


Types of ghosts and other supernatural entities Non-human animals can also turn into ghosts after their death. In Bengal, ghosts are believed to be the unsatisfied spirits of human beings who cannot find peace after death or the souls of people who died in unnatural or abnormal circumstances like murders, suicides or accidents. Also, the word Pret (derived from Sanskrit 'Preta') is used in Bengali to mean ghost. This word has an alternative meaning: 'past' in Bengali. The common word for ghosts in Bengali is bhoot or bhut ( Bengali: ভূত). There are also many alleged haunted sites in the region.

References to ghosts are often found in modern-day Bengali literature, cinema, radio and television media. Fairy tales, both old and new, often use the concept of ghosts. Ghosts are an important and integral part of the folklore of the socio-cultural fabric of the geographical and ethno-linguistic region of Bengal which presently consists of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. The depiction of a Rakkhoshi queen at the king's palace, an illustration from the classic Bengali folk-lore collection Thakurmar Jhuli (1907) by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder.
