The Life of Hinduism

(Barré) #1

164. performance


The person possessed is called the savari, “vehicle” (as in “she is the vehicle of
Kali”); savarihere designates the woman whom the Goddess, having assumed a par-
ticular form, rides on or inhabits and through whom she speaks. Savarialso used to
describe the Goddess herself: she is savarirup, “ [one who has a] vehicle form,”
again referring to her action of “riding” or “mounting” a possessed person.
In reading about South Asia, one often gets the impression that possession, along
with related ecstatic behavior, belongs to the “little tradition” and is thus largely
confined to the lower castes and the poor and uneducated in rural areas. However,
in my experience, the phenomenon of possession in the cult ofFerajvaliis wide-
spread throughout the population. I have witnessed Goddess possession in both vil-
lage and urban settings, among low and high castes (including Brahmins), the poor
and the rich, the uneducated and the educated, Sikhs as well as Hindus. As far as
gender is concerned, possession by the Goddess, though occurring in both sexes, is
more frequent among women, while possession by a male deity such as BabaBalak
Nath is more common among men. At the same time, possession experiences vary
considerably in their intensity, duration, and frequency. The degree of recognition,
respect, and encouragement given to possession vehicles by other members of so-
ciety is similarly quite variable.
Unplanned, uncontrolled possession occasionally occurs in a nonritual context.
Although I have not directly observed this type of possession, I have heard reports
of young girls “playing” for hours on end without warning. Such descriptions typ-
ically form part of the hagiographies of women who later achieved some control and
regularity over their possession and have come to understand it in terms of the the-
ology and religious practice of devotion to Devi. At the time of the initial possession,
however, neither the vehicle nor others may have recognized (or accepted) that the
possessing deity was the Goddess. Family members and others often suspect sorcery,
insanity, or possession by a malevolent spirit, since these all exhibit similar symptoms.
Unplanned, uncontrolled possession may occur in devotees who participate in
ritual activities such as a jagrata, devotional singing, or pilgrimage. While the music
is playing and the drums beating, someone may spontaneously start to shake, roll
the head, or dance, as I described in the opening vignette of this essay. No one seems
unduly surprised or disturbed when this happens, and in many cases it remains an
isolated event in the person’s life. However, such spontaneous possession experi-
ences do sometimes occur repeatedly, developing into a periodic pattern that be-
comes a planned part of the person’s devotional and spiritual practice. I came across
an example of this development while interviewing a man of the Kayasth caste from
Chandigarh who was on a group pilgrimage to the major Devitemples. In a dis-

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