[1][3] Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the Colorado State University[4]) notes that Bhaironji is seen as "a pan–Indian boss of the underworld".
[3] Snodgrass states that upon the birth of a male child, the Bhats in India offer "gifts" to Bhaironji, especially a ritual sacrifice of goat.
He relates this practice to Sanskritisation and observes, Specifically, they sacrifice a goat, extract its stomach, slice it open so that it forms a gaping slit, and pass their wailing newborn through the dripping opening seven times.
This ritual, which I interpret as a symbolic child sacrifice, would seem to exemplify ‘Sanskritisation’—the low caste copying of elite life‐styles—in the way Bhats imitate dominant Hindu ideals implicit to a kingly tradition of blood sacrifice.
...this feast is unique in the way that Bhats simultaneously mimic and appropriate, subvert and contest, as well as rework and combine ritual traditions associated with both kings and priests.