102 chapter
the impression that her quietness, her shyness, is part of her normal demeanor,
but she no longer appeared tired and laconic. Since our last interview, Sreedevi
and her mother had been to the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital in
northern Kerala, and Sreedevi underwent the 45-day course of treatment
there. Th ey both felt that this experience had greatly improved Sreedevi’s con-
dition. Th e only problem Sreedevi now had, according to her mother, was that
she felt she had recovered but was bothered that healers thought she should
continue to take medicine in order to fully complete the course of treatment.
Her mother explained:
She has good “change” and all, but she says, “I have no illness at all. Why am
I continuing the medicine? Now I have no problem at all.” Now when I give
medicine, this is the reply. She spoke very little earlier. Now she is speaking very
well, going everywhere. She is doing all her work a little “better.” Th at is, after
taking the treatment.Biju: Have you experienced any improvement or decline in your present state?Mother: It is improved.Biju: Since we last spoke, what treatment have you been doing?Mother: Just this, ayurvedic treatment.Mother: [part of Sreedevi’s mother’s response is obscured by conversation
between Murphy and Biju]... Kottakkal. Even compared to here, there were
diff erences/improvements [vyatyāsam] in Kottakkal.While earlier Sreedevi’s mother used the term mātti (“changed”), here
she talks of vyatyāsam, which means “diff erence” but can also be translated as
“improvement” in the context of healing, and uses the English word “change”
to describe what was accomplished in treating her daughter.^9 We then asked
Sreedevi’s mother to describe the therapy at the GAMH:
We stayed 50 days there. Th ey gave ghee after cleansing the bowels. Ghee was
given for seven days. First, two ounces. Each day, they added an ounce, step by
step. It took one week for that, and 14 ounces were given fi nally. She did not
eat anything during that time. She did not take any food. Speaking of that, she
vomited. It was coming out from her mouth right while she was drinking. Th en
after that, after drinking ghee, then after marupatthyam [the period of rest and
simple diet between treatments], they did vasti, tailam, kshāyavasti [enemas and
medicines]. Th at for one week. After the fi rst three days, then nasyam. After