The jagran in Chikanpada began by 10:30 at night. While the rest of the hamlet slept, the Sanad household resounded with songs and chants.
On a mat made of plastic sacks sat Kalu Jangali. He had come from the neighbouring Pangri hamlet to perform the ceremony. Many guests from the Ka Thakur Adivasi community had gathered in the front room of the brick and mud house, sitting on the floor or on plastic chairs. They had come to participate in the jagran - an all-night prayer ceremony to honour Vani Devi - by singing devotional songs.
In the centre of the room, the items for the puja, presided over by 50-year-old Kalu, included rice grains, a coconut placed on a copper vessel covered with a red cloth (locally called ormal) and incense sticks.
"This ceremony is performed as the final stage, when the bhagat's medicines have had an effect on the patient and also to ward off the evil eye," said Jaitya Digha, a bhagat, a traditional healer, from Chikanpada, who was accompanying Kalu.