Charismatic mediumship and traditional priesthood: power relations in a religious field

In the Indian Himalayas, mediums who operate as channels through which deities can communicate with their devotees, function alongside priests who serve these deities. In this article, we examine the relationship between these two religious roles with regard to the deity Mahāsū. At the individual-personal level we examine how their roles are linked to different sources of authority – whereas the priests’ source of authority is traditional, the mediums rely on charisma. At the societal level, we maintain that their different caste backgrounds are essential for understanding their public role. While the priests are Brahmins, almost all the mediums of Mahāsū are Rajputs. Thus, the medium institution enables the Rajputs, who make up the vast majority of Mahāsū’s devotees, to retain in their hands all decisions pertaining to the public sphere. Hence, they carry more political–social clout than the priests, because they can change the social-religious order or sustain it.