placement of the crown, the performer is led from the make-up room before the
shrine, where he usually sits on a ritual stool (pı ̄t.ham– again a term and concept
of tantric significance), for the singing of the final to ̄r
̄
r
̄amsongs. As the verses
that bring on possession are sung, the crown is fitted and tied into place, the
teyyamis handed the weapons of the deity from within the shrine, and the god’s
power is brought out as before in the form of the shrine’s flame, and reflexively
fixed and acknowledged through the dancer gazing into the mirror. Shrine offi-
cials throw rice grains over the crowned deity from within the shrine, an act of
royal and divine consecration.
With the onset of possession, the dancer begins to tremble and shake, and
finally gives way to dance. The dances (a ̄t.t.am) for which the teyya ̄t.t.amfestival is
named interweave several phases of dance proper, interspersed with various
other rites in interaction with shrine officials and worshippers. There is a gen-
erally mandatory procession of the god from the toddy-pot altar, led by a priest
of the toddy-tapper (Tı ̄yya) caste carrying the colorfully decked toddy-pot on his
head, accompanied by attendants with chowries, canopies, and tasseled orna-
mental umbrellas. At various points there are rites that, like the initial receipt of
the shrine’s weapons and flame, periodically recharge or reconfirm the flow of
divine power to the teyyam. Such transfers of symbolic media with the priests
inside the shrine-room include rice, burning lamps, the god’s own weapons, and
other sacred insignia such as woven umbrellas. In dances with the shrine’s own
oracle-priests, this divine s ́aktimay be tangibly passed back and forth between
possessed priest and teyyam, making the recipients alternately reel or leap spas-
modically in place, or leading them into concertedly controlled joint dances of
wonderful precision and power.
At the close of the main dance phase personal interactions, first with shrine
officials, then with gathered devotees begin, the teyyamspeaking in the first-
person voice of the deity itself. Blessings are given out, contributions are
received, and disputes may be presented before the god for settlement. Addi-
tionally, there may be an extended procession of the dancer out of the shrine
compound and on a journey through the neighboring settlement to visit
worshippers’ families and other temple-sites, as the god itself. Finally, the deity
returns to its shrine and to the toddy-pot altar, where, depending on the nature
of the particular god, it may preside over a chicken sacrifice before a large caul-
dron of artificial blood (kuruti). This is alternately interpreted as a great blood
sacrifice either to the deity itself, or to the numerous ghostly hordes in its charge,
depending on the degree of Sanskritization at the shrine and among the per-
formers. After a final round of blessings before the main shrine, the dancer
removes his crown and retires to the make-up room. If this is his last dance as
the god during this festival, this final rite is accompanied with a ceremonial
return of the divine energy back out of the performer’s person and into the
custody of the shrine officials.
Where a shrine houses a number of such deities, they are sequenced over one
or more days, with repeat performances of the lesser deities on successive days,
culminating in the final and grandest performance by the principal deity of the
the teyyam tradition of kerala 317