Local deities’ body technology involves, for example, the activities of carrying the
heavy wooden palanquin on one’s own shoulders (as in the case of the two palgy ar or
porters); of making it dance during village festivals (an action that most men
belonging to the higher castes have to perform); of accompanying the deity on its
pilgrimages, sometimes barefoot; of undergoing long and physically exhausting
possessions (as in the case of deities’ mediums called pas´v a); of enduring painful
flagellations (as during the se´ances of exorcism executed by local deities); of bending
down under the cloths (patol a) of the palanquin for long periods while the deity
confers blessings ( as´ırv ad) and ritual formulas (mantra) on the sufferer or on some
healing substances; of meeting certain requirements of bodily cleanliness at specific
times; of following dietary rules, namely the avoidance of alcohol, meat and
restaurant food (rules that have to be followed by the deities’ mediums and by
devotes asking the deities for relief from suffering). As an integral part of the
individual’s submission to the power of territorial deities, these activities contribute
to the fact that, at the end of the healing process, the person often feels a sense of
strengthening the body.