Abstract
Ritual healing has been one of the core topics in anthropology and, to a lesser extent, in psychology as well. Much of the research on ritual healing has focused on how healing works, and what factors constitute the efficacy of healing. In answering this question, scholars have focused primarily on two main factors—the symbolic significance of rituals, and the relationship between the healer and the patient. This paper explores understandings about efficacy in a context where elaborate rituals do not occur, the role of the healer is minimal, and the sufferers do not have expectations of complete wellness. In the Mahanubhav temples in India, healing is not understood as the removal of symptoms. The healing process involves amplifying unpleasant and painful symptoms, thereby ‘drawing out’ the illness from the body. Moreover, the temple narratives emphasize the transient nature of temple healing, where people rarely become completely well. They therefore frequently return to stay in the temple as and when their symptoms recur, thus forging long-term bond with the temple community and sect. These findings suggest that temple healing is powerful not so much for the practice of specific exorcist rituals, but for providing a refuge and a community for suffering individuals.
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Notes
Sax (2010) elaborates that scholars often employ the analytic category of ‘ritual’ to designate behaviours that are non-rational, merely formal, and therefore, ineffective: “We do not refer to driving an automobile or playing football or taking an examination as a ‘ritual’, even though all of these activities involve highly formal, rule-bound behaviour—we only call actions ‘rituals’ when we do not understand the relation between means and ends, when they do not match our criteria of rationality, or better yet, when they do not correspond to our criteria of efficacy.” (Sax 2010, p. 7).
In a paper titled ‘Why do indigenous practitioners successfully heal?’ Kleinman and Sung (1979) ask: “Is indigenous healing effective? And if so, how? What role do cultural factors play in bringing about that efficacy? how does the efficacy of indigenous healing compare with that of professional clinical care? what does that comparison tell us about the nature of the healing process?” (Kleinman and Sung 1979, p. 7).
While not in the context of a residential healing shrine, Flueckiger’s (2006) study of a Muslim woman healer in the city of Hyderabad in southern India also emphasized the variations and flexibility of ‘vernacular’ Islam, as practised and lived locally.
According to Raeside’s (1976) account, Chakradhar, known as Haripaldev, was the son of Vishaldev, a Gujarati Brahmin minister from Bharuch. Haripaldev died at an early age but his body was reanimated by the soul of Chang Dev Raul, the third avatar (incarnation) of Parameshwar. He later became the disciple of Gundam Raul (Govindaprabhu), the fourth incarnation of God. The early Mahanubhav texts describe the next 12 years of his life as a phase of seclusion, called ekanku, during which he travelled in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. This was followed by a phase of pilgrimage, during which he travelled and preached his doctrine, acquiring many disciples. Minute details are given about his travels, including the names of all the villages where he stopped, the number of days he stayed in any one place, and so on. Chakradhar’s open opposition to the Brahmin orthodoxy earned him the hatred of the Brahman ministers of the king, Ramdevraja Yadava. He was eventually arrested and beheaded. His death is estimated to have occurred in a.d. 1274. After Chakradhar’s death, the followers gathered around Gundam Raul, till his death. When he died, the leadership of the sect was taken over by an ardent devotee of Chakradhar, Nagadev. After Nagdev’s death, the sect became a scriptural tradition, where devotees basically followed the sacred texts rather than any person or guru.
These rituals of circumambulating and ‘massaging’ the deity also indicate that despite their initial heterodoxy, the Mahanubhav sect gradually became ritualized, like any other Hindu sect.
Just to give one example, the Bagwathy temple in Chottanikkara, Kerala, is marked by elaborate rituals of exorcism. See Halliburton (2009) for a detailed description.
Importantly, even among those pilgrims who were not themselves followers, they usually had a family member from the natal or the marital family who was a follower of the sect, thus providing them with a link to the sect.
All the names and initials used in this paper are pseudonyms, in order to protect the identity of the informants.
Sulochana’s case also illustrates that ‘possession’ was not only understood as an illness afflicting a particular individual; rather, it was seen as related to dukkha or suffering of family members as well. Possession, thus, becomes a way of making sense of any kind of suffering in life, be it related to bodily experiences, economic problems, family conflicts, or any other difficult life experiences. The Mahanubhav temples, thus, do not only address illnesses, but also difficult life situations. This explains why the term dukkha is used by pilgrims: it elucidates the understanding of possession in terms of ‘suffering’, and not just in terms of ‘illness’.
Seva and smaran are important worship activities that people are expected to participate in at the temple. Seva refers to actions of ‘service’ towards the deity, illustrated by the act of pressing the ota (symbolizing them massaging the feet of the deity) or by sweeping the temple premises. Smaran refers to devotional worship by repeating the name of God.
Sunanda here used the phrase “devala aplya dukkha samajhta” which literally translates as “God understands our suffering.” Many participants used this phrase to refer to the process of the illness being correctly identified and drawn out from the person.
Some scholars have interpreted the trance as analogous to a “text” that is “read” by sufferers and their family members. In her study of the Mira Datar dargah in Unava (Gujarat), Pfleiderer (1988) analysed the ritual process as a “semiotic enterprise” (Pfleiderer 1988, p. 423) of interpreting various signs and symbols (e.g. symptoms and dreams) involved in the manifestation of possession. In the Mahanubhav temples too, the trance works as the main sign of affliction. However, I have focussed less on the symbolic structure of the ritual process and more on the meanings of trance as articulated by pilgrims and monks. In this sense, my approach differs considerably from that of Pfleiderer.
These include, for instance, the Balaji temple in Mehndipur, in the state of Rajasthan, north India, as well as sufi dargahs such as the Mira Datar dargah in Unava, a small village in the state of Gujarat in western India. In both the Mahanubhav temples and the Mira Datar dargah, the recommended ritual period of stay is forty days.
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Acknowledgments
This research would not have been possible without the warm hospitality of the pilgrims and monks in the Mahanubhav temples who participated in the study. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 22nd European Conference on South Asian Studies in Lisbon, Portugal and at the Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies in Hyderabad, India. I would especially like to thank Murphy Halliburton for the extremely helpful comments and suggestions. Finally, the comments of the two anonymous reviewers have substantially enriched the paper. Their close reading and specific suggestions have enabled me to refine the arguments presented. The research was supported by a doctoral fellowship from the University Grants Commission.
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Ranganathan, S. Rethinking ‘Efficacy’: Ritual Healing and Trance in the Mahanubhav Shrines in India. Cult Med Psychiatry 39, 361–379 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-014-9421-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-014-9421-8