This is an ancient Vetala deity worshipped in Goa at the village of Loliem, who is over 8 feet tall. Vetala are a type of mystical ghostly species of beings. A famous example of them occurs in the book Kathasaritsagara, in which a king tries to capture a Vetala, but each time the Vetala tells him a story with a riddle at the end. This occurs 25 times, and those 25 stories are the basis of much of the world’s folklore (Arabian nights, Panchatantra, etc.).
Kathasaritsagara is originally based on a lost epic called Brihatkatha. Brihatkatha was written in the Paishachi langauge (language of ghosts) which is no longer known on Earth, but was known by some people in the Dvapara yuga.
There is a cult of Vetala worship in the villages of Goa. As you go further south and enter Karnataka it changes to Bhuta worship. When you enter Tamil Nadu, it becomes worship of people such as Ayyanar, Muneeswaran and Karuppaswami.
In the Mahabharata it is mentioned that Vidura would speak in Paishachi language when he didn’t want others to know what he was saying. So even in those days it was a rare language to understand. Who can know the language of the ghosts and talk with them? It is a great thing.
In the western world people may ask the question do ghosts exist or not, but in ancient India not only did they know they existed, they also spoke their language and interacted with them.
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