possession by durga. 167
who entered a small girl and commanded those listening to dig up an ancient image
of NainaDevithat lay buried and forgotten there.
There are various explanations as to why some people get possessed and not oth-
ers. Some say that it is solely due to the divine play of the Goddess. Others say that
it is the fruit of karma or because of a samskara (mental impression or predisposi-
tion) from a past life. Others say that it is the reward for faith and devotion to Devi.
Sometimes it runs in a family; the fakti is passed from generation to generation. Or
it can be the result of a spiritual discipline (sadhana) in which one attempts to bring
on possession as a means of identifying with the Goddess.^10 Purity is also cited as a
requirement for a suitable vehicle; she should not eat meat, drink liquor, or be un-
chaste. That is why young girls who have not yet reached the age of puberty and un-
married women are thought to be especially suitable vehicles for the Goddess.^11
Charges of chicanery, commercialism, and exploitation are not uncommon in
connection with possession, even among those who consider themselves devotees
ofFerajvali. An informant who grew up in a village near Jullunder told me that, in
his childhood, during the yearly pilgrimage to Chintpurni, fights would break out
between rival parties over whether or not a possession was legitimate. He summed
it up as follows.
When one camp undertakes a pilgrimage out of reverence, and the other for com-
mercial purposes, there is a clash. When a group holds a jagratawith commercial
intent and a girl becomes possessed (devikhelna), it is often a fake. Some groups
have several women who regularly stage these possessions. My father had a friend
with a red turban who used tests for distinguishing real possession from fake. He
would take an iron rod and prod the woman with it. An even more foolproof
method is to put a lighted incense stick under the person’s nose. If the possession
is real, she will not flinch. There was a group who used to come to Chintpurni
every year from about 1950 to 1955 who would stage possession. They would do
this every night. We did not mind it if they did it on their own, but they used to do
it in public when other jagratas were going on. Then fights would break out. Our
group would not let them have a session inside the temple, because they were using
it as a regular business. They would also have jagratas at their home and made
quite a bit of money out of this.^12People will also ask the possessed person questions in order to test her clairvoy-
ance—a mental rather than physical test. They might, for example, ask how much
money is in someone ’s pocket. A certain amount of skepticism thus exists as to the
validity of possession, at least in individual cases.