cooling mudpacks: the aesthetic quality of therapy 179
deity Aiyappan. Daniel recalls being able to distinguish between the pain
in diff erent parts of his feet and the pain in his shoulders and head, distinc-
tions which are eventually replaced by a generalized feeling of pain. Finally,
through this experience the ego is obscured and replaced by what Daniel
explains as an experience of Peircean Firstness and the devotees claim is an
immediate realization of love for the deity (266–270). Such painful trials
were not expected or undertaken by people I spoke with who underwent
religious therapies at Chottanikkara, Beemapalli or Vettucaud. Perhaps this
is because they were already suff ering. Th eir primary sensory engagements
came through singing devotional songs, smelling incense, engaging visually
with a dramatic outdoor setting (recall the location of Vettucaud church on
the beach and the evocative architecture of the religious settings), praying as
the sun rises and feeling the cool stone of the temple walkways under their
bare feet. As a counterpart to Daniel’s own pain, and reward, of participating
in the Sabarimala pilgrimage, I enjoyed the aesthetic engagements I experi-
enced in visiting religious healing sites and following the mentally affl icted
through their routines.^13 Indeed, my assistants and I most preferred visiting
religious centers when we set out to conduct interviews and observations.
Th e spacious grounds and ornamental architecture of these settings provided
a visceral sense of relief from the crowded busy spaces of the Indian city that
we usually inhabited.
In a diff erent medical context in nearby Tamil Nadu, Van Hollen (2003)
shows how women in childbirth demand oxytocin drugs, which speed the
labor process but cause more painful contractions. However, these women
do not take anesthetics since they feel the pain they experience is necessary
for the proper delivery of their child. Furthermore, Tamil women derive their
sakti, a sense of power that is associated with femaleness, in part from their
“ability to suff er nobly the pain of birth” (58). Th e administration of pain-
relieving drugs would thus rob them of their sakti, and Van Hollen adds that
“some women went so far as to say that the oxytocin-induced pain increased
their sakti” (58). Th us, in the case of treatments for psychopathology in Kerala
and the medical management of childbirth in Tamil Nadu, allopathic treat-
ments are experienced as abrasive or painful. But while this experience leads
some mentally affl icted patients in Kerala to pursue other, gentler treatment
options, the experience of pain leads Tamil women to refuse (or in some cases
make a virtue of the scarcity of ) pain reducing drugs. It may be that in the
medical context, for conditions that are more fully of the body, discomfort
is more acceptable while for problems that aff ect more intangible parts of
the person, such as manas and bōdham, abrasive aesthetic experiences are less
acceptable.^14