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THE TODAS

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Rivers’s Todas.

D. R. R. Clark, Ld. Printers, Edinburgh

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THE TODAS

BY
W. H. R. RIVERS
FELLOW OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1906
All rights reserved

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Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. [[v]]

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PREFACE

It has been my object in writing this book to make it, not merely a record of the customs and beliefs of a people, but also a demonstration of anthropological method. The great need of anthropology at the present time is for more exact method, not only in collecting material, but also in recording it, so that readers may be able to assign its proper value to each fact, and may be provided with definite evidence which will enable them to estimate the probable veraciousness and thoroughness of the record.

With this idea in my mind I have tried to describe as fully as possible the way in which my account has been built up, and have been careful to point out the different degrees of trustworthiness of different portions of my story. Perhaps I have been so anxious to make it clear when my record is of doubtful value that sometimes I may have laid undue stress on its uncertainties and deficiencies.

I have tried to make a clear distinction between my description of Toda custom and belief, and any theoretical conclusions drawn by myself, and have kept the latter for sections at the ends of chapters or for special chapters, of which those numbered [xi], [xix], [xxix] and [xxx] are the most important.

It may be thought by some that the book is unduly loaded with minute detail, and I am myself aware that I have often complicated, perhaps even obscured, the story I am telling by the mass of detail with which it is accompanied. I have had, [[vi]]however, no scruples on this score, partly because I wished my readers thoroughly to grasp the nature of the material on which my account is based, but still more, because details which may seem insignificant or trivial are often of great importance in the comparative study of custom and belief.

I have not attempted such a comparative study of Toda institutions. It was often very tempting to suggest resemblances with the practices of other peoples of the present or the past, but the result would have been to swell the book to unwieldy dimensions, and perhaps to have obscured the description of the life of the people. In giving parallels for Toda custom I have therefore limited myself to examples from other parts of India, and even here I have only dealt with a few resemblances which illustrate certain suggestions made in the final chapter on the origin and affinities of the Toda people.

In conclusion, I am very glad to express my gratitude for help received from many sources. The researches on which the book is based were undertaken in consequence of the award to myself of the income of the Gunning Fund of the Royal Society for the years 1901–2, and my work was also assisted by a grant from the British Association. In India I received every assistance from those whose official positions gave them the means of helping me, and my thanks are especially due to Mr. Edgar Thurston, whose kind interest and assistance I cannot sufficiently acknowledge. I owe much to the care and attention with which my two interpreters, P. Samuel and Albert Urrilla, performed their duties, and I am greatly indebted to the managers of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society at Ootacamund for the services of the former, and to Mr. C. M. Mullaly and Mr. Hadfield for giving the latter leave from his forest duties in order that he might help me.

Of friends in England I am especially indebted to Dr. C. S. Myers, who kindly read nearly the whole of the book in proof; to Syed Ali Bilgrami for information on various points connected with Indian custom; to Don M. da Zilva [[vii]]Wickramasinghe for reading [Chapter xxv], dealing with the language; and to Mr. H. N. Webber for help, especially in the revision of the genealogical tables.

Most of the illustrations in the book are from photographs taken under my direction by Messrs. Wiele and Klein of Madras, and I am indebted to H. M. India Office for permission to make use of illustrations from “An Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of the Nilagiris,” by the late J. Williamson Breeks (1873), and to Messrs. Longmans Green and Co., for permission to make use of illustrations from “A Phrenologist amongst the Todas,” by the late Colonel William E. Marshall (1873).

W. H. R. R. [[ix]]

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

[INTRODUCTION] 1

CHAPTER II

[THE TODA PEOPLE] 18

CHAPTER III

[DAIRIES AND BUFFALOES] 38

CHAPTER IV

[THE VILLAGE DAIRY] 56

CHAPTER V

[THE TI DAIRY] 83

CHAPTER VI

[BUFFALO MIGRATIONS] 123

CHAPTER VII

[ORDINATION CEREMONIES] 144

CHAPTER VIII

[SPECIAL DAIRY CEREMONIES] 166

CHAPTER IX

[THE TODA GODS] 182 [[x]]

CHAPTER X

[PRAYER] 213

CHAPTER XI

[THE DAIRY RITUAL] 231

CHAPTER XII

[DIVINATION AND MAGIC] 249

CHAPTER XIII

[SACRIFICE AND OFFERINGS] 274

CHAPTER XIV

[BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD CEREMONIES] 313

CHAPTER XV

[FUNERAL CEREMONIES] 337

CHAPTER XVI

[FUNERAL CEREMONIES (continued)] 372

CHAPTER XVII

[SACRED DAYS AND NUMBERS] 405

CHAPTER XVIII

[SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS] 417

CHAPTER XIX

[THE TODA RELIGION] 442

CHAPTER XX

[GENEALOGIES AND POPULATION] 461

CHAPTER XXI

[KINSHIP] 483

CHAPTER XXII

[MARRIAGE] 502 [[xi]]

CHAPTER XXIII

[SOCIAL ORGANISATION] 540

CHAPTER XXIV

[ARTS AND AMUSEMENTS] 570

CHAPTER XXV

[LANGUAGE] 602

CHAPTER XXVI

[PERSONAL NAMES] 619

CHAPTER XXVII

[RELATIONS WITH OTHER TRIBES] 628

CHAPTER XXVIII

[THE CLANS OF THE TODAS] 643

CHAPTER XXIX

[TEIVALIOL AND TARTHAROL] 679

CHAPTER XXX

[THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE TODAS] 693

[APPENDIX I] 719

[APPENDIX II]—BIBLIOGRAPHY 731

[APPENDIX III]—LIST OF VILLAGES 734

[APPENDIX IV]—LIST OF PLANTS 738

[GLOSSARY] 741

[INDEX] 749

[GENEALOGICAL TABLES.] [[xiii]]

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[[xvii]]

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PHONETIC SYSTEM

The following is the phonetic system which has been used in this book. The use of many of the signs is more fully described in [Chapter XXV].

Vowels.

Consonants.

b,		as in English.
ch,		the ch of church.
d,		used in the text for the English sound and also for the lingual consonant ḍ.[1]
f,		as in English.
g,		the g of sing.
gg,		the g of finger.
gh,		the ch of ich.
h,		used for a sound of doubtful nature (see p. [611]).
j,		as in English.
k,		as in English.
kh,		the ch of auch.
l,		used in the text for the English sound and for the lingual consonant ḷ.[[xviii]]
m,		as in English.
n,		as in English.
ñ,		a nasal n, as in French.
p,		as in English.
r,
s,		a sound resembling the English s.
sh,		as in English.
t,		as in English and also for the lingual ṭ.
th		the th both of though and throw.
v,		as in English.
w,
z,		the z of zeal.
zh,		the si of occasion.

Sounds represented by ch, s, sh, and th, very frequently inserted euphonically in Toda words, have usually been omitted. I have also omitted the signs showing the long vowels whenever a word occurs frequently throughout the book, and the glossary should be consulted to ascertain the correct method of pronouncing such words. Similarly, Appendices [III] and [IV] should be consulted to ascertain the proper pronunciation of the names of places and plants.

I do not use the plurals of Toda words, either in the English form or in that proper to the Toda language; thus, I write “the two palol” and not “the two palols” or “the two palolam.”

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Map.

The names printed in the same type as Kârs are those of Toda villages; the names in italics, as Nanjanad are those of Badaga villages; the names in small black type, as Ootacamund are those of towns with a general population, or of dâk bungalows. [[1]]

[1] One of the most frequent consonantal sounds in the Toda language is dr which in the text always stands for ḍr; when d comes before sh, it also represents the lingual sound. In both cases the ḍ was hardly appreciated by my ear, and the European will perhaps most nearly imitate the Toda sound if he pronounces dr and dsh as r and sh. [↑]

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THE TODAS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The people whose manners and customs I am about to describe live on the undulating plateau of the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India. The hills were visited by a Portuguese missionary in 1602, and have been invaded by Indian tribes on various occasions, but, at the beginning of the last century, the plateau and its inhabitants were absolutely unknown to Europeans. The earliest definite information about the hills at this time is given in a letter from William Keys, an assistant revenue surveyor, written in 1812, but it was not till several years later that further information about the people began to be published.

Of the various tribes inhabiting the hills, the Todas excited the greatest interest, and this interest has continued, partly because the people are so different from any other of the races by which they are surrounded, but still more because both they and their customs are so picturesque and, in many ways, so unique.

A very large literature[1] has accumulated about the Todas and their customs. This literature is so extensive that when I determined to go to the Nilgiri Hills, I was reproached by more than one anthropologist for going to people about whom we already knew so much; and one even said that, so far as his department of knowledge was concerned, he was sure that we had all the information we could expect to get. [[2]]

A review of the literature, however, showed me that there were certain subjects about which our information was of the scantiest. This was especially the case in matters connected with the social organisation. Little was known of the system of kinship, and it was not known whether there was any definite system of exogamy. The Todas furnish one of the best existing examples of the custom of polyandry, but scarcely anything was known about the various social regulations which must be associated with such a practice.

I had not worked long among the Todas before I discovered the existence of many customs and ceremonies previously undescribed, and I was able to obtain much more detailed accounts of others which had already been repeatedly recorded. I found that there was so much to be done that I gave up an intention of working with several different tribes, and devoted the whole of my time to the Todas.

This book is not intended to be a complete account of all that is known about the Toda people. Their physical anthropology has been so ably dealt with by Mr. Edgar Thurston that I leave this subject almost untouched, and I omit all but a brief mention of my own psychological observations which I have published in detail elsewhere.[2] The book deals almost exclusively with the religion and sociology of the people. Even here, however, the account will be far from complete. After several months’ work among a people about whom “we knew all there was to be known,” I came away knowing that there were subjects of which I had barely touched the fringe, and many others on which my information could have been made far more complete with greater opportunity. About certain subjects the Todas are extremely reticent, and my information is in consequence very defective. There are many points on which I know my information to be far from complete, and doubtless there are far more numerous examples of deficiency of which I am not aware.

Some deficiencies of the record are due to certain untoward events which occurred during my visit. After I had been working among the Todas for about four months, various misfortunes befell some of those who had [[3]]been my chief guides to Toda lore. One man who had pointed out to me certain sacred places fell ill and made up his mind that he was going to die. Another man lost his wife a few days after he had shown me the method of performing one of the most sacred of Toda ceremonies. A third man who had revealed to me the details of the ceremonial of the most sacred Toda dairy, suffered the loss of his own village dairy by fire.

The Todas consulted their diviners, who ascribed these events to the anger of the gods because their secrets had been revealed to the stranger. In consequence my sources of information ran dry to a large extent, and the difficulties in the way of the investigation of the more sacred topics were greatly increased. By the time it was settled that I was to blame I was nearly at the end of my visit, but it was in the last two or three weeks that I had hoped to overcome the scruples of the people and to obtain information on many doubtful points about which I had to come away unsatisfied.

One of the subjects on which my material is defective is the folk-lore. I have a number of tales, but they are only a small part of the store of Toda legend. I regret especially the incompleteness of my work in this respect because I believe that the Todas are rapidly forgetting their folk-tales and the legends of their gods, while their ceremonial remains to a large extent intact, and seems likely to continue so for some time.

I was especially struck by this because, in previous anthropological experience in the islands of Torres Straits with Dr. Haddon, we had found the exact opposite to be the case. In these islands, the ceremonial had disappeared, and the only record of it to be obtained was that derived from the memories of the oldest inhabitants. Nevertheless in Torres Straits the store of legend was still ample, and the agreement of the stories obtained from different individuals was so great that it was evident that the people had preserved their folklore with fidelity.

The difference between the two communities is easily explained. In Torres Straits missionary influence is strong, and missionary effort is always directed to break down the practices [[4]]associated with belief. The ceremonial in Torres Straits had been swept away, while the stories of the legendary heroes were almost all that remained to the people of the old life and were in consequence still cherished.

Among the Todas missionary influence, whether of Christian or Hindu, has had little effect, and the ritual of the Todas in some parts of the hills is almost, if not quite, untouched by outside influences.[3] The effect of intercourse with other peoples seems to be showing itself largely in the form of loss of interest in the stories of the past.

One of the most striking aspects of the customs and ceremonies of the Todas is that these have in many cases no exact parallels in other places. Perhaps the most definite result which modern research in anthropology has brought out is the extraordinary similarity of custom throughout the world. Customs apparently identical are found in races so widely separated geographically and so diverse ethnologically that it seems certain the customs must have developed in total independence of one another. There seems to be an identity of idea actuating custom in peoples very different from one another in their surroundings and conditions of life.

The nearest parallels to Toda custom and ceremonial are undoubtedly to be found in the Indian peninsula, but even here, though there is often a general resemblance, this breaks down on going into detail. Even when the resemblance is so close as to suggest a common origin, the differences in detail are often very great.[4]

One clue to this exceptional nature of Toda custom and belief is to be found in the geographical position of the people, which has to a large extent isolated them from the world in general.

The plateau on which they live, broken by numerous hills and valleys, is the top of a scarp formed by the meeting of the Eastern and Western Ghats. Some of the hills project [[5]]more than the rest above the general level of the plateau, which ranges from 6,000 to 7,500 feet above the sea, and the loftiest of these hills reaches the height of 8,760 feet. The plateau is so high that, though it is situated only about eleven degrees from the equator, the thermometer rarely rises above 70° F., and in the nights of the cold season may touch the freezing point.

In every direction the sides of the hills leading up to the plateau are steep and often precipitous. To the south-east, east, and north-east there is a rapid fall of about 5,000 feet to the plains of the Coimbatore district, though to the south this plain only forms a gap about twenty miles in breadth between the Nilgiri and the Anaimalai Hills. On the north-west the slope is more gradual and is broken by the Wainad district about 3,000 feet above the sea. To the north there is a steep fall, but only for about 4,000 feet, to the plateau of Mysore, which is about 3,000 feet above the sea.

The south-western part of the hills is known as the Kundahs and may be regarded as a range separate from the greater part of the plateau, from which it is divided by a wide valley, the Avalanche Valley. From the Kundahs there is an extremely precipitous fall to the Malabar district.

The steep sides leading up to the plateau on which the Todas live are clothed with thick, almost impenetrable jungle, which is extremely malarious, so that a night spent on the way to the summit is very likely to produce fever.

The hills appear to have been for long an object of reverence to Hindus on account of their height and inaccessibility. Dubois states that “as it is very difficult to reach the top of this mountain, a view of the summit alone (and it is visible a long way off) is considered sufficient to remove the burden of sin from the conscience of any person who looks at it.”[5]

When the hills were first visited by Europeans, their use as a sanatorium was long delayed owing to the difficulty of making roads, and it was not till after many years that the hills became a regular resort of the European population. We shall see later that the isolation of the Todas has certainly [[6]]not been complete, and that the hills have been invaded by strangers, especially from the side of the Wainad; but the isolation has probably been considerable, and, for long periods, it may have been complete.

In their isolation from the world in general, however, the Todas have not been alone. Two other tribes, the Kotas and the Badagas, occupy the plateau with them, and the peculiar relations between the three tribes are among the most interesting features of the social life of the Nilgiris. The Todas are a purely pastoral people, limiting their activities almost entirely to the care of their buffaloes and to the complicated ritual which has grown up in association with these animals. The Badagas are chiefly agriculturists; the Kotas are artisans and mechanics; and both supply the Todas with part of their produce. There is here a well-marked instance of division of labour, in which the labour of the Todas is reduced to a minimum. Their privileged position is usually held to be due to the tradition that they are the “lords of the soil,” and the produce which the Todas receive from the other tribes is supposed to be of the nature of tribute.

The jungle on the slopes of the hills is inhabited by two wild, dwarfish tribes, the Kurumbas and Irulas, who have a general resemblance to the many other jungle tribes of Southern India. These people are much feared by the tribes of the plateau for their supposed magical powers, but they have little to do with the complex social life of the others.

The district in which the three tribes live is not extensive. The extreme length of the plateau, from east to west, is about forty-two miles, and its average breadth, from north to south, about ten miles, the maximum breadth being fifteen miles in the centre of the district. The total area of the plateau is less than 500 square miles. In this district there live about 800 Todas, 1,200 Kotas, and 34,000 Badagas. In addition, there are now extensive European settlements, the largest of which is Ootacamund, the seat of the Madras Government for six months of the year. The other large European settlements are Coonoor and Kotagiri, while Wellington, near Coonoor, is a military station.

The plateau of the Nilgiris is divided into four districts, [[7]]ordinarily known by the names, Todanad, Mekanad, Peranganad, and Kundanad, and these districts are recognised by the Todas. The Todanad is the largest district, and is the part where the majority of the Todas live. Their own name for it is Marsâdr.

The Mekanad is called by the Todas Karâdr, and is now very sparsely inhabited, though there are many old villages in the district.

The Peranganad is the eastern part of the hills, and is called by the Todas Purgòdr, and is the chief seat of a few of their clans.

The fourth district, or Kundanad, is that already mentioned as the Kundahs in the south-west part of the hills. It is the chief seat of one Toda clan, but it also contains villages belonging to others. It is especially visited in the dry season, since its large rainfall often provides ample pasturage when this is burnt up on other parts of the hills. The Toda name of the district is Mêdr.

A few Todas live near Gudalur in the Wainad, some 3,000 feet lower than the main plateau.

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Methods

The description of Toda life to be given in this book is the outcome of an attempt to apply rigorous methods in the investigation of sociology and religion. In the brief time which was at my disposal, it was essential to employ methods of investigation which would enable me to tell with some certainty whether I was obtaining accurate and trustworthy information. Two great sources of error in anthropological investigation are the dependence on the evidence of only a few individuals and the necessity of paying for information.

The first source of error was easily avoided, and I was able to obtain my information from a large body of witnesses, usually independently of one another. As regards the second source, the Todas are inveterate beggars, and are now thoroughly accustomed to receive payment for every service rendered to the European, even of the most trivial kind. Payment for information was inevitable, but I [[8]]minimised the danger by arranging that every man who came to me for work should receive a definite stipulated sum as a recompense for his time and trouble. I paid, not for the information, but for the trouble taken in giving a day or half a day to my service. As a general rule, anything like payment by results was carefully avoided. The sum paid was for coming to me, and if anyone was reluctant to talk about one subject, we passed on to another. Only at the end of my visit did I depart from this rule on a few occasions, and offered rewards to one or two individuals for certain items of information; but by this time I was in a position to judge the value of the information I received, and I only employed this procedure in cases where I knew the degree of trustworthiness of my informant.

Definite methods for the verification of the evidence obtained were the more necessary in my work among the Todas, in that I was obliged throughout to depend on interpreters. I was, however, very fortunate in my assistants. I first worked with a forest ranger, Albert Urrilla, who knew the Todas very well, though he had no special knowledge of their customs. He translated faithfully, and, owing to his wide knowledge of the hills, he was extremely useful in helping me to become familiar with the names and positions of the many Toda villages. After about six weeks’ work, Albert had to return to his forest duties, and, except for a week towards the end of my visit, the interpreter for the rest of my work was P. Samuel, a catechist who had been endeavouring for ten years to convert the Todas to Christianity, under the auspices of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. When he began to work with me, Samuel had a very limited acquaintance with Toda ceremonies, but he was very familiar with the general life of the people, and was especially acquainted with the actual working of many of their social customs. Some of the Todas at first objected strongly to his helping me, probably on account of his missionary efforts, but he soon overcame this initial difficulty and gained the general confidence of the people. He was well acquainted with the Toda language, and soon became a very careful inquirer into customs and beliefs, and I owe much to [[9]]his help. He often obtained independent information about customs, and I was put by him on the track of much that might otherwise have escaped me. I had hoped that he would have continued to make inquiries for me after I had left the hills, and soon after my departure, he forwarded to me a very valuable account of a ceremony which I had not been able to witness and other important material. While with me he had discovered, however, how little progress he had made with the people during his ten years’ work among them, and how little he had known of their beliefs, and, soon after my departure, he asked to be given a new sphere of work and was removed to the Wainad, so that I have not had the opportunity for which I hoped, of making further inquiries into the many doubtful points which always arise in working up the notes of anthropological investigation.

One of the chief dangers arising from the use of interpreters is that they will often transmit, not what they are told, but their own versions of what they are told. They interpret the meaning as well as the words of the informants. I think I can be certain that this danger was avoided with both my interpreters, and that they gave me as accurate an account as possible of what the Todas told them. We always used the Toda names for all specific objects, individuals, and places, so that the information transmitted to me by the interpreters was often in such a form that nearly every noun was Toda in a setting of English verbs, adverbs, and pronouns. Thus, referring to one of my notebooks at random, I find the following: “After cleansing the poh in this manner, each palol puts salt in the ponmukeri, and takes it and the karpun to the upunkudi, taking also five pieces of tudrpül, five sprigs of puthimul, and a bundle of taf.” In fact, we habitually used so many Toda words that the Todas sometimes obviously knew the general drift of my questions before they were interpreted to them, and, similarly, I could often understand the general drift of the answer.

The first principle of my investigation was to obtain independent accounts from different people; I then compared these independent accounts and cross-examined into any discrepancies. The general result of this method was highly [[10]]satisfactory from the point of view of Toda veracity. The general agreement of the accounts obtained from different individuals was very striking, and, whenever discrepancies occurred, it was nearly always found that they were due either to misunderstanding or to differences in the practices of different sections of the Toda people. These differences are so great that in many cases it made a rigorous application of the method of direct corroboration impossible. There are distinct differences in the ceremonial and social customs of the two chief divisions of the Todas and some differences in the practices of different clans. In the investigation of the dairy ritual, there were found to be great differences in the practices of different dairies, and, for the practice of any one dairy, I had sometimes to be content with the information of one native only; but I did not content myself with such independent accounts till I had satisfied myself of the trustworthiness of the witness, and had learnt enough of the customs in question to be in a position to weigh the evidence. As regards the differences in the customs of different sections of the community, many of my informants were able to describe the practices not only of their own section but also of others.

After a time I managed to put myself on such terms with my chief informants that they were always ready to confess any deficiencies in their knowledge and would refer me to others whose special experience would make them more satisfactory informants. Occasionally, however, they carried this a little too far and pleaded ignorance of a subject when they were really only reluctant to reveal the more esoteric knowledge.

Still more important than this method of direct corroboration of independent accounts is what I may call the method of indirect corroboration. By this I mean the method of obtaining the same information in different ways. Often this indirect corroboration occurred accidentally. The whole of Toda ceremonial and social life forms such an intricate web of closely related practices that I rarely set out to investigate some one aspect of the life of the people without obtaining information bearing on many other wholly different [[11]]aspects, and the information so gained often afforded valuable corroboration of what I had been told on other occasions and by other individuals. Thus, in obtaining a prayer, various matters would arise which would confirm the accuracy of a legend obtained weeks earlier, or the investigation of a funeral custom would lead to the indirect corroboration of evidence concerning the regulation of marriage.

The most important way in which this method of indirect corroboration may be intentionally applied is by obtaining the same information first in an abstract form and then by means of a number of concrete instances. As an example of what I mean I may cite the method by which I inquired into the laws of inheritance of property. I first obtained an account of what was done in the abstract—of the laws governing the inheritance of houses, the division of the buffaloes and other property among the children, &c. Next I gave a number of hypothetical concrete instances; I took cases of men with so many children and so many buffaloes, and repeating the cases I found that my informant gave answers which were consistent not only with one another but also with the abstract regulations previously given. Finally I took real persons and inquired into what had actually happened when A or B died, and again obtained a body of information consistent in itself and agreeing with that already obtained.

By far my most valuable instrument of inquiry was that provided by the genealogical method.[6] The Todas preserve in their memories the names of all their ancestors and relatives extending back for several generations. In the tables given at the end of this book, I have recorded the pedigrees of seventy-two families, including the whole of the Toda community. Whenever the name of a man was mentioned in connexion with ceremony or social custom, his name was found in the genealogical record and the relation was ascertained in which he stood towards others participating in the ceremony or custom. By this means a concrete element was brought into the work which greatly facilitated inquiry. [[12]]Customs and rites were investigated by means of concrete examples in which the people taking part were real people to me as well as to my informants. In a later chapter I shall consider more fully the rôle of the genealogies in anthropological investigation. I mention them here to give a preliminary indication of the extensive part they played in my investigations. In order to give my readers the opportunity of following my method in some measure for themselves, I have given after the name of any individual mentioned in the book the number of the genealogical table in which his name occurs; thus “Kòdrner (7)” means that Kòdrner is a member of the family of which the pedigree is recorded in Table 7.

I have already referred to the trustworthiness of the evidence given by the Todas. I must now speak of the great differences in this respect shown by different individuals. Some would give full and elaborate accounts of ceremonial which close investigation showed to be, so far as one could tell, thoroughly accurate. Others gave careless and slovenly accounts, full of omissions and inaccuracies of detail, though they rarely said anything which was distinctly untrue.

After some experience had been gained, one day’s work was usually sufficient to enable me to make up my mind whether a man was a careful witness, and if he did not seem to be so, he was not again called upon for help. Different men were known to have especial acquaintance with certain branches of knowledge, and I always endeavoured to obtain such people. In the case of the religious ritual, it was not practicable to make use, to any great extent, of men actually holding any of the sacred offices, but I always had recourse to people who had held these offices and were personally familiar with the ceremonial.

Among the many aspects of social life and religion, I soon found that there were some about which there was no reticence, and these could be discussed in public with men, women, or children standing by and perhaps taking part. There were others which were of a more sacred nature, and, if they were approached in public, it was immediately obvious [[13]]that the people were ill at ease and their answers became hesitating and unsatisfactory. After a short time I adopted the practice of devoting the mornings to my psychological work and to the discussion of affairs of a non-sacred character. In the afternoons I had private interviews with one individual at a time, or occasionally two. If I approached any dangerous topic during the morning, my guide made me a sign and I changed the subject, to return to it at an afternoon sitting.

In the investigation of all the more sacred ceremonies, it was found to be best that the narrator should be alone. He knew that he was telling what should not be told and was embarrassed if any other Todas were there to hear him.

One of the difficulties of anthropological inquiry is that the good and trustworthy narrators are often the most reticent. They are trustworthy because they are honest and pious members of their community, and are therefore naturally reluctant to offend against the sanctity of their religious customs by talking of them to a stranger. Some of my best informants were such men, who were gradually led on to tell me far more than they had ever intended, and then, having told me so much about a given subject, they would sometimes throw reticence to the winds and tell me all. It was very instructive in such a case to start a fresh topic which I knew to be forbidden ground and observe the complete change of attitude. One old man who had entirely lost his scruples in our absorption in the details of dairy ritual absolutely refused to speak a word when I turned to the subject of animal sacrifice, and for this and some other topics I had to be content with less scrupulous but at the same time less trustworthy witnesses.

I only found one Toda who was deliberately untruthful, and yet he was so much less reticent and less scrupulous than others that I often had to have recourse to his services. After I had been able to convict him more than once of having given unsatisfactory evidence, he was more accurate, but I was especially careful to check and obtain independent accounts of everything he told me, and I have only [[14]]made use of so much of his evidence as I believe to be trustworthy. His knowledge was not deep or accurate, but he often told me enough to enable me to extract the full account from others, who, seeing I knew something, thought they might as well tell me all. On one or two subjects, the whole of my information is derived from this man, but whenever this is the case I mention the fact, so that my readers may know the doubtful nature of the evidence. I only give such information, however, when I believe it to be correct. The informant in question was one of the cleverest of the Todas, and his usual fault was not that he deliberately deceived, but that he supplied the lacunæ in his knowledge by having recourse to his imagination. In the matter of folk-tales, where the difficulties of checking an account are especially great, I was obliged wholly to reject his assistance.

An altogether different type of witness was my constant attendant, Kòdrner. His special business was to bring me people as the subjects for my psychological work and to act as my guide in visiting various parts of the hills. He did not profess to any wide knowledge of custom or ceremonial, and was always diffident about the information he gave; but he was a good observer, and could give an excellent account of any ceremony which he had witnessed or of any procedure in which he had been involved.

Except in a few cases the Todas were quite unable to give any explanations of their customs, the answer to nearly every inquiry being that the custom in question was ordained by the goddess Teikirzi. In the few cases in which an explanation was forthcoming, it seemed to me that it was usually a recent invention. The explanations of customs given in this book are therefore almost invariably those arrived at by myself from the study of the available evidence.

While I was working I had by me the books or papers of Harkness, Marshall, Breeks, and Thurston, the chief previous writers on the Todas, and I inquired into most of the details mentioned by them; but I have not [[15]]attempted any criticism or comment on the work of others except on special occasions when my own information is lacking or when I am uncertain as to the truth of their statements. Except in those cases in which I definitely refer to the work of others, every statement made in this book is the outcome of my own inquiry or observation. Whenever my account differs from those of others, it may be accepted that I have inquired into the discrepancy and that my account represents the result of a careful investigation.

As some of the accounts of the Todas were written many years ago, there is always the possibility that two dissimilar accounts may both be true and that the differences may represent changes in custom with lapse of time. There is one fact, however, which makes it probable that this explanation of discrepancies is not the true one. The accounts of the Todas which show the closest correspondence with my own are some of the earliest, especially the book of Captain Harkness, published in 1832, and the papers of Bernhard Schmid and C. F. Muzzy, published in 1837 and 1844 respectively. In many cases my work agrees more closely with these than with the accounts of later observers.

This is, perhaps, a suitable place to mention what I believe to be the chief source of error in previous accounts of the Todas. In their extensive intercourse with the Badagas, the Todas use the language of this people, with which they appear to be perfectly familiar. The Toda language is very difficult to understand, and the literature shows that from the first, most of those who have investigated Toda customs have used the Badaga language or Tamil as their means of communication. Every Toda village, every Toda institution or office, and nearly every object used by the Todas has its Badaga name as well as its proper Toda name, and, owing to intercourse through the intermediation of the Badagas, these names have come to be used not only by nearly all who have written on the Todas, but also in official documents connected with the people.

The names by which the Toda villages are known to Europeans are always the Badaga names and not those of [[16]]the Todas, and similarly with the names of institutions such as clans, dairies, or ceremonies. The practice of giving Badaga names in their intercourse with Europeans has become so engrained that a Toda invariably uses these names when speaking to a European. During the first few weeks of my work, I received exclusively Badaga names, and to the end of my visit, whenever I visited a new district, the Badaga names would crop up till the people found that I wanted Toda and not Badaga. Kiunievan, who was the chief informant of Mr. Breeks in 1872, is still alive, and when I asked him why he gave Mr. Breeks the Badaga names in every case, he answered “He did not seem to want anything else,” and this answer seems to me to give the clue to much of the error which has found its way into many of the accounts which have been given of the Todas.

One of the most serious errors which has arisen in this way is one connected with the Toda clans. Every account which has been given of the clan-system of the Todas is that of a system which is current among the Badagas as the Toda system, but has only a limited correspondence with the actual system as it is in use among the Todas themselves. Every Toda, if asked by a European to what clan or division he belongs, will promptly give his division according to the Badaga classification, and this has led to the incorporation of this classification in all the accounts of the Todas which deal with their social organisation.

Some words are necessary about the general plan of the book. I should have preferred to begin with the social organisation, and to approach the religious aspect of the life of the Todas through the ceremonies accompanying the chief incidents of life, including birth, marriage, and death. The ideas borrowed from the ritual of the dairy, however, so pervade the whole of Toda ceremonial, that I have been obliged to consider the ritual of the dairy at an early stage. After a preliminary chapter sketching the general character and life of the people, I have therefore given a full description of the elaborate ceremonial which centres round the dairy; and on this follow the accounts of other ceremonies and sacred institutions and a general discussion of the [[17]]religion of the people. I then turn to the social aspect of life, and consider kinship, marriage, and the various factors upon which the social organisation depends. Then, after some chapters on diverse topics, I describe the relations of the Todas with the other tribes of the Nilgiris, and in the final chapters discuss certain special problems, including the origin and affinities of the Toda people. [[18]]

[1] The bibliography of this literature is given in [Appendix II]. [↑]

[2] See British Journal of Psychology, 1905, vol. i., p. 321. [↑]

[3] As we shall see later, this is only true of some parts of the hills and some institutions. [↑]

[4] With more exact knowledge of Indian customs and ceremonies which have lingered on side by side with, though often obscured by Brahmanism, it is possible that these differences would be found to be much slighter than the evidence at present available suggests. [↑]

[5] Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies, part ii., chap. v. [↑]

[6] See chapter XX and Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 1900, vol. xxx., p. 74. [↑]

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CHAPTER II

THE TODA PEOPLE

I do not propose to describe at any length the physical characters of the Todas.[1] It must be sufficient to say here that the people differ remarkably in general appearance, and perhaps still more remarkably in general bearing, from the other inhabitants of Southern India. The average height of the men is about 5 ft. 7 in., and that of the women 5 ft. 1 in.; both are well-proportioned, and the men robustly built. Their heads are distinctly dolichocephalic, the cephalic index of the men being 73.3. The shaved heads of the children show very well the great length, and probably owing to the special method of shaving (see Figs. 63 and 64), this feature is in them exaggerated so as to seem almost abnormal.

The nose is usually well-formed and not especially broad, the nasal index being 74.9. It is often distinctly rounded in profile. The skin is of a rich brown colour, distinctly lighter than that of most of the Dravidian inhabitants of Southern India. The skins of the women are lighter than those of the men. There is much hair on the bodies of the men, who usually grow thick beards, and the hair of the head is luxuriant in both men and women. The men are strong and very agile; the agility being most in evidence when they have to catch their infuriated buffaloes at the funeral ceremonies. They stand fatigue well, and often travel great distances. One day I met an old man about seventy years of age going to the market at Gudalur for a supply [[19]]of grain, and in the evening I met him on his return carrying a large and heavy bag. He had travelled over thirty miles, had gone down and again come up some 3,000 feet, and most of his journey had been in a climate much warmer than that of his native hills.

FIG. 1.—TODA MAN. FULL FACE.

My guide at the end of the day would sometimes go a distance of eight or ten miles and back to arrange for my supply of men for the next day’s work, and I have seen him on these occasions running at a steady pace which he would keep up for miles. In going from one part of the hills to another, a Toda always travels as nearly as possible in [[20]]a straight line, ignoring altogether the influence of gravity, and mounting the steepest hills with no apparent effort.

FIG. 2.—TODA MAN. SIDE FACE.

In all my work with the men, it seemed to me that they were extremely intelligent They grasped readily the points of any inquiry upon which I entered, and often showed a marked appreciation of complicated questions. They were interested in the customs of other parts of the world, and appeared to grasp readily the essential differences between their own ways and those of other peoples. It is very difficult to estimate general intelligence, and to compare definitely the intelligence of different individuals, still more of people of [[21]]different races. I can only record my impression, after several months’ close intercourse with the Todas, that they were just as intelligent as one would have found any average body of educated Europeans. There were marked individual differences, just as there are among the more civilised, and it is probable that I saw chiefly the more intelligent members of the community.

FIG. 3.—TODA WOMAN. FULL FACE.

My time was largely devoted to experimental work, especially on the nature of the sensory and perceptual processes. The people entered readily into this work, quickly grasped the nature of the methods employed, and showed the same power of close attention and careful observation which, as I have found in other races, enable even more definite and consistent [[22]]results to be obtained from uncultured races than from most classes of a civilised community.

FIG. 4.—TODA WOMAN. SIDE FACE.

I had slighter opportunities of estimating the intelligence of the women than that of the men, but, as a general rule, it seemed to me that there was a very marked difference between the two sexes. Some of the younger women, when examined by various tests, showed as ready a grasp of the methods as any of the men, but most of the elder women gave me the impression of being extremely stupid. It was often obvious that they were not attending and were thinking far more of their personal appearance and of the effect it was having on the men of the party than of the task they were being set, but even when a liberal discount was made for this, it seemed [[23]]to me that they were distinctly less intelligent than the men.

The characteristic note in the demeanour of the people is given by their absolute belief in their own superiority over the surrounding races. They are grave and dignified, and yet thoroughly cheerful and well-disposed towards all. In their intercourse with Europeans, they now recognise the superior race so far as wealth and the command of physical and mental resources are concerned, but yet they are not in the slightest degree servile, and about many matters still believe that their ways are superior to ours, and, in spite of their natural politeness, could sometimes not refrain from showing their contempt for conduct which we are accustomed to look upon as an indication of a high level of morality. It is in the matter of ethical standards that the difference between the Todas and ourselves comes out most strongly.

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The Village and the House

The Todas live in little villages scattered about the hills. The greater part of the plateau consists of grass-covered hills separated by valleys, sometimes narrow, more often of wide extent. In every valley there are streams and in many places swamps. In the hollows of the hills are small woods, generally known as sholas, and it is usually near these sholas that the Toda villages are to be found. Some parts of the hills are much more thickly beset with villages than others, and this is especially the case in the neighbourhood of the part known as Governor Shola, about six to eight miles west and north-west of Ootacamund.

In other parts one may go considerable distances without finding a Toda village, but relics of the former history of the Todas may be found widely scattered over the hills, and I think there can be little doubt that at one time the Toda habitations were much more generally distributed than they are at present. The bazaar at Ootacamund has now become an important place in the economic life of the Todas; they sell there the ghi or clarified butter in which form their dairy produce chiefly goes to the market, and they [[24]]procure in return at the bazaar the rice and grain and other things which have now taken their places among the necessaries of life. In consequence there exists a tendency for the larger part of the Todas, especially those of the Todanad, to live within an easy distance of Ootacamund, and many of the villages in the more distant parts of the hills are now only occupied for a few weeks in the year.

The Toda name for a village is mad,[2] but this is now often replaced by the Badaga form of the word, mand, and the latter word is used exclusively by the Europeans and others living on the Nilgiri hills. A mad usually consists of several huts. In some villages there may be only one hut, and the maximum number I have seen is six. At some places where there was formerly a village with dwelling-huts there is now only a dairy, but the term mad is still applied to the place at which the dairy is situated. The term mad is also given to the funeral-places of the Todas. Sometimes the funeral-place is also a village at which people live; sometimes it has only a dairy; while in other places there may be no trace of human habitations; but the term mad is equally applied in all three cases. The term is also used for the dairies and accessory buildings connected with the most sacred herds of buffaloes (the ti). Each group of buildings is called a mad or ti mad. The term has therefore a wider significance than “village” and denotes rather a “place”—a place connected in any way with the active life of the Todas. The chief village of a clan and certain other sacred or important villages are called etudmad and other villages are often known as kinmad.

FIG. 5.—THE VILLAGE OF TARADR, SHOWING TWO DAIRIES IN THE FOREGROUND AND THREE HOUSES IN THE BACKGROUND.

A typical Toda village consists of a small group of huts (ars), often on a piece of ground slightly raised above the surrounding level and enclosed by a wall (katu). In this wall there are two or three narrow openings, large enough to admit a man but not a buffalo. In most villages there is a dairy or there may be several dairies. Each of these buildings is also enclosed by a wall, usually higher than that surrounding the dwelling-huts. The dairies may be near the huts, but more commonly are at some little distance from [[26]]the latter. Somewhere near the dairy will be found a circular enclosure, the buffalo-pen, or tu,[3] in which the buffaloes are enclosed at night, and there may be more than one tu for use on different occasions or for different kinds of buffalo. There will be a small pen for the calves which is called kadr, and there may also be a house for the calves (kwotars). A small structure called kush (? kudsh), used as an enclosure for calves less than fifteen days old, may often be seen, situated between the spreading roots of a tree.

Close to the village there will be at least one stream (nipa), and very often there are two streams. If possible, there should be two streams, in order that one may be used for the sacred purposes of the dairy, the pali nipa, while the other is used for household purposes, the ars nipa. Where there is only one stream, different parts are used for the two purposes, and the two parts of the stream then receive the names pali nipa and ars nipa. In this case the pali nipa is always above the ars nipa, so as to avoid the danger that the water used for the dairy shall have been contaminated by contact with household vessels. At some villages there may even be a third stream, or part of a stream, used in the ordination ceremonies of the dairymen.

It has often been a subject of remark by visitors to the Nilgiri Hills that the Todas have chosen the most beautiful spots for their dwellings, and interest has been taken in the love of beauty in nature which this choice shows. I think there can be little doubt that the choice of suitable dwelling-places has been chiefly determined by the necessity of a good water-supply, and if possible of a double water-supply, and the Todas have chosen the beautiful spots, not because they are beautiful, but because they are well watered. Their choice has been dictated, not by a love of beautiful scenery, but by the practical necessities of their daily life.

In the immediate neighbourhood of a village there are usually well-worn paths by which the village is approached, and some of these paths or kalvol receive special names. [[27]]Some may not be traversed by women. When I first visited the village of Taradr, nearly the whole population of the village met me at the spot where the path to the village leaves the road. We all went along together till I suddenly found that I was walking with the men and boys only, while the women and girls were following another path. We were going by the way over which the sacred buffaloes travel when leaving or approaching the village, and the women might not tread this path, but had another appointed way by which they were to reach their home.

FIG. 6.—THE VILLAGE OF TARADR, SHOWING THE HOUSES SURROUNDED BY A WALL, IN WHICH THERE IS ONE OPENING IN THE MIDDLE.

Within the village there are also certain recognised paths, of which two are especially important. One, the punetkalvol, is the path by which the dairyman goes from his dairy to milk or tend the buffaloes; the other is the majvatitthkalvol, the path which the women must use when they go to the dairy to receive buttermilk (maj) from the dairyman. Women are not allowed to go to the dairy or to other places connected with it, except at appointed times when they receive buttermilk given [[28]]out by the dairyman, and when going for this purpose they must keep to the majvatitthkalvol. This path is sometimes indicated by a stone, the majvatitthkars, and the spot where the women stand to receive the buttermilk is called the majvatvaiidrn.

FIG. 7.—THE CHIEF HOUSE OF THE VILLAGE OF KIUDR.

At many villages there are other stones which have definite names and mark the sites where certain ceremonial functions are performed.

The house is called ars, and is of the kind shown in [Fig. 7]. It is shaped like half a barrel, with the barrel-like roof and sides projecting for a considerable distance beyond the front partition containing the door. The size of the hut is by no means constant; in some cases it is sufficiently roomy to enable people to move about with ease and comfort, while in others it is so small that it is unbearably stuffy, and the smoke from the fire, which is always burning, makes it difficult to believe that anyone can long live in it. The entrance to [[29]]the hut is always very small, and is closed by a door which slides over the opening on its inner side.

Some houses are much longer than others, with a door at each end and a central partition, so as to form a double hut which is called epotirikhthars, i.e., “both-ways-turned house.” This kind of hut did not seem to be common, and I only saw three or four examples, of which one is shown in [Fig. 8].

A much more common kind of double hut is called merkalars, i.e., “other-side house,” in which the back part of the hut is partitioned off, with a door at one side.

FIG. 8.—THE VILLAGE OF PEIVÒRS, SHOWING A DOUBLE HUT (IN THE BACKGROUND). THE TWO BUILDINGS ON THE LEFT ARE DAIRIES, AND THE STRUCTURE IN THE CENTRE IS A CALF-HOUSE.

In some Toda villages there may now be found huts of the same kind as those of the Badagas. In the cases in which I found such huts, I was told that they had been built by Badagas who had lived in the villages while the Toda occupants were away. Todas may also occasionally be found living away from their own villages, usually near tea plantations. They do this because there is a demand for buffalo manure at the plantations, and when living in this way they not uncommonly use huts of the Badaga pattern.

In front of the hut on either side of the door there are usually raised seats called kwottün, and there are similar [[30]]raised portions, called tün, within the huts on which the people sleep. The floor of the hut is divided into two parts, which are marked off from one another by the hole in which grain is pounded by the women. The part in front of this is often used for churning, and with this part women have nothing to do, their operations being limited to the hinder part.

FIG. 9.—A TODA MAN, SIRIAR (20), WITH HIS WIFE AND CHILD, SHOWING THE ORDINARY METHOD OF WEARING THE ‘PUTKULI.’

There is little difference between the dress of men and women. Each wears a mantle called the putkuli, which is worn thrown round the shoulders without any fastening. Under it is worn a loin-cloth called tadrp, and the men also wear a perineal band called kuvn, corresponding to the Hindu languti. The kuvn is kept in position by a string round the waist called pennar, a string which, we shall see later, is of considerable ceremonial importance.

There are various ways of wearing the cloak which will be [[31]]more fully described in [Chapter XXIV]. It will be sufficient to say here that when showing reverence, a Toda bares his right arm, this method of wearing the cloak so that the arm is exposed being called kevenarut. It is shown in Figs, 1 and 10.

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The Daily Life of the Todas

The daily life of the Toda men is largely devoted to the care of their buffaloes and to the performance of the dairy operations. As we shall see later, much of the dairy work is the duty of certain men set aside to look after the sacred buffaloes and the sacred dairies connected with them. A large proportion, however, of the Toda buffaloes are not sacred, and their care falls on the ordinary Todas. The milking and churning is chiefly the duty of the younger men and boys, but the older men also take their part, while the head of the family exercises a general superintendence.

FIG. 10.—KÒDRNER PERFORMING THE SALUTATION CALLED ‘KAIMUKHTI.’ HIS RIGHT ARM IS BARED (‘KEVENARUT’), AND HE HAS REMOVED HIS TURBAN.

On rising in the morning, the men salute the sun with the gesture called kaimukhti, shown in [Fig. 10], and then they turn to their work of milking the buffaloes and churning the milk.

When the dairy operations of the morning are over, the buffaloes are driven to the grazing ground, the people take their food and go about any business of the day. Some may [[32]]collect firewood and procure the leaves used as plates and drinking vessels; others may carry out any necessary tendance which the buffaloes require, or may go to fetch grain or rice from Badaga villages or from the bazaar. The chief men of the village may perhaps have to attend a meeting of the naim, or council, which holds very frequent sittings to adjudicate upon the many disputed points which arise in connexion with the intricate social organisation of the people.

While the men are doing their work, the women will have been seeing to their special tasks, of which three, represented in [Fig. 11], have come to be regarded as pre-eminently woman’s work.

They pound the grain with the wask in a hole situated in the middle of the floor of the hut,[4] and when the pounding is finished the grain is sifted with the murn, or sieve, and the hut is swept with the kip. It seemed that pounding grain is normally performed wearing the tadrp only.

Though these are the three operations which are regarded as pre-eminently woman’s work, the women have other things to do. They rub the seats or beds both inside and outside the hut with dried buffalo-dung, and use the same material to cleanse the various household utensils. They mend the garments of the family, and some women devote much time to the special embroidery with which they adorn their cloaks.

FIG. 11.—WOMEN POUNDING AND SIFTING. THE BROOM IS ON THE GROUND TO THE RIGHT.

The ordinary routine of the day is often broken by the visits of people from other villages, who may have come to talk over a proposed marriage or transference of wives; to announce some approaching ceremony; to discuss some business connected with the buffaloes, or perhaps, but probably rarely, to pay a friendly call. Such a visit will probably give the opportunity of observing the characteristic Toda salutation shown in [Fig. 12].[5] This is essentially a salutation between a woman and her male relatives older than herself. If a man [[33]]visits a village in which he has any female relatives younger than himself, these will go out to meet him as he approaches the house, and each bows down before the man, who raises his foot, while the woman places her hand below the foot and helps to raise it to her forehead, and the same salutation is repeated with the other foot. This mode of greeting is [[34]]called kalmelpudithti,[6] or “leg up he puts.” It is usually a salutation in which women bow down before men, but it may also take place between two men or between two women, while on certain occasions a male may bow down and have his forehead touched by the feet of a woman.

In the evening the buffaloes again find their way to the milking-place, and the operations of the morning are repeated. When these are finished the buffaloes are shut up in the enclosure, or tu, for the night; the lamp is now lighted and saluted by the men who use the same gesture as that with which the sun had been saluted in the morning. The people then take their food and retire to rest.

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Sketch of Social Organisation

I shall consider the social organisation in detail at a much later stage, but it is necessary to give here a brief sketch in order to make its main features clear before going on to describe the Toda ceremonial, which often shows differences according to the division or clan with which the ceremony is connected. The fundamental feature of the social organisation is the division of the community into two perfectly distinct groups, the Tartharol and the Teivaliol. As we shall see more fully later, there is a certain amount of resemblance between these two divisions and the castes of the Hindus. There is a certain amount of specialisation of function, certain grades of the priesthood being filled only by members of the Teivaliol. Further, marriage is not allowed between members of the two divisions, though certain irregular unions are permitted; a Tarthar man must marry a Tarthar woman, and a Teivali man a Teivali woman. The Tartharol and Teivaliol are two endogamous divisions of the Toda people.

Each of these primary divisions is subdivided into a number of secondary divisions. These are exogamous, and I shall speak of them throughout this book as ‘clans,’ using this word as the best general term for an exogamous division of a tribe or community. [[35]]

FIG. 12.—THE ‘KALMELPUDITHTI’ SALUTATION TAKING PLACE AT THE VILLAGE OF NÒDRS. ON THE LEFT IS THE HOUSE; ON THE RIGHT IS THE LESS IMPORTANT DAIRY OF THE VILLAGE (THE ‘TARVALI’), AND IN FRONT OF IT IS THE STONE CALLED ‘MENKARS.’

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Each clan possesses a group of villages and takes its name from the chief of these villages, the etudmad, and the people of a clan are known as madol, or village people.

The Tartharol are divided into twelve clans, which take their names from the villages of Nòdrs, Kars, Pan, Taradr, Keradr, Kanòdrs, Kwòdrdoni, Päm, Nidrsi, Melgars, Kidmad, and Karsh.[7] The people of each clan are known as Nòdrsol, Karsol, Panol, &c. The Kidmadol and Karshol are much less important than the other ten clans, having split off from the Melgarsol in comparatively recent times. The original number of Tarthar clans appears to have been ten, and I have no record that any clan of this division has become extinct.

The Teivaliol are divided into six clans, or madol, taking their names from the villages of Kuudr, Piedr, Kusharf, Keadr, Pedrkars, and Kulhem. The people of Kuudr are called both Kuudrol and Kuurtol, and similarly the people of Piedr and Keadr are often called the Piertol and Keartol.

Here again two clans, the Pedrkarsol and the Kulhemol, are less important than the others. They are offshoots of the Kuudrol, but the separation is of very long standing.

There was some doubt as to the existence of another clan, the Kwaradrol, but it seemed certain that these people, who have now died out, formed a subdivision of the Keadrol.

One Teivali clan has become extinct, its last member having died, it was said, about a hundred years ago. This clan took its name from the village of Kemen, which was near Kiudr, but no trace of this village exists at present and I think it probable that the Kemenol have been extinct longer than the Todas suppose.

The villages of each clan are usually situated in the same part of the hills, though there are very often outlying villages far from the main group. At any one period of the year, only some of the villages of the clan are occupied. The people may move about from one village to another according [[37]]to the need for pasturage, and the villages in the Kundahs and other outlying parts of the hills appear only to be visited during the dry season before the south-west monsoon sets in.

Each clan is further subdivided, these subdivisions being of two kinds. One, called the kudr, is only of ceremonial importance, and we shall meet with it first in the chapter dealing with offerings. The other, called the pòlm, is of more practical importance, and is the basis of the machinery for regulating any expenses which fall on the clan as a whole. [[38]]

[1] Those who wish for information on this point should consult the articles by Mr. Edgar Thurston in the Bulletins of the Madras Museum, vol. i., pp. 148 and 207, and vol. iv., p. 2. [↑]

[2] The word marth is also occasionally used. [↑]

[3] Harkness and others have called this pen tuel, but repeated inquiry on my part failed to elicit this form of the word. Tuelu would mean “where is the tu?” and it is possible that Harkness heard the word in this form. [↑]

[4] For the purpose of photography, a hole was made outside the hut exactly like that within the hut. The picture must not be taken to indicate that pounding is ever normally performed out of doors. [↑]

[5] The old man on the right in this picture shows a very characteristic Toda attitude, in which a person crouches down completely enveloped in the cloak. [↑]

[6] This salutation has been previously known by its Badaga name, adabuddiken. [↑]

[7] In these names and throughout the text the signs to indicate long vowels are generally omitted. In order to ascertain the exact method of pronunciation, the map or the list of villages in [Appendix III]. should be consulted. [↑]

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CHAPTER III

DAIRIES AND BUFFALOES

The milking and churning operations of the dairy form the basis of the greater part of the religious ritual of the Todas. The lives of the people are largely devoted to their buffaloes, and the care of certain of these animals, regarded as more sacred than the rest, is associated with much ceremonial. The sacred animals are attended by men especially set apart who form the Toda priesthood, and the milk of the sacred animals is churned in dairies which may be regarded as the Toda temples and are so regarded by the people themselves. The ordinary operations of the dairy have become a religious ritual and ceremonies of a religious character accompany nearly every important incident in the lives of the buffaloes.

Among the buffaloes held by the Toda to be sacred there are varying degrees of sanctity, and each kind of buffalo is tended at its own kind or grade of dairy by its own special grade of the priesthood; buffaloes and dairies forming an organisation the complexities of which were far from easy to unravel.

Each kind of dairy connected with its special kind of buffalo has its own peculiarities of ritual. The dairies form an ascending series in which we find increasing definiteness and complexity of ritual; increasing sanctity of the person of the dairyman-priest, increasing stringency of the rules for the conduct of his daily life, and increasing elaboration of the ceremonies which attend his entrance upon office. There are also certain dairies in which the ritual has developed in [[39]]special directions, and there are special features of the organisation of buffaloes and dairies not only in each of the two chief divisions of the Toda people, but also in many of the clans of which each division is composed.

I propose in this chapter to sketch some of the chief features of the buffalo and dairy organisation, and in succeeding chapters there will follow detailed accounts of the different dairies and of the ceremonial which accompanies the daily work of the dairy and the important events of buffalo life.

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The Dairy Organisation

The first distinction to be made concerns the buffaloes. These animals are divided into those of a sacred character and those which may be called ‘ordinary buffaloes.’ The latter are known as putiir; they may be kept at any village, are tended by the men and boys of the village—in Toda language, they are tended by perol, or ordinary persons—and their milk is churned in the front part of the dwelling-hut. There is no special ritual of any kind connected with these buffaloes or with their milk, and there are no restrictions on the use of the milk or its products.

The classification of the sacred buffaloes is very different in the two divisions of the Toda people. The Teivaliol possess only one class of sacred buffalo and these buffaloes are called collectively pasthir. The Tartharol, on the other hand, have several classes of sacred buffalo, and, so far as I could ascertain, they have properly no collective term for all of them, though they are often spoken of by the Teivali term, pasthir.

Possessing only one kind of sacred buffalo, the dairy organisation of the Teivaliol is comparatively simple. The milk of the pasthir is churned in dairies at the more important villages of each clan. The dairy is, in general, called pali,[1] and the dairyman is called palikartmokh, ‘dairy watch-boy,’ or palikartpol, ‘dairy watch-man,’[2] according to his age; but, [[40]]probably owing to the general custom of employing youths or young men to fill the office of dairyman, the term palikartmokh is in far more general use, and is often employed even when the dairyman is an elderly man.

At many of the chief Teivali villages, there are two dairies; a large dairy, called etudpali, and a smaller, called kidpali. Each of these dairies should have its own palikartmokh, and this is still the case when both dairies are used, but at most villages at the present time one of the two dairies has been disused and there is in consequence only one dairyman.

Both ordinary and sacred buffaloes are the property, not of the whole clan, but of families or individuals, and the buffaloes tended at the dairy of a village are, in general, the property of the family living at that village. A large clan with many villages, such as that of Kuudr, has many dairies in working order and a corresponding number of dairymen.

Among the Tartharol the organisation is far more complicated. Most Tarthar clans have more than one kind of sacred buffalo in addition to the ordinary buffaloes or putiir. In every clan there is one kind of sacred herd which may be said to correspond to the pasthir of the Teivaliol. The milk of these buffaloes is churned in a dairy called pali by a dairyman called palikartmokh or palikartpol. There are, however, two grades of dairy corresponding to these buffaloes. The lower grade is called the tarpali, or more commonly tarvali, and is served by a tarvalikartmokh. The higher grade is called kudrpali, tended by a kudrpalikartmokh. There is no distinction of buffaloes corresponding to this distinction of dairies, the same buffaloes being tended sometimes at a kudrpali and sometimes at a tarvali. The distinguishing feature of a kudrpali is the possession of a mani, or sacred bell, and the greater elaboration and stringency of its ritual is due to the presence of this sacred object.

In addition to the buffaloes tended at the tarvali or kudrpali, most Tarthar clans possess other sacred buffaloes called wursulir. These buffaloes are tended by a dairyman called wursol and their milk is churned in a dairy called wursuli or wursulipali. One point which marks off this branch of the dairy organisation from the preceding is that [[41]]the dairyman, or wursol, must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgars clan of the Tartharol. Both tarpalikartmokh and kudrpalikartmokh are chosen from the Tartharol, either of the same or of a different clan from that of the dairy, but the wursol must be taken either from the members of the other chief division of the Todas or from one special clan of the Tartharol, a clan which has many other peculiar privileges and occupies a position in some ways intermediate between Tartharol and Teivaliol.

The ritual of the wursuli is distinctly more elaborate than that of either tarvali or kudrpali, and the wursol is a more sacred personage, so far as one can judge from his rules of conduct and the elaboration of his ordination ceremonies.

Two Tarthar clans have dairies of especial importance and sanctity, in both of which there are distinctive features of ritual.

The people of Taradr possess a herd of buffaloes called kugvalir which take their name from the dairy, the kugvali or kugpali, meaning the chief or great dairy. The kugvalir are tended by a kugvalikartmokh, who must belong to the Taradrol. The six chief families of this clan take charge of the buffaloes for periods of three years in rotation, and the head of the family in charge selects the kugvalikartmokh.

The other Tarthar dairy which occupies an exceptional position is that of Kanòdrs, which is called a poh, and is tended by a dairyman called pohkartpol. The ritual both of this dairy and of the kugvali of Taradr resembles in some respects that of the most sacred Toda dairies, the dairies of the institution called the ti.

The number and nature of the dairies are different in the different Tarthar clans and in different villages of the same clan. The Melgars clan has only one kind of dairy, the tarvali. The Nòdrs clan now has a tarvali and a wursuli, and at most Kars villages there are both kudrpali and wursuli, but formerly both at Nòdrs and Kars there were three kinds of dairy, tarvali, kudrpali, and wursuli. Some Pan villages have tarvali and wursuli, others kudrpali and wursuli. At Taradr there are both tarvali and wursuli in addition to the special institution of that clan, the kugvali. [[42]]

All these various kinds of dairy are situated at the villages where the people live. In addition, five Tarthar clans possess dairies where are kept herds of great sanctity, the herds of the ti or the tiir. These buffaloes are kept at special dairies far from any village where people live. A place where such a dairy is situated is called a ti mad, or ti village, and each sacred herd moves about from one ti mad to another at different seasons of the year, and the group of places, together with the herds connected with it, is known collectively as a ti.[3] The ti is thus the name of a special institution comprising buffaloes, dairies, grazing grounds, and the various buildings and objects connected with the dairies.

The ti is presided over by a dairyman-priest called palol, who is assisted by a boy or youth called kaltmokh or, more rarely, kavelol. Formerly it was the custom in most cases that a ti should have two palol, each of whom had his own herd of buffaloes and his own dairy, so that each ti mad had two dairies. This custom now persists in full at one ti only, though in other cases there are still two dairies, of which one is not used, or is only used on special occasions.

Though the ti is, in every case, regarded as the property of a Tarthar clan, the palol must be chosen from the Teivaliol, and in some cases the choice is restricted to certain Teivali clans. The kaltmokh must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgars clan of the Tartharol. The dairy of a ti is always called a poh.

The ritual of the ti reaches a far higher degree of complexity than is attained in any village dairy. The palol is a far more sacred personage than the wursol or the palikartmokh; his life is far more strictly regulated, and the ceremonies attendant on his entrance into office are far more elaborate. The ceremonies connected with dairy or buffaloes are more numerous, and when they correspond to ceremonies performed at the lower grades of dairy, they are much more elaborate and prolonged. [[43]]

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The Dairy

There are two forms of Toda dairy. One resembles very closely the ordinary hut, and, but for its situation and the higher wall which surrounds it, it might often be supposed to be one of the huts. The vast majority of dairies are now of this form. The other kind of dairy is circular with a conical roof. There are now only three or four of these buildings in existence, though others have only fallen into ruins in recent times. Breeks, who wrote in 1873, says[4] that at that time there were four, and a fifth in ruins.

The best known of these dairies is that at Nòdrs (the Manboa of Breeks), shown in [Fig. 13]. It has received the name of “the Toda Cathedral,” and is one of the show places of the Nilgiris. Another (shown in [Fig. 25]) is at Kanòdrs (the Mutterzhva of Breeks). Both are village dairies of especial sanctity; the Nòdrs building is in full working order, while that of Kanòdrs is only occupied occasionally. A third dairy of the conical form is at the ti place of Anto near Sholur (the Kiurzh of Breeks) and should be regularly visited once a year, though the year in which I was on the Nilgiris was an exception. The fourth dairy of the kind (called by Breeks Tarzhva) is at Tarsòdr on the Kundahs. It is also a ti dairy, but is now falling into ruins, having been disused for about twenty years. The ruined dairy mentioned by Breeks (Katedva) is said to be still in the same condition. It was used as a ti dairy, and is near Makurti Peak.

There is no doubt that conical dairies were at one time more numerous. There was one at the ti place of Enòdr, not far from Ootacamund. There was another at the village of Kars, and the circular wall which once surrounded the dairy still remains, and has been converted into a buffalo pen.

FIG. 13.—THE CONICAL DAIRY OF NÒDRS. THE STONE AT THE RIGHT-HAND END OF THE WALL IS THE ‘TEIDRTOLKARS’ (see p. [439]).

The various names given to the Toda dairies are at first sight very confusing. We have already seen that each kind of dairy is named according to the kind of buffalo connected with it—according to its position in the dairy-series connecting tarvali with ti. Each dairy has also its own special or individual [[45]]name; thus the kudrpali of Kars is called Tarziolv, and the wursuli of the same village, Karziolv.

In addition to these two sets of names, there is another distinction of a more general kind. There are two general names, poh and pali, and every dairy is one or other of these. The former name is given to every ti dairy, to every dairy of the conical form,[5] and to certain other dairies at the older and more important villages. Some of the latter are ordinarily called pali, but the name poh lingers in the name employed for the dairies in prayer (see [Chapter X]), or in the individual names of the dairies; thus the dairy at the ancient village of Nasmiòdr is ordinarily called a pali, but its individual name is Tilipoh. I think it probable that originally poh and pali were the names of the two forms of dairy, the conical kind being called poh and the ordinary kind pali. At the present time every existing conical dairy is a poh, and every dairy which is said to have been in the past of the conical form is called poh. It seems probable that in many cases a dairy, originally of the conical form, has been rebuilt in the same form as the dwelling-hut, owing to the difficulty and extra labour of reconstruction in the older shape; and that in some of these cases the dairy of the new form has retained the name of the old and is still called poh, at any rate on certain occasions. All the dairies to which the name poh is ever given are either ti dairies or are situated in villages of especial antiquity and sanctity.

There is now no definite rule as to the grade of dairymen who shall serve at a dairy called poh. The poh of a ti is, of course, occupied by a palol and kaltmokh. The conical poh of Nòdrs, the old conical poh of Kars, and several old dairies which are still called poh in the prayers are, or were, tended by dairymen of the rank of wursol, while several poh of the ordinary shape belonging to the Teivaliol are occupied by dairymen called palikartmokh. The only place at which the dairyman takes his name from the poh is Kanòdrs, where the conical dairy is occupied by a pohkartpol. [[46]]

FIG. 14.—THE LOWER PART OF THE CONICAL DAIRY OF NÒDRS, WHICH IS HIDDEN BY THE WALL IN [FIG. 13]. THE ‘WURSOL’ IS SHOWN EATING ‘AL’ FROM A LEAF-PLATE.