76 chapter
possessed or have mental problems, some smaller temples engage in healing
practices that resemble those at Chottanikkara.
A small temple in the neighborhood where I lived in Trivandrum held an
annual ceremony during which possessed people pounded nails into a tree just
as the affl icted do at Chottanikkara. At this temple, the priest also became
possessed by the goddess (Amma, Devi)—a fortuitous, auspicious type of
possession—and advised people about how to overcome their illnesses or other
troubles. Nabokov (2000) investigated the practices of similar healers, known
as cāmis, in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. Just like the neighborhood
priest in Trivandrum, the typical Tamil cāmi would beat drums, sing praises
and use other means to induce “states of trance so as to forecast people’s futures
and diagnose their sicknesses. Furthermore, he [referring to a particular cāmi]
could exorcise the evil spirits that had ‘caught’ them” (19). Th e cāmi, or the
goddess speaking via the entranced cāmi, would also give personal advice to
the affl icted, usually oriented toward convincing the affl icted to conform to the
norms of behavior in Tamil society (43). Possession rituals at Chottanikkara,
on the other hand, were not so personalized. Rather, affl icted supplicants at
Chottanikkara performed pujas and possession rituals as a group, though par-
ticular possessees and spirits might demand more ritual attention than oth-
ers. Temple priests did not appear to ever advise individual supplicants about
how to transcend their problems, yet other devotees, such as Rajan the for-
merly possessed lodge assistant, became acquainted with and encouraged the
affl icted in their eff orts to overcome their problems.
Whether one visits a local temple or undertakes a longer journey to
Chottanikkara depends on the severity of the problem and how much time
and money one is able to spend. Th e temple in my neighborhood was patron-
ized by working-class and poor people, many of whom likely would not be
able to aff ord to travel to and pay for lodging at Chottanikkara, which was
four hours away by train. Th ere were, however, a few indigent supplicants at
Chottanikkara who had found a way there and were sleeping outside near
the temple grounds and lodge, and some working class families stayed in the
lodge.
Beemapalli Mosque, Where Ummachi is Buried
At Chottanikkara, the mentally affl icted appeal to the goddess in the form of
Amma, Devi and Kali while at Beemapalli mosque the ill invoke the name of
Ummachi, the female saint who is interred at the mosque. Beemapalli mosque
is located in the city of Trivandrum in southern Kerala in a predominantly
Muslim neighborhood of the same name. When my assistant Biju or Kavitha