three therapies of south india 79
Secretary Maheen claimed that a majority of the non-mentally affl icted
patients at Beemapalli are Muslim while most mentally ill people at the
mosque are Hindu. Th is kind of syncretism was seen among the patient-
devotees who my research assistants and I interviewed at Beemapalli. Eight
of the affl icted persons we interviewed were Muslim, seven were Hindu
and two were Christian. It was intriguing to hear a Hindu mother who had
been living for years at Beemapalli with her possessed daughter explain,
while gesturing towards the heavens with the mosque in the background,
that her daughter will fi nd relief when Amma—the term for the female
incarnation of the divine invoked at Chottanikkara temple—wills it. Our
interviews repeatedly affi rmed that it was not so much the system of healing
or the religious ideology that was important to patients and their family;
they were primarily interested in fi nding a place that would give them some
relief and that would do so without causing much discomfort or fi nancial
hardship.
Th erapy at Beemapalli consists principally of praying, eating jasmine fl owers
and drinking water from an underground source at the mosque that is said
by devotees and mosque offi cials to have medicinal properties. Other rituals
are performed, such as reading incantations and tying talismans around the
wrist, but relief is sought chiefl y through prayer for assistance from Ummachi
and Allah/God. Healing is somewhat more esoteric, the course of ritual and
prayer determined largely by the affl icted and their families. In contrast to
the organized, group-oriented daily routines of Chottanikkara, ill people at
Beemapalli wander the mosque grounds and pray on their own.
My assistants and I asked people suff ering mental distress and their attend-
ing family members when they thought they would fi nd relief from their prob-
lems, and many answered that it is up to God or Ummachi. Some ill people and
their families pray and wait for a dream that portends recovery or improvement
in their condition. Hanifa is a 30-year-old Muslim manual laborer who had
worked in Saudi Arabia for fi ve years and was suff ering psychological prob-
lems including sleeplessness, “tension” (Hanifa used the English term) and
“running off ” (disappearing for periods of time without telling anyone). After
having been treated at an allopathic mental hospital but fi nding no change in
Hanifa’s condition, Hanifa and his wife had been coming to Beemapalli for
the last year and a half. Hanifa’s wife said her husband’s illness has improved
since they have been at Beemapalli, and when Kavitha and I asked when they
might get relief and leave the mosque, Hanifa’s wife explained:
Umma showed us in a dream. [.. .] We will dream about it and in the dream we
are given medicines, an “operation” and all. If we dream that we are going home,