmology rather than interchangeable with one another. Spirit mediums in these communities commonly work with ancestor spirits and nature spirits tied to a particular forest, river or mountain, and the role is usually bound up with the health and continuity of the whole community rather than practised as an individual spiritual path. Christian missionary activity reshaped much of this region from the nineteenth century onward, and many of these traditions survive today in a complex, layered relationship with Christianity rather than as an unbroken, untouched practice. That complexity deserves to be named honestly rather than smoothed over into a simple story of ancient tradition continuing unchanged.
Is it accurate to call any of this “shamanism”?
Honestly, only partly, and it is worth saying so rather than papering over it. Shaman is an Evenki word, from a Tungusic language of Siberia, built on a root meaning to know. Scholars of Indian religion generally prefer more specific terms: oracle possession, folk religion, tribal animism, spirit mediumship, each naming a particular practice rather than borrowing a word from another continent entirely. I have made the same point elsewhere about Celtic practice, where what is taught today is an honest modern reconstruction rather than an unbroken lineage, and the same honesty applies here. These Indian traditions are old, specific and genuinely their own. Calling them shamanism is a convenience for outside readers, not a claim that Rajasthan and Siberia share a single history.
What does appear to be genuinely shared, across Siberia, the Himalayas and these Indian traditions alike, is something closer to a human pattern than a borrowed one: a specialist, usually called rather than choosing the role, who enters trance so that something beyond the ordinary can speak through them for the benefit of people who did not go themselves.
If this comparative picture interests you, I have mapped the wider territory in Shamanism Was Never One Thing, and the distinction between oracle possession and the journeying I teach is explained further in core shamanism versus traditional shamanism. If you want to learn the drum-based journeying method directly, the Elements of Shamanism training is where I teach it from the beginning.
Frequently asked questions about shamanism in India
No. The oracle and possession traditions described here are tribal and regional folk practices, distinct from mainstream Hindu philosophy and temple worship, though in some areas the two exist side by side in the same communities.
A bhopa is an oracle-priest in Rajasthan who becomes possessed by a folk deity, most famously in connection with the epic of Pabuji, performed through an all-night reading of a painted scroll called a phad.
They share real structural similarities, including spirit possession through a chosen medium and a layered view of the cosmos, which makes sense given how closely the Indian Himalayas, Tibet and Ladakh border and have influenced one another.
Scholars generally prefer more specific terms such as oracle possession or tribal animism, since shaman is a borrowed Siberian word. It is useful shorthand for outside readers, not a claim of shared origin with Siberian practice.
No. The traditions covered here are rural, tribal and folk practices, mostly unconnected to the yoga and meditation tourism industry built up in towns such as Rishikesh, which draws on a different strand of Indian spiritual life entirely.
About the author. Carolin Mallmann is a shamanic practitioner and teacher and the founder of One Shamanism. She trained in Mongolian and Siberian lineages and in Core Shamanism with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and teaches practitioners internationally.
Shamanic work supports, but does not replace, medical or psychological treatment.
