This incident belongs to a time when the terror of ghosts known as Bhut–Petni was at its peak in Tripura. It is said that these Bhut–Petni often settled in abandoned houses, staying there in groups of 20–30. And if they ever saw a human, they would immediately attack them.
In those days, people in Tripura mostly built their houses in the hills.
The population was very less, so homes were located far away from one another.
One day, a man around 30–35 years old was returning home from the market.
The road was very long and his house was quite far, because of which he got very late while returning.
Complete darkness had already spread across the night.
There was a long and proper road available, but due to exhaustion and delay, he chose a shorter shortcut route that passed through a forested area.
While walking, it became past midnight.
During the journey, he noticed an old, abandoned house.
He thought to himself,
“Let me light a fire here and spend the night.”
But there was fear in his heart.
So instead of staying inside, he climbed up and slept on the bamboo loft above the house.
As the night grew deeper, suddenly small and big ghosts—green, yellow, and blue in color—started entering the house.
These ghosts were known as Bhut–Petni.
Seeing this, the man was shocked.
He noticed that all the ghosts lay down and slept freely, stretching their arms and legs.
The man was brave.
He quietly began listening to their conversation.
That’s when he found out that all these ghosts were extremely afraid of something called “Dunu Duduru Du.”
One ghost said,
“Brother, I am very scared of Dunu Duduru Du.”
And the other ghosts nodded in agreement, saying,
“Yes, yes, we are also very afraid of Dunu Duduru Du.”
The man himself had no idea what this Dunu Duduru Du was - whether it was an animal, a demon, a god, or just a name.
But only one thought was running through his mind-
how to escape from these ghosts.
He looked around and found a ripe bottle gourd that had dried and become hollow from inside.
Suddenly, an idea struck him.
He thought,
“What if I make the sound of Dunu Duduru Du using this hollow gourd?”
Then the man blew into the dried gourd like a conch shell, creating a strange and terrifying sound-
exactly like the sound of Dunu Duduru Du.
And then, exactly what he had imagined happened…
The moment the ghosts heard the sound, they thought Dunu Duduru Du had arrived and started running away in fear.
They were so terrified that they lost all sense of their own bodies.
Someone placed a blue ghost’s leg on a green one,
someone placed a small ghost’s hand on a bigger one
and in complete chaos, all of them ran deep into the forest.
After the ghosts fled, the man came down, lit a fire,
and then went back up to the bamboo loft and slept peacefully.
At dawn, he returned home using the main road.
It is said that in those days, if Bhut-Petni did not find any abandoned house to stay in, they would reside at crossroads and attack people passing by.
Even today, many people claim to have seen these ghosts in different places.
But why these ghosts attack humans and with what intention, remains a deep mystery till this day.
