“In tamsaskum hasanatun tasu hum wa-in tusibkum sayyi-atun yafrahoo biha wa-in tasbiroo
watattaqoo la yadurrukum kayduhum shay-an inna Allaha bima yaAAmaloona muheetun” (Aal `Imraan 3:120)
“If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and fear Allah, their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do.”
Since time immemorial, the concept of the ‘evil eye’ has flourished across cultures of the world. Whether it is the ‘buri nazar’ in the Indian context or the Eye of Balor from Irish folk tales, manifestations of the evil eye are omnipresent. The origins of such beliefs can be traced back to about three thousand years ago . Essentially, the conception of the evil eye is understood as a look that is given to inflict harm or danger upon someone. This can be more clearly understood through the concept of human auras.
It is believed that all human beings have an aura or energy. Some humans have a positive aura and exude happiness, warmth and optimism. At the same time, there are people with negative aura emanating disillusionment and discontentment. It is usually believed that chance encounters with people with negative auras saps a person off her/his energies and leaves them disempowered. Therefore, in layman’s terms,the evil eye can be described as the force that takes away one’s 
positive energies. At the same time, it is recognized that anyone can possess the evil eye transiently. This follows envy, or even adoration, of something pretty or beautiful.
In Varanasi’s Kal-Bhairav Temple, priests who are famous for performing jhaadna or jharra (dusting) using black fly whisks made of horse tail or peacock feathers, surround the main shrine. This is believed to be a tried and tested way of warding off malevolent spirits of any kind. We find similar manifestations of the evil eye in the concept of ‘jhaaki darshan’. Jhaaki darshan is widely practiced across temples in India, most prominently in the Nathdvara temple of Srinathji. The idea behind this is to protect the ‘God’ from the adoring drishti of his devotees. Similarly, in Islam, it is promulgated that upon beholding something pleasing, one should try to recount Allah’s glorification by saying Mashallah (“Allah is Blessed!” or “May Allah bless you!”), etc.
The concept of the evil eye is so deeply rooted in Indian culture, that safeguards are taken even in daily communication. This is most evident in how complimenting or expressing adoration for someone is seen as ‘evil’, despite purest intentions. Other precautionary measures from ‘drishti dosha’ include nazar-ka-tika or black dot put prominently, bathing in rock salt, black thread tied around one’s arm or placing a bundle of lemon and chilies. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti calls for the usage of Raja-Tama-predominant vibrations to negate the effects of negative energies. Interestingly enough, there is a legend associated with the practice of using lemon and chilies to ward off evil eye. In Hinduism, Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity and Alakshmi (Lakshmi’s sister) is a harbinger of poverty and failure. Alakshmi loves sour and hot things. Therefore, people tie bundles of lemon and chilies and leave them outside their doors. It is believed that after consuming lemon and green chilies, Alakshmi loses her urge to enter the house or shop. She will, therefore, turn around without casting her malevolent eye. In Islam, we find recommendations of several chants and prayers to protect one from nazar. One such chant is: Bismiiiahi yubrika min kulli daa’in yushfika wa min sharre haasidin iza hasada wa min shrri kull zee ‘an. (In the name of Allah, He will heal you, from any illness He will cure you, from the evil of the jealous when he gets jealous, and from the evil of a person with an evil eye.)
Manifestations of the concept of evil eye are also found in the West. Ancient Greek and Roman texts along with the Holy Bible deal in portions with the evil eye. Proverbs 28:22 in The Bible ordain, “A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth and does not know that want will come upon him”. In Egypt, the Eye of Horus or Wadjet is seen as an important mechanism of protecting oneself from the malevolent eye. Pharaonic culture also includes protection of the Pharaoh (from the evil eye) by Uraeus (rearing cobra) placed on the Pharaoh’s headdress. It protects the Pharaoh by ‘spitting fire on his enemies’. In modern day Turkey, the blue ‘Nazar’ amulet is sold in every market.
In Italy, the evil eye is referred to as ‘mal’occhio’. ‘Anti–mal’occhio’ rituals are commonplace even today in the daily culture of the Italian people. The “anti mal’occhio” ritual is always performed by an older person, with the confidence that after their words, one would be fine. Amulets such as that of a horn, ‘cornetto’ or hunchbacked man are also popularly used in the Italian culture to ward off evil spirits. Ancient Romans used phallic images to ward off the same. Irish legends speak of the evil eye of Balor (the giant with a large eye on his forehead that wreaks destruction when opened). One legend tells that when Balor was slain, his eye was still open when he fell face first into the ground. Thus, the deadly eye burned a hole into the earth. Later, the hole filled with water and became a lake, now known as Loch na Súil, or “Lake of the Eye”, in County Sligo. Eye of Balor inspired the concept of Petrification glance (Stone glance) of Medusa and Gorgon in Greek legends. It also inspired the concept of the Eye of Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
The practice of Halloween is also rooted in the concept of the evil eye. Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France. Samhain marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before November 1 (New Year), the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain to ward off the presence of the otherworldly spirits and their evil eye. Since this was a society entirely dependent on nature, these practices were an important source of comfort and direction during the long winters.
The concept of cursing by staring or gazing is largely absent in most of the East Asian and Southeast Asian societies, except Philippines where we are introduced to the concept of Usog. The concept implies that an affliction or psychological disorder is attributed to a greeting by a stranger, or an evil eye hex. In some areas, it is said that the condition is also caused by the stranger having an evil eye or masamang mata. In China, we find presence of this concept in few areas, most 
prominently Hong Kong. Here, we find the Villain Hitting Ladies who curse people or dispel bad luck for a small fee. The cursing procedure includes a number of activities, one of them being the worship of a paper cutout of the ‘White Tiger’ and presenting it with an offering.
Time and again, there have been many attempts to justify and explain the effects of evil eye through scientific experiments. For a long time, consciousness of another person’s stare was seen as common, but without any physiological basis in Western science. Therefore, it was maintained that evil eye beliefs cannot be based on anything other than superstition. However, after observing electromagnetic field of the brain, scientists now confidently talk about ocular extramission (or transmission of electromagnetic waves from the eye). After initial electrophysiological experiments, scientists were able to prove that human ocular extramission can be detected at short range in an electromagnetically insulated environment using a high-impedance electrode. The results of the recordings demonstrate that an electromagnetic signal emerges from the eyes, and that in some frequency ranges it has greater amplitude than the field emerging through the skull. This is, however, just one experiment and several experiments need to be conducted to ascertain it as a fact. English parapyschologist Rupert Sheldrake proposed that these unmeasured fields of electromagnetic waves underlie and provide the mechanism for the sense of being stared at and other phenomena regarded as paranormal, such as mental telepathy and clairvoyance. For human extramission to be detectable by a human target, the signal must travel at least ten if not hundreds of meters in the natural environment.
Over time, we have gradually seen the dismissal of the concept of evil eye as merely a superstition. The decay of evil eye beliefs can be attributed to people’s emigration to an urban culture, where extramission sinks below threshold level in the electromagnetically polluted environment of a big city. This possibility does not exclude the causal influence of cultural forces in decay of evil eye beliefs. It is tempting to view the evil eye as an ancient, discredited belief that plays no role in our 21st-century world. Whether the concept itself has undergone a transformation over many years. Whether it still persists in the contemporary scenario is still a matter to be seen.
Author : Ushni Dasgupta
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