ABSTRACT
So far I have examined beliefs about supernaturals, different types of mystical attack, issues concerning vulnerability and other related themes, as well as exorcist ritual to which affliction is thought to be amenable. Priests and magico-religious curers, whose help is often sought when illness or misfortune strikes a person, however, have only been given brief mention. This chapter, therefore, focuses on the work of these specialists. With reference particularly to the practices of a senior shrine functionary and a celebrated curer in Mehndipur, I analyse the distinctive (though overlapping) roles that priests and healers play. It is argued that these religious specialists are complementary in two important interrelated ways: (1) in the sense that each of them offers different, non-competitive services to pilgrims – services seen by many pilgrims and practitioners as mutually beneficial to those who are afflicted by spirits or other malevolent supernaturals; and (2) in a hierarchical sense. With regard to the latter, I am broadly in agreement with Parry (1994) who, synthesising the work of Dumont and Pocock (1957, 1959) with the work of Marriott (1955b) and Srinivas (1965), emphasises that the relationship between Hindu priests and healers is a fundamentally asymmetrical one. Like Parry, whose observations of priests and exorcists in Banaras partly resemble my own observations of these practitioners in Mehndipur, I contend that the priest is pre-eminent, that his practices are ritually superior to those of the healer – a relationship of asymmetry that is rooted in common sense understandings at the pilgrimage centre and one that shapes the logic of ritual practice itself.
