Balaji

(2) Presiding deity of the Balaji temple
in Mehndipur village, Rajasthan, who
is considered a form of the monkeygod, Hanuman. As an infant, Hanuman
is continually hungry, and one day he
attempts to eat the sun. Indra, the king
of the gods and ruler of heaven, is
incensed at Hanuman’s action and
strikes him with a thunderbolt, breaking his jaw (hanu). The wind-god, who
is Vayu, Hanuman’s father, goes on
strike to protest this punishment. Since
in traditional Indian physiology, winds
are considered responsible for all internal functions, including digestion, respiration, and elimination, Vayu’s strike
means that no one can live a normal
life. After a short time, the gods realize
their predicament and beg Vayu for forgiveness; the deity is placated when
each of the gods promises to give
Hanuman a divine gift. By virtue of
these gifts, Hanuman gains great
power; not only is he immensely
strong, but he is an expert healer,
through both his skill in using herbs
and natural medicines and his magical
abilities to protect people from malevolent supernatural beings.
These powers and healing qualities
make Hanuman a strong protective
deity, and he is often worshiped on days
and at times deemed inauspicious or
unfavorable. These protective attributes
have made him enormously important
in contemporary Hindu life despite
his theoretically intermediate place in
the divine pantheon, and these qualities
are especially evident in his form as
Balaji. His temple has gained regional
prominence as a healing center for
people possessed by malevolent spirits
known as bhuts and prets. The
exorcisms proceed in a quasi-judicial
fashion, with the spirits being hauled
into the divine court, tried, and
banished from the sufferer with the
underlying assumption that these rites
succeed through Balaji’s irresistible
healing powers. As Sudhir Kakar has
masterfully shown, the language associated with possession and exorcism,
when understood in the context of traditional Hindu culture, can be seen as
a way of describing what modern
psychiatrists might call the diagnosis
and treatment of mental illness. See
Sudhir Kakar, Shamans, Mystics, and
Doctors, 1991.