In Bhāgavatapurāṇa (Bhagavatapurana), after the slaying of Putanā (Putana), mother Yośomatī (Yasomati)uttered rakṣāmantra (rakshamantra; protective hymns) as a benediction for her child, considering Putanā as an evil spirit. She also uttered hymns for the exorcism of ghosts and Piśāca(s)(Pisacha; a kind of deadbody-eating ghostly being). Among these evil deities, the order of evil deities called Apasmāra (Apasmara) has been referred to in plural form. In Āyurvedic(Ayurvedic)conception, Apasmāra is a kind of epilepsi, which may be expressed through fainting or unconsciousness. According to Suśruta (Susruta)and Caraka (Charaka), when our dhamanī(s) (dhamani; artery)that carry on our impulse of consciousness, get affected with the attributes of rajaḥ and tamas, there may come different kinds of mental disorder. This may be symptomatised by convulsion, reddening of eyes, excessive concentration of the brows, hallucinating objects that do not exist, chattering of teeth, vomiting, and falling down with a noise — and the like. As per medical texts, this was Apasmāra — which the lay-people could not understand, and therefore, used to consider as possession by evil spirits. In Purāṇa (Purana; Mythological Scripture), this abnormality or disease is conceptualised as one’s being possessed by ghosts —
unmādā je’pasmārā deha-prāṇendriyadruhaḥ.
On the other hand, our aesthetic theorists — from Sage Bhrata to Rūpagosvāmī (Rupagoswami) to Paṇḍitarāja Jagannātha (Panditaraja Jagannatha), have described this ‘Apasmāra’ as an extremely passionate mental state of the nāyaka (nayaka; male protagonist) or nāyika (nayika; female protagonist), affected by love. Such lovelorn or aesthetic cases of mental disorder are characterised by a temporary lack of consciousness or loss of memory.