Beyond the colour dances and musical performances at Gadhika, an indigenous festival currently under way in Kochi, you can find traditional healers from all corners of Kerala. They are custodians of ancient remedies, rituals and customs gathered from forests and lived experiences.
TNIE spent a day at the event to learn more about their offerings, and their recent plight. First, we met Chelliamma, a 70-year-old Moopathi (traditional healer) from Attapadi. Her medicines, she explains, alleviate a range of issues such as diabetes, piles, digestive issues, kidney stones, and more.
“Once, I helped a man who was suffering from terrible incontinence,” she says with a giggle. Chelliamma prescribes these medicines after doing a ‘naadi parisksha’ or pulse diagnosis, a knowledge system gathered from her paternal grandfather growing up.
These practitioners bring with them not just treatments for ailments, but a philosophy of wellbeing. Rangiamma, another traditional healer from Attapadi, helps people who come to her based on their complaints, and she checks them for physical symptoms. She has received no formal education, but is confident that her concoctions can help get rid of migraine, help heal psoriasis, ulcers, arthritis, and even fertility issues.
“The couples I have helped have kids who are all grown up, one couple even had fraternal twins, a few years ago,” she informs with a smile. Rangiamma also has solutions for hair fall, dandruff, dark circles and even poor eyesight.
Many of these healers, though, have been facing a common problem. They are being cut off from their forests, and what was once a living pharmacy within reach has become scarce or inaccessible, limiting their practice. “To us, our food is medicine; that is the philosophy that every traditional healer follows, regardless of which tribe they belong to,” says Vijayakumar K T, a traditional healer from Idukki.
“We need access to the forest and lands to be able to grow native plants and vegetables, apart from this, we are also not being given the right to get our medicines licensed,” he says, when discussing some of the issues that traditional healers have faced in recent years.
The presence of these healers at the event serves as a reminder. Their knowledge is fragile, bound to the forests that are fast disappearing, yet it carries within it a vision of health and harmony.
The festival is being held at the JNI Stadium Ground in Kaloor, and will conclude on September 4.