Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia

4. Shared Vows, Shared Space, and Shared Deities: Vow Rituals among Tamil Catholics in South India

43 4 Shared Vows, Shared Space, and Shared Deities: Vow Rituals among Tamil Catholics in South India SELVA J. RAJ Introduction Taking vows is a popular religious activity among Tamil Catholics in rural south India. Collectively known as nerccai or nerttikkatan, vows are particularly prominent during religious festivals, pilgrimages, life-cycle celebrations , and crisis interventions. Though some scholars of Hinduism consider vows in South Asia primarily, if not exclusively, as a female devotional exercise , the nerccai rituals are gender neutral. These rituals assume a variety of forms ranging from the simple offering of money, prayer, and votive offerings such as the silver shoe, gold cradle, flour lamps, and silver or gold facsimile of body parts to the more spectacular expressions like goat or fowl sacrifices and the ceremonial “baby auction.” These various expressions serve as effective mechanisms for entering into or reaffirming a relationship with a powerful supernatural figure, such as a Catholic saint or Hindu deity. In this relationship humans can request such things as protection, fertility, healing, and general well-being. Based on field research conducted between 1990 and 2003 at three rural Catholic shrines in southeast Tamil Nadu, this chapter examines the nature and types of Tamil Catholic nerccai rituals and proposes a typology of Catholic vows. In light of this analysis, I examine the phenomenon of shared vows, shared deities, and shared space as illustrated in a select number of nerccai rituals. 44 Selva J. Raj The Catholic Nerccai System The Meaning and Nature of Nerccai In Tamil, the term nerccai denotes an offering made as part of a contractual agreement between a devotee and a saint or a sacred figure.1 It may be performed either before the boon is granted and therefore as a promise or as a thanksgiving ritual after the boon is granted, in gratitude for the fulfillment of a vow. The Catholic nerccai ritual structure is founded on a system of faith in and fidelity to a particular supernatural figure who evokes personal devotion, and is affectionately called a kula teiyvam. Individual families, villages, and even clans may share a single patron saint as their kula teiyvam whose assistance and protection are considered crucial for general well-being. Nerccai rites are thus a contractual agreement, a “deal” made between the devotee and the deity believed to be legally binding on both parties. The use of a legal promissory note (muri) to record the terms of the agreement and the ceremonial signing of the document by the devotee and the deity’s proxy in the presence of eyewitnesses emphasize this fact. While some devotees offer the promissory note to the saint, others take it home and keep it in a safe place until the vow has been granted. Then it is destroyed. Nerccai vows are thus promises made and promises kept. Until the promises are kept, the devotee feels “in-debted ” to the deity. Feelings of guilt, uneasiness, anxiety, and even fear are manifest among those who either fail or postpone the repayment of the agreement. Devotees and their extended families take great pains to ensure the proper “payment” of the debt since any violation of the terms of the contract would have negative consequences not only for the individual devotee but for the entire extended family, including the village. Thus the notion of “debt,” conveyed by the popular Tamil term nerttikkatan (katan = debt), serves as the foundational basis for the nerccai system. In most instances, however, this contractual aspect is buffered by a certain personal affection for the deity or saint. A wide variety of practical needs sustain the kula teiyvam phenomenon and the nerccai ritual system. They include agricultural success, marital stability, family unity, freedom from specific illness, and the health and general well-being of the family including cattle, fertility of the land and family members. Each nerccai is offered in the hope of maintaining conditions of health and prosperity or in the hope of gaining a remedy for a specific problem. To an extent, the nerccai system is essentially a crisis-solving religious strategy. Belief in the power and efficacy of nerccai rituals is based on the proven experience of elders and past success. Types of Nerccai Rituals Nerccai rites of Tamil Catholics may be classified as either devotional or nondevotional. In each of these divisions, there are rituals that involve the shed- Shared Vows, Shared Space, and Shared Dieties 45 ding of blood and rituals...