cooling mudpacks: the aesthetic quality of therapy 187
goals of allopathy and ayurveda. Th ese comments, which introduced this study,
merit revisiting:
In the case of allopathic doctors, after asking two or three questions, they will
know which medicine to prescribe. But ayurvedic doctors, they want to take the
patient to another level. At that level, things are very diff erent. Right now I am
taking treatment for mental illness. For this illness, there is a painful method. It
is giving “shocks.” After going there and coming here [referring to allopathy and
ayurveda], I feel this is better.[.. .]Th ere might be some good aspects in allopathy when one looks at its research
and other things, but if we want to get good kulirmma [coolness/satisfac-
tion], if we want to reach a nalla lakshyam [good goal]... Right now, speaking
about our life, what is it? If I have a fever, I must get better [literally: “must get
changed”—māranam]. For what? To go for work the next day. Get a cold, get
changed [māranam] in order to go to school the next day. Th is is the level at
which we maintain our health. But if we have a supreme aim in life, ayurveda
will help us attain it.According to Ajit, ayurveda helps one to attain a “supreme aim,” and as
with Lakshmi, this involves a transformation rather than a simple removal
of a problem. Ajit’s views affi rm Alter’s (1999) claim, based on his reading of
ayurvedic textual sources, that ayurvedic therapy aims at continual improve-
ment of well-being, not just the resolution of problems of ill health.
In this excerpt, Ajit explains that a patient pursues māranam (“change,” a
form of the verb māruka), a goal that is more modest than the sense of eradi-
cation or return to normalcy in the allopathic concept of curing although it
can also be seen as portending the larger, positive transformation Ajit says is
possible. Some form of the verb māruka (to change) was used by many inform-
ants, including Kuttappan’s wife above, to describe what was accomplished
in healing. In a further attempt to explain her experience at Chottanikkara,
Lakshmi added, “After some time, when we sat there, it felt like something was
leaving from our body. It changed (māri) all our uneasiness. We were changing
(mārukayayirunnu) in our selves.” Here Lakshmi depicts her transformation
during her fi rst collective prayer experiences.
Th e uses of māruka/change can thus range from a description of incremen-
tal improvement to designating something like a “cure” (in labeling a more
complete remission of illness) to indicating a more transcendent experience.
In the excerpt above, Ajit adapts māranam to refer to a quick repair in order
to be able to go to work or school the next day. Th is, he laments, is how we