Abstract
This article examines how deities are known, experienced, and made present in small-scale, domestic divination and healing rituals in Garhwal, a region in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand. While possessed by local gods and goddesses during these rituals, ritual specialists known as bakkyās diagnose and treat individual clients suffering from social, psychological, or bodily afflictions by offering sthān (place) to, or making sthān for, divinities. Through a detailed ethnographic description of a healing ritual in which the author participated, the article traces acts of ritual “place-making,” including moments when space is made for a deity, a deity is transported from one location to another, and a deity is emplaced, that is, limited or contained in specific ways. Place-making is thus both literal, in the sense of making a divinity present in a material site such as a home or temple, and metaphorical, in that it signifies a long-term, reciprocal commitment between a divinity and a worshiper, in which both make place for each other in their lives. By showing how person, place, and divinity are brought together in ritual interactions, the article contributes to possession studies, the anthropology of space and place, and the study of ritual performance traditions in North India.
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Jassal, A.S. Making God Present: Place-Making and Ritual Healing in North India. Hindu Studies 21, 141–164 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-017-9208-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-017-9208-y