The Bali (Offering) Rituals Among the Māvilans of Southern India

The concept of “bali” in Hinduism is traditionally associated with sacrifice, particularly within the context of possession rituals such as teyyam in the Malabar region of South India, where it is often linked to practices of sorcery, magic, and witchcraft aimed at protection and prosperity. This conventional understanding, however, overlooks the multifaceted roles bali rituals play, especially in the mortuary practices of the Māvilan communities in Kasaragod district, northern Kerala. This ethnographic study explores the transformative role of bali rituals in converting the deceased into Aṇaṅṅu teyyam performances among the Māvilans, thereby facilitating communication between the living and the dead and venerating ancestral pasts through Tōṟṟam and Cācitra oral traditions. Employing Victor Turner’s concept of liminality as a theoretical framework, the research examines how these rituals navigate the transitional phases of death, enabling a seamless passage and continued presence of the deceased within the community’s cultural and spiritual landscape. This study underscores the importance of localized ethnographic inquiry in uncovering the complex interplay between ritual, belief, and social structure in shaping communal experiences of death and transformation.