shrine conducting its own pu ̄jarites on the enshrined images. These are usually
carried out by its own shrine priests, including the ecstatic oracles dedicated to
each god, though for the higher castes, a Brahman or other priest of the temple-
servant castes may be brought in for special pu ̄jas as well. In any case, only these
priests will be allowed inside the shrine-rooms to handle and minister to the
images, and these rites are closely modeled on the tantric or A ̄gamic worship
common to Kerala and south India generally (Davis 1991, Diehl 1956).
Often there are relations of traditional hierarchical subordination of the
castes sponsoring a teyya ̄t.t.amto one or more higher castes in the vicinity. In that
case the teyyamfestival is inaugurated by lamps in the teyyamshrine being lit
with a flame brought by shrine priests from the temple that is associated with
these higher castes. Thus the social hierarchy is mirrored in the divine energy
of the gods flowing down the chain of authority, from the temple gods to the
teyyamshrine through the medium of the flame. In any case, however, it is
the flame used in worship of the teyyamshrine’s images that will be passed out
by the priests, (and through insulating intermediaries in the case of higher caste
priests) to the teyyamperformers. This represents the actual spiritual energy or
power (caitanyamors ́akti) of the enshrined images being transferred to the
lower-caste dancers. As we shall see below, the ritual elaborations that this trans-
fer takes are significant.
The Rituals of Worship and Possession
Once the particular performers from the families entitled to perform a particu-
lar shrine’s gods have been appointed for that year’s festival, they will each
approach the shrine in a fixed order during their inaugural rites. Each separate
performing caste will have their own caste-segregated make-up rooms where
they will take up residence for the duration of the festival, which may run from
one or several days to an entire week. The gods are performed in a traditionally
stipulated order for each shrine, each in a preliminary and more simply cos-
tumed form on the first night, to be followed on the next or subsequent days with
the more highly elaborated and individuated full-teyyamcostume.
There are actually two generic kinds of these preliminary forms, and every
teyyamgod will have one or the other form exclusively associated with it. The
simpler of the two forms is called to ̄r
̄
r
̄am, which is also the name for the teyyam
songs generally, and consists only of a special red waist-cloth, a vertically rising
frontlet tied across the brow, belled anklets and various other ornaments and
jewelry. The more complex form, the vel.l.a ̄t.t.am, has warrior-style pleated waist-
cloths and leggings, a wooden waist-piece, a winged wooden crown, and a crude
but standardized pattern of facial and body make-up.
The various gods all have the same basic costume and appearance in the to ̄r
̄
r
̄am
orvel.l.a ̄t.t.amphase, whereas the fuller teyyamform, donned later by the same
consecrated performer for that deity, is highly differentiated and individuated,
the teyyam tradition of kerala 313