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Accepted Paper:

Healing words: exploring the uses of ritual texts during healing ceremonies in the Garhwal Himalayas, North India  
Karin Polit (University of Tuebingen)

Paper short abstract:

Taking into account new developments in performance studies, critical medical anthropology, and rituals studies, this paper shall explore how sacred texts, spoken in the context of ritual healing events in the Garhwal Himalayas take part in unfolding the performative power of these rituals.

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to explore the usage of texts in ritual healing practices in the Garhwal Himalayas, North India. Typically healers, who are either from a high Brahmin caste or from the lowest castes, read from small handwritten scripts during oracular sessions and healing rituals. Often, the texts are in Sanskrit or in another language, like Bengali, and are spoken in high speed. Patients and other participants of the rituals do not expect to understand what is being said or read during the rituals, and the ritual practitioners do not think it important that a patient grasps the meaning of the words spoken. Instead, the texts themselves and the sounds of the words are considered important to produce a healing effect. Together with other techniques employed, they are part of the performance of healing. In my analysis I will therefore pay attention not to the content of ritual texts in use but to the way people relate to the books and the texts employed during ritual healing practices attempting to shed light to their performative efficacy.

Panel P01
Ritual and the practice of texts in South Asia
  Session 1