[1][2][3] As a group, they were well known in northern India, and were often represented by balls of clay.
[4][5] Phul Mata was specifically associated with typhoid fever.
[6] Phul Mata is mentioned in epic and Puranic Hindu literature.
[7] She may have originally been perceived as a shakti, a personification of divine power, but in Hinduism gradually became associated with evil intent and illness.
She was said to inflict sickness on children under seven years of age.