Chapter 7.3 - The Atanatiya Ritual

It is of interest to find a purely Buddhist form of an exorcist ritual that has been practiced by the Buddhists of Sri Lanka from very early times. This is the recital of the Atanatiya Sutta (of the Digha Nikaya) in order to exorcise an evil spirit that has taken possession of a person. The commentary to the sutta (DA.iii, 969), dating at least as far back as the time of Buddhaghosa (c. 6th century A.C.) or even earlier, gives a detailed description of how and when to recite it. According to this description, first the Metta, Dhajagga, and Ratana Suttas should be recited. If the spirit does not leave by such recital, the Atanatiya Sutta is to be recited. The bhikkhu who performs the recital should not eat meat or preparations of flour. He should not live in a cemetery, lest the evil spirits get an opportunity to harass him. From the monastery to the patient's house, he should be conducted under an armed guard.^[1] The recitation of the paritta should not be done in the open. Thoughts of love for the patient should be foremost in the reciter's mind. During the recital too he should be under armed guard. If the spirit still refuses to leave, the patient should be taken to the monastery and the recital performed in the courtyard of the dagaba.

Many preliminary rites are recommended before such a recital. These include getting the patient to offer a seat to the bhikkhu who is to recite the paritta, the offering of flowers and lamps to the dagaba, and the recitation by the bhikkhu of a set of benedictory stanzas, called (Maha)-mangala-gatha.^[2] A full assembly of the deities should also be summoned. The person possessed should be questioned as to his name, by which is implied the identity of the spirit who has taken possession of him. Once the name is given, the spirit, but visibly the patient, should be addressed by that name. It should be told that the merits of offering incense, flowers, alms, etc. are all transferred to him and that the mangala-gatha just referred to have been recited in order to appease him (pannaharatthaya: as a gift) and that he should therefore leave the patient in deference to the Sangha (bhikkhusangha-garavena). If the spirit still refuses to leave, the deities should be informed of his obstinacy and the Atanatiya Paritta should be recited after declaring that as the spirit does not obey them, they are carrying out the order of the Buddha.

It is significant that this is a purely Buddhist ritual of considerable antiquity performed on lines similar to those in tovil. But the difference between the two should also be noted. When tovil is performed to cure a person possessed by a spirit, the spirit is ordered to leave the patient after accepting the offering of food and drink (dola-pideni). But in the case of the Atanatiya ritual, it is the merits earned by making offerings to the Buddha that are transferred to the spirit. Another significant difference is that the Atanatiya recital, in keeping with its purely Buddhist spirit, is much milder and more restrained than its tovil counterpart. The latter, however, is much more colorful and theatrical owing to its complex and essentially secular character. From the purely curative aspect, too, there is another attractive feature in tovil: when the spirit leaves the patient it does so leaving a sign of its departure, like breaking a branch of a tree, making a sound like a hoot, etc. It is perhaps because of these attractive features that tovil has become more popular in the island, replacing the truly Buddhist ceremony of the Atanatiya recital.

Nowadays in Sri Lanka, tovil has become the most popular form of cure adopted for spirit possession as well as other pathological conditions consequent on this. When a person is ill and medical treatment does not respond, the suspicion arises that it is due to some influence of an evil spirit. The person to be consulted in such a case is the exorcist known as kattadiya or yakadura or yaddessa^[3] who would discover and identify the particular evil spirit causing the disease and perform the appropriate tovil. There are also certain forms of tovil performed as pregnancy rituals (e.g., rata-yakuma) and others as means of eradicating various forms of evil influences like the evil eye, evil mouth, etc. (e.g., gara-yakuma).

The devil-dancers start their ceremony by first worshipping the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, as in the case of the bali ceremony. The yakkhas — who constitute one of the main classes of malevolent spirits placated in devil-dancing — are believed to become satisfied with the offerings made by people through tovil and cease harassing them. The yakkhas like Riri, Sanni, Kalukumaraya, Suniyan, Mahasohon, Maru, etc. are some of the main spirits placated. There are eighteen main yakkhas in this category, each representing a particular kind of illness, and in tovil these demons are represented by the devil-dancers themselves, who wear their specific masks and other apparel in keeping with the traditional forms ascribed to these spirits. It is believed that by dancing, chanting, and acting the part of the demons after assuming their likenesses through masks and other paraphernalia, the demons possessing the patient would leave him. The sound waves created by the drum-beat and the chanting of stanzas accompanied by rhythmic dancing in keeping with these sounds are all performed to a set pattern traditionally laid down.

The collective effect of the ceremony is believed to cure the patient's illness. Thus this dancing in tovil is a therapeutic ritual. The impersonation of the demon by the dancer is regarded as tantamount to the actual presence of the demon who becomes placated through offerings, recitations, chanting, miming, etc. When the spirits are threatened and asked to leave the patient, they are asked to do so under the command and in the name of the Buddha.

The ceremony known as rata-yakuma is performed to make barren women conceive, or for the pre-natal care of pregnant women, and to ensure the safe delivery of children. One of the episodes mimetically performed by the exorcist in this ceremony shows how barren women, according to a Buddhist legend preserved among the Sinhala people, offer cloths to the past Buddha Dipankara, the fourth in the line of twenty-eight Buddhas accepted by Theravada Buddhists; they obtain children through the merits of the act.^[4] Among the rituals specially connected with women may be mentioned those devil-dancing ceremonies that invoke the yakkha called Kalukumaraya in Sinhala. He is very often associated with another group of yakkhas called rata-yakku, whose leader is a female named Riddi-bisava. Another pregnancy ritual that deserves mention here is the one known as kalas-tabima (lit. setting apart a pot). When the first signs of pregnancy appear in a woman, a new clay pot is filled with certain ingredients and kept apart with the solemn promise that once the child is safely delivered a tovil will be performed. The ritual known as hat-adiya (seven steps) in the tovil ceremony called suniyam-kapima, signifies the seven steps the Bodhisatta Siddhattha is said to have taken just after he was born.

Two important facts that emerge from this brief description of tovil is the theatrical value present in these rituals and the way in which religious sanction has been obtained for their adoption by the Buddhists.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

All these are precautionary measures meant to immunize the reciting bhikkhu against the influence of evil spirits, which phenomenon is referred to as tani-vima ("becoming alone") in a very general sense.

[2]:

The reference most probably is to the set of benedictory stanzas beginning: "Maha karuniko natho," which is found at the end of the local edition of the Catubhanavara text. See too Mirror of the Dhamma, pp.30-34.

[3]:

When this person is addressed directly the common term used is gurunnanse (the honorific suffix unnanse is added to the term guru — teacher).

[4]:

E.R. Sarachchandra, The Folk Drama of Ceylon, 2nd ed. (Sri Lanka Government, Dept. of Cultural Affairs, 1966), p.40.