Preta

Preta, प्रेत (Sanskrit) or Peta (Pāli) is the name for a type of (arguably supernatural) being described in Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and Jain texts that undergoes more than human suffering, particularly an extreme degree of hunger and thirst. They are often translated into English as "hungry ghosts", from the Chinese, which in turn is derived from later Indian sources generally followed in Mahayana Buddhism. In early sources such as the Petavatthu, they are much more varied. The descriptions below apply mainly in this narrower context.

Monier Monier-Williams Dictionary defines preta as "mfn. departed, deceased, dead, a dead person S3Br. Gr2S3rS. MBh. m. the spirit of a dead person (esp. before obsequial rites are performed), a ghost, an evil being Mn. MBh. &c. (cf. RTL. 241, 271 MWB. 219)."^[1]

Pretas are believed to have been jealous or greedy people in a previous life. As a result of their karma, they are afflicted with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpsesor feces, though in more recent stories, it can be anything, however bizarre.^[2]