Drummer-Priests, Humans, and Gods: Divine Mediation in Tamil South India

Drummer-priests called pampaikkārar mediate divine presence across diverse vernacular Hindu ritual performances in Tamil-speaking South India. Through expressive and aesthetic practices (i.e., lyrical and material alaṅkāram), they invite deities and ancestors to take up residence in oil lamps and the bodies of human hosts. Central to the drummers’ divine mediation is their musical and ritual virtuosity and their aesthetic artistry. Ritual participants who embody and give voice to the divine must also evince certain qualities and characteristics. Drawing on long-term fieldwork, this paper centers divine agency as the crucial factor in whether the deities and the dead will manifest and speak, if the ritual will proceed, and whether it will meet its goals. Entreaties and offerings from participating devotees and the musicians’ percussive skill and creative ritual interventions notwithstanding, it is a matter of divine will whether these entities respond to the exertions of their human mediators.