VI. BUFFALO MIGRATIONS
At certain seasons of the year it is customary that the buffaloes both of the village and the ti should migrate from one place to another. Sometimes the village buffaloes are accompanied by all the inhabitants of the village; sometimes the buffaloes are only accompanied by their dairyman and one or more male assistants.
There are two chief reasons [36] for these movements of the buffaloes, of which the most urgent is the necessity for new grazing-places. During the dry season, lasting from about December to March, the pasturage around the villages where the Todas usually live becomes very scanty, and the buffaloes are taken to places where it is more abundant. Many of these places are in or near the Kundahs, where the rainfall is greater than over the rest of the hills, and others are scattered here and there about the hills in spots where, owing to favourable conditions, the ground is less parched than elsewhere. At other seasons of the year it may happen that the grazing in the neighbourhood of a village becomes exhausted, and it becomes necessary to take the buffaloes to another place.
The other chief reason for the migrations is that certain villages and dairies, formerly important and still sacred, are visited for ceremonial purposes, or out of respect to ancient custom. Some of these places, such as the villages of Piedr and Kusharf, are in outlying parts of the hills, and are entirely unoccupied except on the occasion of these ceremonial visits. Another example is the ancient and sacred village of Nasmiòdr, of which there now only remains a dairy, situated in a grove in the middle of a valley cultivated by Badagas. It is visited once a year by the wursulir of Kars for about a month, and, as there is only scanty pasturage available, there is little doubt that the visit to this dairy has no utilitarian motive.
At the ti the same reasons hold good. Several of the ti herds have dairies, in or near the Kundahs, to which they go during the dry months of the year, while other dairies of special sanctity are visited only for a short time in each year. The dairy of Anto is a good example of the latter case; it is in an outlying part of the hills, and should be visited for one month every year, because it is the most sacred dairy of the ti.
The migrations of the ti buffaloes are more strictly regulated than are those of the village herds, and there are definitely prescribed rules for the order in which the dairies of the ti shall be visited, and for the duration of the stay at each, though, as we shall see later, these rules are not always followed.
As a general rule, the more ancient and sacred the dairy to which the buffaloes are going, the more elaborate are the ceremonies on reaching the new destination.
The day of migration is called irskidithbutnol or irnödrthnol.
MIGRATIONS OF THE VILLAGE BUFFALOES
My account of the ceremonial accompanying the migration from one village to another is unfortunately very incomplete. The following accounts were given by Teivali men, and I cannot guarantee that they hold good for both divisions and for all clans.
When it is decided to move to a fresh village certain men are chosen to help in the removal, and are told to come on the appointed day, which must not be one of the sacred days of the village (see Chap. XVII). On the morning of this day the palikartmokh abstains from food. He does the ordinary work of his dairy, and gives out buttermilk and butter to the women as usual. He then calls to the chosen men who have come to the village, and they stand outside the door of the dairy. The palikartmokh comes out, holding in his right hand the milking-vessel (irkartpun) and churning-stick (madth). He stands facing the sun, and salutes holding the vessel and churn to his forehead, and says “ekirzam meidjam,” the kwarzam of Teikirzi and Tirshti. Then all present pray, using the prayer of the dairy. The palikartmokh puts the milking-vessel and the churning-stick at the back of the dairy (the palimerkal), and then brings the other dairy things, carrying out those of the patatmar first and then those of the ertatmar. Two stout sticks are prepared, each called pütusht, and the various objects of the patatmar are fastened on one stick and those of the ertatmar on the other, in the way shown in Figs. 29 and 30. [37] When the things have been fastened on the sticks, all go to the front of the huts of the village and take food, after which the procession starts. It is headed by the buffaloes, followed by the dairyman and the men carrying the dairy vessels. Each of the latter carries the staff on his left shoulder and has the right arm out of the mantle. The man carrying the things of the patatmar walks in front of the man carrying those of the ertatmar, as shown in the figures. After the buffaloes, the dairyman, and the dairy vessels, there follow any men who are accompanying the procession, and if all the inhabitants of the village are migrating, the women and children follow the men.
On leaving the village the women and girls may have to go for a certain distance by a different path from that taken by the buffaloes, but during the greater part of the journey there does not seem to be any regulation to prevent the women following in the wake of the sacred animals.
On reaching the new village, the palikartmokh purifies the dairy by throwing into it water mixed with tudr bark. [38] The dairy things are taken off the sticks at an appointed spot. The palikartmokh salutes the sun with irkarthpun and madth as in the morning, and then all pray. After the prayer, the palikartmokh takes some ferns (taf) and puts them on the place within the dairy where the things of the patatmar are to stand, and these are put in their places on the ferns. The things of the ertatmar are then arranged in the same way. The palikartmokh makes fire by friction, lights the lamp, and then goes to milk the buffaloes. If he has brought milk with him, he will churn it. Meanwhile a ceremony called nòtiteiti will have been performed by a little girl about six or seven years of age in those cases in which all the inhabitants of the village are migrating. Before leaving the village from which the people are coming this girl will have been given food in the dairy. On reaching the new place, the girl plucks three blades of the slender grass called kakar and goes to the front of the dairy and sweeps the threshold with the grass. She does this with her right arm outside her cloak, and when she has swept she bows down with her forehead to the threshold three times. If there is more than one dairy, she sweeps the threshold of each. The palikartmokh then gives her a small handful of butter and the girl goes to the huts. Up to this time the women will have been waiting near the village, but when they see that the girl has performed her ceremony, they go to the huts and prepare the food called ashkkartpimi. [39]
When the palikartmokh has finished milking, he also prepares food, and when it is ready he throws some into the fire, tòrtütrsersthi, “food into the fire he throws,” and then gives out the food to the people, and they eat both this and that prepared by the women.
At some places the ceremonial is more complicated than at others, the degree of elaboration depending on the sacredness of the dairy to which the buffaloes are going. When they migrate to the especially sacred village of Kiudr the extra complexity seems to depend on the presence of the bells of the dairy of that village. When the palikartmokh reaches Kiudr, he puts the dairy things he has brought with him at the back of the dairy. Another palikartmokh goes into the inner room and brings out the bells called patatmani and lays them by stones called neurzülnkars at one side of the dairy (see Fig. 31). He enters again and brings out four ertatmani, which he lays by the side of another group of stones called neurzülnkars (see Fig. 32). The second palikartmokh then purifies the dairy with tudr bark and puts the vessels which have been brought to Kiudr in their places on a bed of ferns in the way which has been described. After all the vessels are in their places, he takes the patatmani to the dairy stream, while the first palikartmokh brings tudr bark. The tudr bark is pounded and the juice squeezed over the bells. The two patatmani, having thus been purified, are then put on a forked stick and carried to their usual place in the dairy. The same procedure is repeated with the ertatmani, which are strung on a piece of bamboo and hung on another piece of bamboo which projects from the wall on the ertat side of the dairy. Then milk is put on the patatmani and buttermilk on the ertatmani as usual.
MIGRATION OF THE TI BUFFALOES
I obtained a very full account of the migration of the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti and will first give an account of the proceedings for this herd.
The Toda year begins during October with the ceremony of teutütusthchi (see Chap. XIII) and at this time the buffaloes should be standing at Mòdr, near Paikara. Soon after this ceremony, the herd goes to Anto, the most important and sacred of the ti places. They stay here for a month and then go to Majòdr, not far from Makurti Peak, where they stay during the dry season, stopping about three months or longer, according to the nature of the weather. It is often not until May is reached that the buffaloes return to Mòdr and stay there till August, when they cross the Paikara river to the two dairies, Òdrtho and Kudreiil, on the opposite bank. The tiir stay at Òdrtho and the warsir at Kudreiil for a month and then both return to Mòdr.
In 1902 this plan was very much disturbed. In order to go from Mòdr to Òdrtho and Kudreiil the herds and their attendants have to cross the river, and under no circumstances is the palol allowed to cross by the bridge. He usually watches his opportunity till the river is low enough at a certain ford to allow him to cross, but the summer of 1902 was unusually wet and the river was never sufficiently low to allow the passage, and in consequence Òdrtho and Kudreiil were not visited in that year.
Later it was arranged that the migration to Anto should take place on November 2nd. I was told that I might accompany the procession for part of the way, and was looking forward greatly to the occasion, as it was evident that it was my only chance of seeing and photographing the contents of the dairy. As the day approached, the migration was postponed because Teitnir, who was celebrating the funeral ceremonies of his wife and was therefore ichchil, had crossed the way by which the procession would have to pass. The ceremony was next arranged for November 23rd, but was then further postponed till the 30th. This was the last Sunday before the day on which I intended to leave the hills, and again I made arrangements to see the proceedings. No sooner had I done so than I was told that the procession was postponed for a week and was to take place on the day after I had left Ootacamund. I at once altered my plans and arranged to see the procession on December 7th. A new obstacle at once intervened, and I was told that the journey to Anto was deferred indefinitely, and, as I learnt afterwards from Samuel, the buffaloes did not go to Anto at all that year, but went direct from Mòdr to Majòdr on Wednesday, January 7th. All this occurred after the misfortunes had happened to which I have already referred—misfortunes which were believed to be the direct consequence of my investigations—and it seemed quite clear that the various postponements and final abandonment of the journey to Anto were due to the fear that some misfortune might befall the sacred herd if I saw the procession.
It will be noticed that the herd of the Nòdrs ti may pass the greater part of the year at Mòdr, which is not one of the three most ancient dairies of the ti. It has become the most frequented because it is the most convenient, occupying a more central situation than most of the other dairies. Majòdr is also not one of the most ancient dairies, but is visited purely on account of grazing necessities. Anto and Òdrtho, the two out of the three places given originally by Teikirzi according to the legend, are visited not from necessity, but on account of their sanctity, and, as we have seen, it may happen under exceptional circumstances that neither place may be visited and the whole year passed at Mòdr and Majòdr.
It is only when going to Anto and Òdrtho that some of the most remarkable features of the buffalo migration ceremonies are carried out, and if these dairies should fall into disuse, as would seem not improbable, these features of the migration ceremonies would certainly vanish.
As we have seen, the migration to the relatively unimportant dairy of Majòdr may take place on a Wednesday, but when going to the more important places a Sunday must be chosen. The orthodox day is the first Sunday after the new moon, but so far as I could gather from the various days appointed for the migration during my visit there is no very strict adherence to the rule. A week before the migration a second kaltmokh is appointed who goes through the customary ordination ceremony. It is also arranged that a Melgars man (mòrol) shall come to carry some of the contents of the dairy. When the buffaloes are going either to Anto or Òdrtho it is absolutely necessary that a mòrol shall be present, who goes in front of both palol and kaltmokh and has certain well defined duties. The procession may also be accompanied by any Toda who has no ichchil and these people may help in driving the buffaloes and in carrying the less important things from the dairy. Badagas may also accompany the procession.
The day of the migration is called irnödrthnol, and on the morning of this day the churning is done as usual, and sufficient milk is drawn to provide as much as can be safely carried in one of the persin without spilling it. All who take part in the procession must go without food on the morning of this day, and the palol does not take buttermilk as usual. The various objects which are to be taken with the buffaloes are brought out of the dairy and laid by a stone called the pepkusthkars, which in some places, and possibly everywhere, is in or near the wall of the tu.
The dairy vessels are carried according to well-defined rules. The things of the inner room and the intermediate objects, the lamp and the idrkwoi, are carried by the palol. The mòrol carries some of the things of the outer room and one of the horns. The two kaltmokh carry the other things of the outer room, the other horns and their own possessions.
The dairy vessels, &c., are carried by each man on a staff cut from the mòrs tree, the staff being called pepkati (the pütusht of the village migration). Each of the persin and alug is fixed on the staff by placing it on a roll of kakhudri, called a tedshk, round which six pieces of the string called twadrinar are tied. The six strings are passed round the vessel and fastened to the staff. The palol fastens on the three persin in such a way that when the staff is on his shoulder two of the vessels will be in front of him and the other behind his back, one of the vessels in front containing milk. The tòrzum are placed on the top of the persin as when they are in the dairy, and the persinkudriki is carried in the peptòrzum. The kwoi is fastened on in front, and the kòghlag and wands are placed along the staff. The lamp is put inside the idrkwoi and the latter tied to the end of the stick, so that it is behind the back of the palol when being carried. Care is taken that an interval is left between the idrkwoi and the other things; even when being carried from one dairy to another the objects intermediate between those of the inner and those of the outer room are kept separate from and not allowed to touch the more sacred vessels of the inner room. The staff with its burdens is carried by the palol on his left shoulder in the same way as is shown in Fig. 29, illustrating the method of carrying the things of the village dairy.
The mani is carried by the palol on his right side. A staff of kiaz wood is cut, about five cubits (mogoi) in length, which must be perfectly straight with a fork at one end. The bell is covered completely with kiaz leaves tied with rattan fastenings, and put on the fork of the staff by its ring. The staff is carried upright in the right hand of the palol; if he becomes tired he may rest it on his shoulder, but this must be done in such a way that the forked end of the stick carrying the bell comes in front of his body, otherwise the palol would be presenting his back to the sacred object.
At the Nòdrs ti there is an exception to the ordinary rule in the case of the mani of the tiir. It will be remembered that this bell is reputed to have been born in a persin during the migration from Amnòdr, and the bell is therefore carried in one of the persin during the migration from one dairy to another. In its place the palol of the tiir carries in his right hand the churning stick with its churning end upwards.
The mani is the only object of the inner room which is covered with leaves, so that it may not be exposed to the vulgar gaze. The lamp is also hidden from view within the idrkwoi, but I do not know whether this is for the same reason or merely because it is a convenient way of carrying it.
The mòrol carries the large earthenware vessels of the outer room (alug), which are at least four in number. They are tied on a staff by means of tedshk in the same manner as are the persin. This is done by the kaltmokh, who puts the staff and its burden on the left shoulder of the mòrol, taking particular care that the vessels do not touch the man. The mòrol carries one of the horns in his right hand.
Before the procession starts each mani is hung on the neck of a calf, left on for a minute or so, taken off and put on its staff. The mani of the tiir called Persin is put on the neck of a two-year-old calf of the unir, and that of the warsir, Keu, is put on the neck of one of the perithir.
If any dairy vessels or implements are not taken with the buffaloes, they are not left in the dairy, but hidden in a wood.
The procession then starts with the mòrol at its head. In some cases a halt is made when passing certain places, and prayer is offered by the palol. In going from Mòdr to Anto the procession stops first at Pòrstib near Tedshteiri village (belonging to the Nòdrsol), where the wars palol puts the staff carrying the mani on a stone and prays while touching the staff with his hands. The next halt is made at Ponvtüt, where the buffaloes separate from the palol and follow a slightly different route, and here the wars palol again prays. The procession halts for a third time at a place called Teirpül, near Anto, but this time it is the ti palol who prays after having placed the churning stick and bell on a stone.
On its way to Anto the procession passes near the village of Kiudr. When the buffaloes are seen to be coming, the women leave the house and go to the outskirts of the village, taking with them the pounder, sieve and broom, and wait there while the procession is going by. All the people of Kiudr fast on this day till after the buffaloes have passed.
It was said that on this day the palikartmokh of Kiudr used to rub clarified butter on the stones called neurzülnkars, but there was some doubt about this, and if the custom ever existed it seems to have fallen into disuse.
According to some accounts, certain clauses especially referring to the migration of the ti buffaloes are used in the prayer of the Kiudr dairy (see Chap. X).
On reaching the outskirts of the new place, the Todas who have accompanied the procession go away. The staff carried by the mòrol is taken off by the kaltmokh, who is again very careful that the vessels do not touch their bearer. Although the mòrol is allowed to carry some of the less sacred vessels, care is taken throughout that the vessels shall not be contaminated by touching his body or his clothing.
All the dairy vessels are taken off and laid by a stone called the perskars, and then follows the ceremony of peputi. Each palol has carried with him some milk in one of the persin. Some of this is poured into the peptòrzum [40] and given to certain buffaloes, one of each kind belonging to the ti; thus, at the Nòdrs ti, the milk is given to five buffaloes, to three by one palol and to two by the other. The milk may be given to buffaloes directly from the tòrzum, or it may be poured into the hands of the palol from which the appointed buffaloes drink.
The next business is the purification of the dairy, called nòdrkorsi arspishpimi—i.e., we wash with nòdrkorsi. The palol goes to the dairy spring or kwoinir with the karitòrzum, carrying the kwoinörtpet under his left arm. He throws tudr bark into the spring, fills the karitòrzum and returns. He puts tudr bark into the karitòrzum and also into the idrkwoi and then pours the water from the karitòrzum into the idrkwoi, which he takes to the dairy and throws the water with his hands first over the dairy vessels and then well into the dairy itself so that it penetrates to the inner room. He throws the water first on the floor, then to the roof and to the sides, three times to each. Next he takes three sprigs of the plant ordinarily called kabudri (Euphorbia Rothiana), but at the ti called nòdrkorsi and ties it over the door of the dairy.
The dairy vessels, which have been untied and placed on the ground near the perskars, are then purified and put in their places. The palol first takes up the peptòrzum with the persinkudriki within it, the kòghlag, the kwoi and kwoinörtpet, all in the right hand, and carries them to the front of the dairy, where he repeats certain kwarzam of the prayer, then turns to the east and says the whole prayer of the dairy, salutes the dairy holding the four things to his forehead, enters, puts the things except the kwoinörtpet in their places, comes out with the kwoinörtpet under his left arm and without turning his back to the interior of the dairy, and shuts the door of the building. He then takes in the other vessels of the inner room, carrying the kwoinörtpet under his left arm and without repeating the prayer. One persin is taken in first, then the others, the karitòrzum and the tedshk. Then the mani is taken, being carried in the right hand and laid temporarily on the floor near the persin; when taking in the bell certain kwarzam are said.
The wand called pohvet is next taken in and laid in its place, and then the things intermediate between the inner and outer room—viz., the lamp, which is hung in its place, and the idrkwoi, which is put exactly at the line of junction of the two rooms.
After this the things of the outer room are put in their places. Fire is made by friction, and the tòratthwaskal lighted, light transferred from this to the pelkkatitthwaskal, and with the fire so made the palol lights the lamp.
In most cases the buffaloes are then milked, but at Anto and Òdrtho, before milking, the palol begins an extraordinary ceremony, in which the kaltmokh is concerned, which is continued till the following day.
For this ceremony food is especially prepared by the palol. He mixes husked grain (patcherski), brought by the Badagas who accompany the procession, with buttermilk and jaggery, [41] spreads butter on the mixture, and, putting it on a kakud leaf, takes it out to one of the two kaltmokh who is sitting in a given place about ten yards from the dairy. The kaltmokh must now stay on this spot till the evening.
After the palol has milked, he takes food himself and gives it to the mòrol. Before going to rest for the night a ceremony is performed called irtupadrchiti, “he prays for the buffaloes at the tu.” The two palol go to the front of the tu [42] in which the buffaloes have been put for the night and they pray, using the kwarzam of the ti and of the gods only. They then go to the sleeping hut, where the second kaltmokh has swept the floor and prepared a fire. When the palol come to the hut they bawl out in a high key three times and the kaltmokh does the same and they go to bed, the two palol occupying one bed (tün) and the mòrol and the second kaltmokh the other. After they have been in the hut some time, the first kaltmokh, who has been sitting till now outside at the place where he was given food, creeps into the hut and lies down to sleep between the two beds without any covering. No notice of him must be taken by the other occupants of the hut.
The following day is called punirsnol. In the early morning, before the others are awake, the first kaltmokh must get up, light the fire, warm himself, and then go out and sit on the same spot as on the previous evening. He remains there till the two palol come to him to continue the ceremony in which he is concerned.
When the palol rise they do their usual work, and when they have milked they perform a ceremony called karkutkîrsiti, [43] in which the calves are prayed for in the same way that the buffaloes were prayed for on the previous evening. The second kaltmokh collects the calves in the pepkarmus, or milking-place of the buffaloes, and the two palol, each with empty kwoi and with kwoinörtpet, pray as on the previous evening using the kwarzam of the ti and some of the kwarzam of the gods, and then bawl out in a high key three times in order to scatter the calves.
The ceremony with the kaltmokh is then continued. Each of the palol takes the vessel used for ladling buttermilk (mòrkudriki); one palol fills his vessel with the milk of punir and the other fills with nei (clarified butter). Each leaves his dairy, and they both call to the kaltmokh, who comes to the threshold of the ti poh, and stands there while the two palo, mix the milk and nei. The kaltmokh is then told to hold out his hands, and each palol pours out the mixture into the hands of the boy, who rubs it over his head first, and then all over his body. After the kaltmokh has thus been bathed in milk and nei, the three people walk in procession to the spot where the kaltmokh had been sitting, the kaltmokh going first, followed by the wars palol and the ti palol in order. As they walk, the two palol say the following words:—
Köda mâ; pîrzi puti vurmâ; pob ers vurmâ; per die may (he); tiger catch (him) may; snake bite (him) may; steep hill
pûdith vurmâ pâkh pûdith vurmâ pudi eri fall down (on him) may; river fall (on him) may [44]; wild boar bite
mâ; kâdr pat mâ; kedrman par mâ. may; wild beast hold (catch him) may; bear carry (him) away may.
When they come to the spot where the kaltmokh had been given the food, the boy remains standing there while the two palol turn round and walk back in the dairy, saying:—
Köda mâ, idvaik, ultâmâ; pîrzi par mâ, die may (he), as was said, may he be well; tiger carry away may,
idvaik, para vômâ; per pur mâ, idvaik, puva as was said, carry away may not; steep hill fall may, as was said, fall
vômâ; pòb eri mâ, idvaik, eria vômâ; pâkh pur mâ, may not; snake bite may, as was said, bite may not; river fall may,
idvaik, puva vômâ; kâdr pat mâ, idvaik, pata as was said, fall may not; wild beast catch may, as was said, catch
vômâ; kedrman par mâ, idvaik, para vômâ; may not; bear carry away may, as was said, carry away may not;
pudi eri mâ, idvaik, eria vômâ. wild boar bite may, as was said, bite may not.
The ti palol then enters his dairy and brings out an especially large ball of the food called ashkkartpimi, more than can possibly be eaten at one sitting. It is given to the kaltmokh, who sits on the same spot as before, and eats as much of it as he can.
All this ceremony has been done after milking, and before drinking buttermilk (kaizhvatiti), which is now poured out by the second kaltmokh for the palol, who then go about their usual business. When the first kaltmokh has eaten as much as he can of his ball of food he leaves it on the spot where he has been sitting, and goes with the palol. The Todas say that the food left behind will never be touched by the crows, who will eat any other food.
In the afternoon the palol transact their ordinary dairy business and the kaltmokh returns to his place and resumes the consumption of his ball of food, staying on the spot till the end of the day. When the two palol have gone into the sleeping hut for the night, the kaltmokh goes into the hut after them and may then talk to the other occupants, and after this follows the usual routine.
During the whole of this ceremony the kaltmokh, who takes so prominent a part in it, is called the neurzutpol.
At the other dairies of the Nòdrs ti a ceremony which is obviously closely connected with that which has been described is performed at certain stones called neurzülnkars. At Mòdr there are four of these stones (shown in Fig. 33), and three of them are rounded and worn quite smooth, probably by much repetition of the ceremony about to be described.
On the day following the migration each palol takes a mòrkudriki, which one fills with milk and the other with butter (pen, not nei, as when rubbed on the kaltmokh). The two palol put milk on the stones and then rub them with butter. There is no cursing and the kaltmokh plays no part in the ceremony. There can be little doubt that the stones are regarded as taking the place of the kaltmokh, for while the latter is performing his ceremony he is called neurzutpol, and the stones anointed in the same way are called neurzülnkars.
The ceremony with the kaltmokh which follows the migration to the dairies of Anto and Òdrtho is one of the most extraordinary of Toda ceremonies. The leading feature of the ceremony appears to be the cursing of the kaltmokh, followed immediately by the removal of the curse. I was wholly unable to obtain any explanation of the ceremony from the Todas, but it seems probable that the kaltmokh is being made responsible for any offence which may have been committed against the very sacred dairies of Anto and Òdrtho. The kaltmokh having been cursed, and so made responsible, the curse is then removed in order to avoid the evil consequences which would befall the boy if this were not done.
It is possible that the kaltmokh is chosen as the person to be made responsible merely because he is the most convenient person to act as the recipient of any evil consequences. It is, however, probable that on this day the kaltmokh does something which he does not do on ordinary days, and thus commits an offence which has to be expiated. On the day of migration the kaltmokh does, as a matter of fact, see the sacred vessels of the inner room which are ordinarily hidden from his gaze behind the screen of the dairy. He sees the mani in its leafy covering, and he may even see the bell itself before it is covered. He also touches some of the vessels of the outer room which he does not ordinarily touch, and it may be that the cursing and other features of the ceremony are intended to obviate the possible evil consequences of these acts. At the ancient and sacred dairies of Anto and Òdrtho the ceremony is still carried out in its entirety, but at other dairies many of the chief features of the ceremony have disappeared and all that remains is the anointing of the neurzülnkars, which take the place of the head of the kaltmokh.
When the kaltmokh comes into the sleeping hut on the first night of the ceremony, my informants laid great stress on the fact that the other occupants of the hut must take no notice of the boy, who creeps in after the others have taken their places on the beds, and he must go out in the morning before they show signs of waking. It is probable that the boy had originally to sit all the night in the open air at the appointed spot, and though he is now allowed to come into the hut, no notice is taken of him because theoretically he is not there. It is quite in accordance with Toda ideas that this should be done and other instances of similar procedure will be given.
Another noteworthy feature of the ceremony is the act of giving the kaltmokh a larger portion of food than can possibly be consumed at one meal. This feature occurs in other Toda ceremonies, and especially in connexion with the ordination of the palol, to be described in the next chapter. I know nothing of the significance of this procedure.
At some time during the day following the arrival at the new ti mad, the dairy is well cleansed with dried buffalo-dung. Soon after the migration—on the following Wednesday at the Nòdrs ti and on Sunday at the Kars and the Pan ti—a special ceremony called ponup is performed, in which salt is given to certain sacred buffaloes, but this will be described, together with the other salt-giving ceremonies, in Chapter VIII.
The Melgars man who accompanies the procession of the Nòdrs ti stays at Anto till the following Wednesday; at other places he only stays till the day after the procession. The Toda way of putting this is that at Anto he stays erdpunrs—i.e., “two punrs.” One punrs is a day and its next day, so that erdpunrs is equal to four days. At other places the Melgars man stays only one punrs—i.e., he leaves the ti mad on the day following the migration.
The foregoing account applies to the Nòdrs ti. The general procedure is the same at the migration of other herds, but the ceremonial is, in general, less elaborate. At no other ti is there anything corresponding to the ceremonies in which the kaltmokh plays so important a part, and at no other ti is it absolutely necessary that a mòrol should take part in the procession, though, as a matter of fact, he usually also leads the way at the migrations of the Pan ti.
At the Kars ti the buffaloes pass the greater part of the year at Makars. They usually go to Neradr, where they stay about a month, and then go to Kòn for the dry season, returning to Makars in April. Sometimes they again stop at Neradr on their way from Kòn to Makars. It is probable that when the sacred dairy of Enòdr was still in use the ceremonial was more elaborate than it is at present. In the legend of Kwoto (see Chap. IX) an account is given of a ceremonial which occurred in former times during the migration from Kòn to Enòdr, and it is possible that this persisted until Enòdr was given up as a ti mad.
The herds of the Pan ti usually migrate with those of the Kars ti. They stand during the greater part of the year at Kudòdr, near Makars, and go to Neradr and Kòn as the dry season approaches.
In the case of the Pan ti, it seems that the bells travel on the necks of buffaloes; the mani called Kòsi on the neck of a buffalo called Kòsi, Pongg on a buffalo called Enmars, and Keituzan on one called Kòjiu. In this procession a mòrol goes first, followed by the tars palol, the wars palol, and the two kaltmokh in order.
At the present time there are no migrations of the buffaloes of the Kwòdrdoni ti or of the Nidrsi ti, and I have no information about the past. At Pursas, the present dairy of the Kwòdrdoni ti, there is a stone called neurzülnkars. I was told that nothing was done to it in connexion with the migrations of the buffaloes, but that it was rubbed with clarified butter and milk whenever the irnörtiti ceremony (see Chap. XIII) was performed at the ti.
VII. ORDINATION CEREMONIES
Before a dairyman enters upon office he has to undergo certain initial rites, which may fitly be spoken of as “ordination ceremonies.” These ceremonies vary greatly in their elaborateness, according to the dairy in which the candidate is to serve.
In the case of the ordinary dairyman, or palikartmokh, the proceedings are simple and may be accomplished in a few minutes, while for the highest grade of the priesthood they are extremely elaborate and prolonged over more than a week.
The essential feature of all the ordination ceremonies is a process of purification by drinking and washing with the water of a stream or spring used for sacred purposes only (palinipa or kwoinir). In every case the water is drunk out of certain leaves, and the body is rubbed with water mixed with the juice of young shoots or bark.
A general name for ordination is pelkkodichiti or pelkkatthtiti, “lamp he lights.” This name is derived from the fact that the first act in connexion with the dairy work which a new dairyman has to perform is to light the lamp of the dairy. The former of the two names given above was used especially in the case of the ordinary dairy and the latter in the case of the ti, but I am doubtful whether there is any strict limitation of the terms in these senses.
Another general name used for the ceremony of ordination is niròditi, which in a more limited sense is applied to the drinking and purification at the dairy stream or spring which is the essential feature of the ceremony. This term was very often used for the ceremony of ordination to the office of palol.
THE PALIKARTMOKH
The ceremony of ordination of the palikartmokh is called pelkkodichiti and very often muliniròditi, the latter being derived from the muli leaves used in the ceremony. The ordination may take place on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday. On the day before the ceremony the candidate goes to the dairy, takes his food there, and sleeps at night in the outer room. His food is prepared and given to him either by the outgoing palikartmokh or by some other man holding this office.
On the morning of the ceremony the candidate washes his hands in the pali nipa and goes to the front of the dairy, having a piece of the ordinary mantle round his waist. The assisting palikartmokh will have placed a small piece of the dark cloth called tuni on the threshold of the dairy, this small piece being called petuni. The candidate bows down (nersatiti), as in Fig. 20, at the threshold to the petuni, which he then raises to his forehead and puts in the string of his kuvn on the left side.
The candidate then plucks seven leaves of the kind called muliers—i.e., leaves of a plant called muli (Rubus ellipticus). This plant is also often called pelkkodsthmul, after the ceremony in which it is used. He also plucks a handful of young shoots or nan of the same plant, and takes the leaves and shoots to the dairy stream. At the stream he pounds the shoots with water on a stone, takes up some water from the stream with the pounded shoots, drops this water into one of the leaves three times, raises the leaf to his forehead, drinks (see Fig. 34), throws the leaf over his head and puts the shoots down on one side. When he squeezes the water from the shoots into the leaf-cup he holds the former in his right hand and the latter in his left, but when about to raise the leaf-cup to his forehead and drink he transfers it to his right hand. The candidate then takes a fresh piece of the pounded shoots and repeats with a second leaf, and so on till the seven leaves are finished, throwing the leaf over his head in each case after drinking.
He then takes all the pounded shoots which he has placed on one side, dips them in water, rubs them over his face and body three times, and puts them in his back hair, whence they are allowed to drop anywhere. In the only case in which I saw this ceremony I noticed that they remained in the hair till the end of the day.
The candidate then goes to the dairy, bows down at the threshold as in Fig. 20, and enters. If there are two rooms, he bows down in the same way at the threshold of the inner room. If there is a mani, he salutes it (kaimukhti) with hand to forehead. He next bows down to the patatmar and to the ertatmar, and finally touches a vessel of the ertatmar, usually the majpariv, and a vessel of the patatmar, the patat, and by doing this becomes a full palikartmokh. He proceeds to light the fire and the lamp and goes to milk the buffaloes.
There are a few small points in which the ordination of a Teivali dairyman differs from that of the Tartharol. The Teivaliol use three pieces of the grass called kakar, with which the candidate sweeps the threshold of the dairy before bowing down and entering, the grass being left on the threshold. Among the Teivaliol also the place of the petuni may be taken by the special kind of cloth called twadrinar, which is manufactured by the Todas, and in the case in which I saw the ceremony, the candidate wore this instead of petuni. The Tartharol must use petuni.
In the only case in which I saw this ceremony the ordination was to a Teivali dairy and the candidate was completely naked except for the kuvn. The Tarthar tarpalikartmokh wears part of an ordinary mantle as a loincloth during his ordination. The ceremony is the same for the kudrpalikartmokh as for the tarvalikartmokh, except that the former is quite unclothed except for the kuvn and that he alone has a mani to salute.
THE WURSOL
The ceremony begins either on Tuesday or Friday and lasts two days. On the first day the candidate goes early in the morning to the ordinary dairy of the village at which he is to be wursol; at Kars he goes to the kudrpali. He receives food from the palikartmokh and eats it sitting on the seat (kwottün) outside the dairy. He stays near the dairy till the afternoon. When the palikartmokh has finished his afternoon work and has distributed butter and buttermilk, one of the men of the village comes to the candidate and says, “Niròd!” The candidate throws off his cloak and is given either a full tuni or a piece of this garment called petuni. The palikartmokh then stands in front of the door of his dairy, and the candidate stands opposite to him and asks three times “Tunivatkina?”—“Shall I put on the tuni?” The palikartmokh replies each time “Vat!”—“Put on!” Then the candidate raises the garment to his forehead and if he has been given a complete tuni he puts it on; if only a petuni he puts it in the string of his kuvn. This string is ordinarily called pennar, but is now called kerk, and this part of the ceremony is called kerkatiti. The fact that this name is given seems to indicate that properly the complete garment should not be given till a later stage of the proceedings.
The candidate then finds seven leaves called muliers and seven shoots or nan of the same plant and goes through exactly the same ceremony at the stream as in the ordination of palikartmokh, putting the shoots in his back hair at the end. This part of the ceremony is called muliniròditi, and its object is to make the candidate a palikartmokh as a step towards becoming wursol. He is taken through the lower degree on his way to the higher.
After muliniròditi the candidate goes to the wall of the dairy and stands outside it. The palikartmokh brings a firebrand from the dairy and lights with it a fire of muli wood, at which the candidate warms himself. The firebrand must be one of the three following kinds—kid, pasòr or kiaz. After warming himself, the candidate goes to fetch bark of the tudr tree, which must not be cut, but knocked off with a stone. He also brings seven perfect tudr leaves, and goes again to the dairy stream. He pounds the bark on a stone and dips it in water, squeezes the water into one of the tudr leaves, drinks, throws over his head and puts the bark on one side exactly in the same way as before, but using tudr bark and leaves instead of the shoots and leaves of muli. After doing this seven times he dips the pounded bark in water, sprinkles his head and face three times, puts the bark in his hair, and, going a little way off, shakes his head.
The candidate then goes again to find bark and leaves of tudr, and repeats the whole ceremony and continues to repeat it till he has done it seven times—i.e., he drinks out of the tudr leaves seven times seven. After this he goes to the wood near the stream (at Kars, called Tarskars) and the palikartmokh comes to him there with the ertatpun filled with buttermilk, and with four leaves of the kind called kakuders. Two leaves are given to the candidate and two kept by the dairyman, and each folds the leaves in the usual way to make a cup (ersteiti). The dairyman then puts the ertatpun between his thighs and, holding it there, depresses it so that he can pour buttermilk into his leaf-cup; from this he pours into the leaf-cup of the candidate who then drinks, and this is repeated till the latter is satisfied. The palikartmokh brings food and fire from the dairy and both stay in the wood for the night, being allowed to have companions. The place where they sleep is called tavarpali.
In the morning the candidate again goes for tudr bark and leaves, and carries out the whole ceremony seven times as on the previous evening. He then goes to the tavarpali and waits there till the palikartmokh has finished his morning work, when the candidate again receives buttermilk and food. Then both go out together to look after the buffaloes.
When they return in the afternoon the candidate goes to the dairy stream and bathes from head to foot. This bathing is called tudraspipini (tudr I have washed), its object being to wash off the tudr bark previously used. After this he takes a piece of the cloth called twadrinar and, using it as a girdle in addition to that he already wears, he goes to the wall of the dairy while the palikartmokh digs up a vessel called mu which is buried in the buffalo pen. (At Kars the mu which is used is that of the tarvali.) The palikartmokh then puts the mu on the ground and stands by it. The candidate asks three times, “Muvatkina?” “Shall I touch the mu?” and the palikartmokh replies each time “Muvat!” The candidate then touches the mu, and by doing so becomes a full wursol. The mu is reburied by the palikartmokh.
All the ceremonies so far have taken place at or near the ordinary dairy, either tarvali or kudrpali, or at the stream belonging to one or other of these dairies. The candidate now for the first time goes to the dairy in which he is to be wursol (the wursuli) and prostrates himself at the threshold. He next enters and prostrates himself to the patatmar and then to the ertatmar. He takes up and puts in its place one of the vessels of the ertatmar and then one of the vessels of the patatmar. He salutes the mani (kaimukhti), lights the fire and the lamp and prays, using the prayer of the village. He then cleans the vessels and goes to milk, doing mani terzantirikiti with the first milk as usual.
I was especially told that if the candidate for the office of wursol wishes to scratch his head during his ordination ceremonies he must do so with a stick, but this is probably a feature of all ordination rites.
In the case of the wursol, it seemed that there is a difference in the ceremonial according to whether the dairy is occupied or not when the new dairyman enters upon office. The foregoing account applies to the case in which the dairy is already occupied and the new dairyman replaces another, so that there is no break in the continuity of the dairy proceedings. If the dairy should be unoccupied, I was told that the candidate would have to sleep for two nights in the wood, and there would almost certainly be additional purifications, but I did not learn the exact nature of the proceedings in this case.
Though I was only told of this difference of procedure in the case of the wursol, it is not unlikely that there is a corresponding difference of procedure in the case of other dairies when the dairy has been unoccupied. There will certainly be a ceremony of purification of the dairy, such as takes place when the buffaloes migrate to a new village, and probably the dairy vessels will also have to be purified.
THE KUGVALIKARTMOKH OF TARADR AND THE POHKARTPOL OF KANÒDRS
The ordination ceremonies of these two dairymen appear to be almost identical. So far as I could ascertain, the feature which the kugvalikartmokh of Taradr and the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs have in common is that they serve institutions to which a high degree of sanctity is attached. The ritual of both dairies bears some resemblance to that of the ti and, as we have already seen, the regulations for the conduct of the pohkartpol are, in some respects, even more stringent than those of the palol.
The kugvalikartmokh is ordained either on Wednesday or Sunday, the pohkartpol on Tuesday. On the night preceding the ordination the candidate sleeps in the wood. Seven leaves are used of the following kinds: pelkkodsthmul, [45] puthimul, änmul, takmul, kadakmul, tòrimul, and pathanmul. One leaf of each kind is taken and the leaves pounded together and used in the same way as the shoots of muli or the bark of the tudr tree, water being dropped from them into leaves of puthimul. The pounded leaves are then placed in the back hair as usual. This is followed by the ceremony of drinking water three times out of a leaf containing water and some buffalo-dung. The bark of the tudr tree is then rubbed all over the body, though no tudr leaves are used for drinking. The candidate attains his full office by touching a mu, prostrates himself at his dairy, enters and begins his work as in the dairies of a lower grade.
THE KALTMOKH
The ordination of the kaltmokh begins either on Sunday, Wednesday or Thursday. In the case of a kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti, the first part of the ceremony takes place at the village of Nòdrs, while in some cases it seems that the candidate may go to the same village of Òdr which is visited by the palol during his ordination. I have no information about the place of ordination in the case of the other ti dairies.
A boy who is to become kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti goes to Nòdrs either on Sunday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and, going to the ordinary dairy of that place (tarvali), he is given water by the palikartmokh in the vessel called pòlmachok. The boy washes his hands with this water and puts on a tuni which the palikartmokh gives him, after saying the same formula as in the ordination of wursol. He then does muliniròditi and so reaches the grade of palikartmokh. This and the following ceremony are done at a special stream at Nòdrs called niròdigudr. The purification ceremony is then performed with tudr bark and leaves till the candidate has drunk seven times seven. Food and buttermilk are given by the palikartmokh, and then the boy together with the palikartmokh and the wursol of Nòdrs pass the night in the wood near that place.
The next morning the candidate goes to the ordination stream and washes himself from head to foot. This is called tudraspipini, its object being the same as in the ordination of the wursol. The boy next goes to the front of the tarvali, where the palikartmokh gives him a special string made of twadrinar, which he puts round his waist as kerk, and then warms himself at a fire of muli wood. The palikartmokh brings a mu, which the candidate touches with the same formalities as in the ordination of wursol, and by so doing reaches the grade called perkursol, which is of the same rank as that of wursol. The perkursol then takes the mu into the tarvali, prostrating himself at the threshold before entering. He prostrates himself to the patatmar and to the ertatmar, puts the mu on the patatmar and comes out. He then goes to the poh, or conical dairy of Nòdrs, prostrates himself at the threshold, enters, and prostrates himself before patatmar, ertatmar and, finally, before the mani. Up to the point of saluting the bell in this way he keeps on the tuni but at this stage he throws it down and comes out of the dairy naked (except for the kuvn), puts on the ordinary cloak and goes to the dairy at which the ti buffaloes are standing.
When he reaches the ti mad, the candidate goes to the palol, whom he salutes with the words “îr kar ûdâ,” this salutation being called pîrwadrikpini. He goes to the sleeping hut, prostrates himself before the horns which are kept in this building, and then goes to the front of the dairy. He is now perkursol, and in order that he shall become full kaltmokh or tunitusthkaltmokh, the palol gives him a piece of tuni (petuni). The boy asks three times, “Tunitusthvaskina?”—“Shall I go to wash the tuni?”—to which the palol answers each time “Tusthva!”—“Wash, go!” The boy takes the petuni to the stream for ordinary use (not the kwoinir) and bathes from head to foot. He puts to himself three times the question, “tunitoikina?” and laying the piece of tuni on a stone, he pours water on it three times and returns with the petuni in his hand to the palol who will be sitting on his pohvelkars in front of the dairy. The palol asks three times, “Tunitusthpacha?”—“Have you returned from washing the tuni?”—and each time the boy replies, “tunitusthpuspini”—“I have come from washing the tuni.” Then both palol and boy go to the front of the kadr in which the calves are kept and the palol puts into the gate three bars (tasth), which shut the opening of the enclosure. The boy asks three times, “Tasthvatkina?”—“Shall I touch the tasth?”—and each time the palol replies “Tasthvat!” The boy, who hitherto has been perkursol, now touches the tasth, and by so doing attains the full rank of kaltmokh, and at once goes and pours buttermilk (kaizhvatiti) for the palol.
The latter parts of the ordination ceremonies of the kaltmokh, from the point at which he receives petuni from the palol to the touching of the tasth, are always performed whenever the kaltmokh returns to the ti after a journey in which it has been necessary to degrade himself to the rank of perkursol (see p. 106). The initial stages of becoming a kaltmokh are known in general as niròdibudnudr.
THE ORDINATION OF THE PALOL
In accordance with the fact that the palol belongs to the highest and most sacred grade of the dairy-priesthood, we find that the ceremonies preceding his entrance upon office are far more elaborate and prolonged than for the minor grades.
In order that a Teivali man may become a candidate for the office of palol he must first have gone through a preliminary qualifying ceremony called tesherst. When the office of palol becomes vacant, the people of the clan to which the ti belongs are restricted in their choice to those men who have been through this ceremony. When one of these qualified men has been selected, he then goes through the proper ordination ceremonies, known as niròditi.
In the case of a palol of the Nòdrs ti, the niròditi ceremonies are performed partly at Nòdrs, partly at Òdr, one of the most sacred villages of the Nòdrs clan, and finally at the ti mad where he is to hold office.
THE TESHERST CEREMONY
This qualifying ceremony for the office of palol is always performed by a number of men at the same time. The number taking part must be three, five, seven or nine. There seemed to be no doubt that it was not permissible for four, six or eight men to perform the ceremony together. One or two Todas told me that an even number of men might do the ceremony, but all the more trustworthy witnesses were agreed that there must be an uneven number, and on all the occasions of which I could obtain records of actual ceremonies, an uneven number of men had done tesherst together. The ceremony may not be performed while the funeral ceremonies of any Teivali person are uncompleted.
At the time of my visit there were only nine or ten men who had been through the tesherst ceremony, including those who were holding or had held the office of palol. It was proposed that a number of the younger men should perform the ceremony about this time, but it had to be delayed till the second funeral ceremonies of two Teivali women had been held.
The tesherst ceremony always begins on a Monday after the new moon. It takes place at certain villages where people are living, and in all the cases of which I obtained records it had been done at Kudrnakhum, belonging to the Nòdrsol, or at Pushtar, belonging to the Taradrol. People must be living at the village at the time the ceremony is performed.
The candidates go to the village on Monday evening, accompanied by two or three Nòdrs men. All go to a stream by a wood and the ceremony begins after sunset, when all the candidates throw off their cloaks and stand in a row. A man of the Nòdrs clan has a tuni in his hand and each candidate asks three times, “Tunivatkina?”—“Shall I touch the tuni?”—and each time the Nòdrs man replies, “Tunivat!” The first man in the row touches the tuni and then the others in order. The Nòdrs man then gives the tuni to the first man who touched it, and he tears it into as many pieces as there are candidates, giving a piece to each man, who puts it in the string of his kuvn. All then go in search of the leaves of muli and each plucks seven leaves and seven shoots. They go to the stream, one by one, and each drinks and rubs himself with the shoots seven times, as in the ordination ceremony, and puts the shoots in his back hair.
While they are doing this, the Nòdrs man will have made fire by friction, using the wood of muli, and the men warm themselves at the fire. Each man then goes in search of seven tudr leaves and tudr bark and carries out the usual purification ceremony once only, drinking out of each of the seven leaves, after which the men take food prepared by another of the Nòdrs men, and all pass the night in the wood. Next morning the men fetch tudr bark and leaves and repeat the drinking and rubbing ceremony of the previous evening, but on this occasion each man says “Teshniròdinem,” as he throws the leaf over his head after drinking. All then bathe completely in the stream.
While they are doing this, the Nòdrs men have been cooking a large amount of food, more than the candidates can readily eat, and an old woman of the Tartharol who is to take part in the ceremony has bathed and dressed in her best clothes and put on all the ornaments she can procure: gold earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings. When the men have bathed, they wait till the message comes that the food is ready, and then each man takes off his piece of tuni and his pennar and his kuvn, so that he is completely naked. The Nòdrs man portions out the food and puts it on tudr leaves, the portion for each man being more than he can possibly eat at one sitting, and the portions of food are given to the old woman, who sits down with her back to the men. Each man goes up behind the back of the old woman, and she gives him his portion of food by putting her hand behind her back so that she does not look at him, and in doing so she says three times “Teshtòrtudenk?”—“Tesh food have I not given?” The men take the food, go into the thickest part of the wood and eat it. None of the food prepared on this occasion may be eaten by the Nòdrs men or by the old woman, but though the amount is excessive, the whole of it must be eaten by the candidates during the day. After each man has eaten to the full he may put on his cloak. The Nòdrs men and the old woman go back to their villages and they must hold no communication of any kind with the candidates after the food has been given. The men remain in the wood all day, and when it is getting dark they go to the nearest village at which any of them live, taking care that no one sees them on the way.
One of the most remarkable features of this ceremony is the part taken by the old woman. She must be one of the Tartharol; she must be past the age of child-bearing, and she must never have had intercourse with one of her own clan. In the last particular the word of the woman is trusted, for it was said that she would never deceive in such a matter. Every woman believed that if she did not speak the truth she would die, and all those concerned in the ceremony would either die or have serious illness. I was told that it was by no means easy to find a woman who fulfilled this requirement, and in each of the cases of which I have records the same woman officiated—viz. Naspilthi of Taradr (21).
Other remarkable features of this ceremony are that the men should be given more food than they are readily able to eat, as in the ceremony connected with the kaltmokh after the migration (p. 139), and that they receive this food in a condition of complete nudity, a condition which only occurs in one other dairy ceremonial.
The tesherst ceremony is one in which candidates for the office of palol go through certain of the rites which ordinarily form part of the process of ordination, with the addition of special ceremonies, in which a superabundant portion of food is given by a woman who fulfils certain peculiar conditions.
When the office of palol becomes vacant, the clan to which the ti belongs chooses from among those who have been through the tesherst ceremony, and the chosen man has then to undergo the ordination ceremonies proper, or niròditi.
THE NIRODITI CEREMONY
The ceremony begins on a Saturday evening, after the new moon, when the chosen candidate goes to a village of the clan to which his future ti belongs and sleeps there in the ordinary hut.
On the following morning he goes before daybreak to the front of the dairy of the village, naked except for his kuvn, and a man of the village stands at the door of the dairy holding a tuni in his hand, and says three times, “Tunivatkia!”—“Touch the tuni!” The candidate answers, “Tunivatkin,” and takes the tuni. If the garment is a complete one, he puts it on; if only a piece, he puts it in his pennar and taking seven tudr leaves and tudr bark he goes to the stream of the dairy and performs the usual drinking and rubbing ceremony, and after putting the tudr bark in his hair, goes a little way off and shakes his head so that the bark falls out. He repeats the ceremony twice, so that it is performed three times altogether—i.e., he drinks from the tudr leaves three times seven. This ceremony is called teshnir, and is done in view of the inhabitants of the village. The candidate stays for the rest of the day at the village. If there is a wursol there, the food of the candidate is prepared by this dairyman [46]; if no wursol is present, it is prepared by the palikartmokh. The food is grain boiled in milk, and is only eaten in the evening. The candidate sleeps that night in a wood near the village, but not the same wood as that by the stream where teshnir had been done. Either the wursol or the palikartmokh must pass the night in the wood with the candidate, and other men of the village may also be their companions. Until the candidate lies down to sleep he must remain naked (except for the kuvn), but when sleeping he may cover himself with his ordinary cloak.
Next morning (Monday) the candidate gets up at sunrise, lays aside his cloak, and goes to bathe completely in the stream, saying three times, “Tudraspinem,” [47]—“Tudr I have washed,” thus washing off the tudr of the previous day. He then returns to the place where he had slept, puts on his ordinary cloak with the right arm out, and goes to the front of the dairy. He is given food by the wursol, or, in his absence, by the palikartmokh, and eats it outside the dairy, after which he washes. He then goes to the ordinary stream of the village (ars nipa) and takes up water with his hand, and by so doing he becomes perol—i.e., he loses any sanctity he has acquired by the ceremony of the previous day.
The candidate then goes direct to the village of Òdr and stays near that village till the evening, when he makes his way to the front of the dairy of that place. He stands about ten yards from the dairy and throws off his cloak. A man of the clan to which his future ti belongs now gives him a complete tuni of the kind worn in the village dairy (a mad tuni, not a ti tuni), saying three times, “Tunivatkia,” to which is replied “Tunivatkin.” The man who gives the tuni now remains as assistant and companion till the candidate reaches his future dairy. The candidate puts the tuni round his loins, goes to the stream of the dairy, and performs the drinking and rubbing ceremony with muli leaves and shoots as in the ordination of palikartmokh. The assistant makes fire by friction and lights a fire of muli wood, at which the candidate warms himself.
The drinking ceremony with tudr is then carried out in the same way as at teshnir, and then the wursol of Òdr brings buttermilk in an ertatpun and gives it in cups of kakud leaves to both the candidate and his assistant. They also receive food from the wursol, while any other men present go to the ordinary hut for their meal. That night is passed at a special spot under a tree not far from the dairy at Òdr, the wursol and assistant being the companions of the candidate. On that night the candidate may not touch his ordinary cloak and has to be content with the scanty covering of the tuni. [48]
On the next day (Tuesday), the ceremony with tudr leaves and bark is repeated three times as on the previous days, and after the wursol has finished his dairy work he gives buttermilk and food to both the candidate and his assistant. On the afternoon of this day the tudr ceremony is performed again, but on this occasion seven times, so that the candidate drinks from the tudr leaves seven times seven. In the evening buttermilk and food are again given by the wursol and the three men pass the night in the wood.
On the next day (Wednesday) the candidate fetches bark of the tree from which the material called twadrinar is made and makes for his temporary use a rough kuvn. When it is ready, he bathes in the dairy stream, takes off the old pennar and kuvn and puts on the newly made garment, together with the tuni, and goes with the wursol to the dairy where the buffaloes of his ti are standing. When they approach the ti mad the wursol goes away and leaves the candidate to go to the dairy alone, where he sits on the outskirts (pül) of the ti mad. When the kaltmokh sees the candidate approaching, he collects the buffaloes at the milking place (pepkarmus) and catches hold of the tails of certain buffaloes which are to be taken in charge by the new palol, saying to himself three times for each buffalo, “Tover vatkina?”—“Tail shall I hold?”—and replying to himself each time, “Vat!” At the Nòdrs ti if the candidate is to be palol of the tiir, the kaltmokh holds the tails of three buffaloes, one of each kind; if he is to be palol of the warsir, two buffaloes only take part (see p. 112). After this the kaltmokh prepares food in the pül of the dairy and gives it to the palol designate. While the kaltmokh is attending to the new palol he must become a perkursol—i.e., he degrades himself to this rank before undertaking these duties. During the night the candidate together with the kaltmokh and the other palol already in office (if there are two, as at the Nòdrs ti) sleep in the hut of the ti mad.
The next day (Thursday) the new palol goes to the stream and performs the tudr ceremony three times in the morning and nine times in the afternoon; i.e., he drinks from the tudr leaves three and nine times seven. On this day the kaltmokh milks the punir, takes the milk to the pül, churns there and gives buttermilk, butter and other food to the new palol. On that night all sleep in the karenpoh or calf-house.
The proceedings of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the same as those of Thursday, except that the new palol may now drink the milk of the punir like the full palol.
On Monday morning the new palol enters on his office. In the morning he bathes and then takes off the temporary pennar and kuvn he has been wearing and replaces them by others made in the same way. A Badaga (the tikelfmav) then brings one of the two cloaks of the palol, that called pòdrshtuni, and lays it down at the outskirts of the dairy. It is taken up by the kaltmokh and given to the new palol, who spreads it out on the place where the buffaloes are milked. He then takes pounded tudr bark, says the kwarzam of the gods, of the ti and of the buffaloes (see Chap. X) and throws the pounded bark on the garment. He turns the garment over so as to expose the other surface and purifies this in the same way. He then asks himself, “Pòdrshtuni tutkina?”—“Shall I tie the pòdrshtuni?”—and throwing off the mad tuni he has been wearing hitherto, he puts on the pòdrshtuni. The kaltmokh returns the mad tuni to the Nòdrs people, who come on this day and stand on the outskirts of the place.
The new palol then purifies his dairy by sprinkling it with water and tudr bark in the same way as is done when going to a new dairy (see p. 136). He next takes the uppun, puts into it water and tudr bark, and turning towards the Nòdrs people with the vessel to his forehead, says three times to them, “Poh pûkhkina?”—“Shall I enter the dairy?” All the Nòdrs people cry “Pûkh!” and the new palol enters his dairy with the full rights of his position.
At some period before entering into office as full palol the candidate touches a tasth or bar of the entrance into the tu. This ceremony is similar to that performed by the kaltmokh, and as in this case it seemed to be the special indication of entrance on full office, but unfortunately my notes do not make it clear exactly when this touching of the tasth is done nor with what ceremonial it is accomplished.
For a month from this day there will be what is called pon, nothing being either sold or given from the dairy. At the end of the month, on a Monday, a tuni of the kind called kubuntuni is brought by the tikelfmav, and is put on in the usual way. (During the previous month the pòdrshtuni will have been used both as a cloak and as a loincloth, and will have been taken into the sleeping hut.) The palol is visited by the dairymen of his rank from the other ti dairies, and there will be many visitors from all the Todas, who come and sit in the pül of the dairy and feast. The new palol also receives greetings on this day from the Todas for the first time since his entry upon office. He greets the Tartharol first, saying “Bañ” in the usual way, and then the Teivaliol, saying “Pekein,” and each reply in the customary manner.
The ordination ceremonies of the palol are thus very prolonged. There is a preliminary qualifying ceremony in which the would-be candidates receive pieces of tuni, perform both the muli and the tudr purificatory ceremonies, each once only, and on the following day go through the very peculiar ceremonial in which they are given superabundant food by an old woman while in a condition of complete nudity.
The proper ordination ceremonies begin on a Sunday, when the candidate receives tuni, performs the purificatory ceremony with tudr three times seven, and sleeps in a wood. On Monday he washes off the tudr, becomes a perol, and goes to the village of Òdr, where he again receives tuni, goes through the muliniròditi ceremony which makes him a palikartmokh, and then performs the tudr ceremony three times seven and sleeps in the open, covered only with the tuni. On Tuesday he performs the tudr purification three times seven in the morning and seven times seven in the evening and again sleeps in the open. On Wednesday he bathes and assumes a special kuvn and goes to his future dairy, where the kaltmokh performs the tail-holding ceremony and the candidate sleeps in the hut. On the four next days the tudr ceremony is performed three times seven in the mornings and nine times seven in the afternoons, and the calf-house is used as a sleeping-place. On the following Monday the palol enters upon office, assuming the pòdrshtuni, touching a tasth, and entering his dairy.
The foregoing description of the ordination of the palol applies primarily to the Nòdrs ti, but in its main details it holds good for other places.
I am doubtful as to the part taken by the village of Òdr, and am not clear whether part of the ordination ceremony is performed at this place by every palol or only by those of the Nòdrs ti. It is possible that it is only the latter who visit the village, but I do not know of any corresponding village visited by the candidates for the post of palol at other ti dairies. My impression is that every candidate for the office of palol visits this village.
The only definite modification of the ceremonies attendant on entrance into office of which I know occurs at the Kars ti. Here the palol is first ordained to the parsir—i.e., he becomes the palol of this herd of buffaloes and tends them only. At the end of a month he becomes palol of the pürsir, and the ceremony of entrance upon this office was spoken of as pelkkatthtiti to the pürspoh. In this case the ceremony of ordination to the parspoh is called niròditi, and that of removal to another dairy pelkkatthtiti.
On the afternoon of the appointed day the palol churns the milk of the morning in the parspoh and then shuts the door of this dairy, which he never re-enters as long as he is in office. He could only do so if he should cease to be palol and be re-ordained to the same ti.
A new pòdrshtuni is brought by a Badaga and is assumed by the palol after purification in the usual manner. At the same time he puts on a new kagurs, [49] which has been purified by the kaltmokh, who has also cut a new kwoinörtpet on the hill of Kulinkars which the palol then purifies with tudr bark in the usual manner, saying the names of the four deities, Anto, Nòtirzi, Kulinkars, and Kuzkarv.
The palol then digs up earth from the footprints of one of the pürsir, saying the whole prayer of the ti as he does so. He drives the buffalo slightly to one side by touching it with the wand, and takes earth from the exact place where the foot of the buffalo had been resting and puts the earth into a cup which he has made of tudr leaves. He adds pounded tudr bark and goes to the spring (kwoinir) of the dairy, where he mixes water with the earth and bark. He then goes to the stone called pepkusthkars, where he has previously laid a complete set of new dairy vessels and implements of the inner room, together with the lamp and the bell (Ner) of the pürspoh. The bell is laid on the stone, the other things by its side.
Wearing the pòdrshtuni and holding the kwoinörtpet under his left arm, the palol sprinkles the contents of the leaf-cup over the dairy vessels and other objects, beginning with the bell, and as he does so he prays, using the whole prayer of the dairy. He then ties all the vessels and other contents of the dairy on a staff called pepkati in exactly the same manner as when taking them from one ti mad to another. The bell is tied up in a leafy covering of kiaz and everything is done as in the migration from one place to another, and the staff with its burden is then borne by the palol from the pepkusthkars to the stone called perskars, by the side of which the dairy vessels are laid, while the mani is uncovered and laid on the stone. The staff is then placed at the back of the dairy.
Having untied the dairy vessels and arranged them by the stone, the palol pounds fresh tudr bark, and with the kwoinörtpet under his left arm goes with the karitòrzum to the sacred spring, into which he throws the bark, takes water, and returns. Taking more pounded bark, he puts it in the idrkwoi and pours water into this vessel from the karitòrzum. He takes the idrkwoi with its contents to the front of the dairy, and with his right hand sprinkles the water over the outside of the dairy and then into its interior till the vessel is emptied. The dairy vessels are not again purified, but are taken into the dairy with the same procedure as that described in the last chapter. The vessels of the outer room, which have been purified by the kaltmokh, are then taken to their places. Fire is made by friction; one fireplace is lighted and fire transferred to the other, and from this the lamp is lighted, and the palol, who is now palol of the pürsir, goes out to look after and milk his new charges. On this evening no food is taken, nor does the palol drink buttermilk as usual, and the kaltmokh does not blow the horn in the evening. On the following day, which is the occasion of a feast for all Todas, the usual routine is followed.
The most interesting feature of this ceremony at the Kars ti is that the vessels of the inner room are taken by the palol from the pepkusthkars to the perskars, a distance said to be about fifty yards, in exactly the same manner as that in which they are carried from one dairy to another during the migrations when the distance may be many miles.
The essential feature of the various ordination ceremonies is purification by drinking water from certain leaves and rubbing the body with the juice of certain plants or the bark of a tree mixed with water from a dairy stream or spring. The ordinary dairyman uses the leaves and shoots of muli; the dairymen of the Taradr kugvali and the Kanòdrs poh use seven kinds of leaves and rub themselves with tudr bark, while the three grades of dairyman open only to Teivali or Melgars people not only rub with the juice of tudr bark, but use tudr leaves for the purificatory drinking.
The palikartmokh drinks and rubs himself seven times only, the wursol and kaltmokh seven times seven, while at various stages in his ordination the palol uses tudr bark three times seven, seven times seven, and nine times seven.
The final stage of ordination or induction is marked by touching some sacred object of the dairy. The ordinary dairyman touches one or more of the sacred vessels of the dairy; the wursol, kugvalikartmokh, and the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs touch the mu, a dairy vessel buried in the buffalo pen, which is dug up for the ordination ceremony. The kaltmokh and the palol touch a tasth, the former touching a bar of the calf enclosure and the latter one in the opening of the pen used for adult buffaloes.
According to one account, the Teivali palikartmokh also touches a mu on entrance into office, but it is very doubtful if this is correct. Nothing was said about it at the ordination at which I was present, and I saw nothing to indicate that this vessel was being used, but it is possible that the mu had been dug up earlier in the day and put inside the dairy.
Another interesting feature of the ordination ceremonies is that a dairyman of a higher grade may be taken through the lower stages on his way to the higher office. Thus both wursol and palol perform the purificatory ceremony with muli, which is the chief feature of the ordination of the palikartmokh. There did not seem to be any stage in the ordination of the palol when he could be said to be a wursol, though the ceremonies of Monday evening and Tuesday are very much like those of the wursol, the chief difference being in the exact number of times that the tudr purification is performed.
VIII. SPECIAL DAIRY CEREMONIES
I have so far dealt with the organisation and ritual of the dairy, with the ceremonies accompanying the movements of the buffaloes from one place to another, and with the ceremonies attendant on the entrance of the dairymen into office. There remain ceremonies which accompany certain events in the course of the dairy ritual or in the lives of the buffaloes. One of these, the pepkaricha ceremony, is performed whenever any evil befalls a certain dairy vessel which is buried in the buffalo pen. Another ceremony celebrates the birth of a calf, and a group of ceremonies are connected with the act of giving salt to the buffaloes.
THE PEPKARICHA CEREMONY
In the account of the daily work of the dairy, it will be remembered that whenever the dairyman goes out to milk for the first time he puts some buttermilk into his milking vessel. This is done in every dairy, and the buttermilk so added is called pep. The milk of every day has mixed with it some of the buttermilk from the milking of the day before, and in this way continuity is kept up in the dairy operations. Under certain conditions this continuity is broken and new pep has to be made, and the process of doing so is the ceremony called pepkaricha, pepkarichti, or pepkarichanudr—i.e., “pep he purifies,” or, “if pep is purified.”
In some cases new pep has to be made for the whole clan (madol); in other cases it has only to be made for one of the dairies of the clan.
The ceremony is performed for the whole clan whenever anything goes wrong with a certain dairy vessel called mu, which is buried in the buffalo pen at the chief village of the clan. We have seen that this vessel is used in the ordination to certain dairy offices, and it is also inspected as a matter of routine about once a year. If it is broken or has been stolen or tampered with in any way, it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole clan.
Among the Tartharol, new pep has also to be made after the funeral of a male on account of the defilement of the mani involved in its exposure to the ordinary people at the funeral ceremonies.
The conditions which necessitate the making of new pep for a single dairy are, (1) if a Tamil or other “foreigner” has entered the dairy, (2) if an ordinary Toda (perol) has gone into the dairy at night, (3) if the dairyman has used tobacco. In these cases the people of the village at which the offence has been committed procure a new mu, and, after purifying it, go to some other dairy of the clan, where they procure some buttermilk to act as pep and take it to their own dairy. It is only when new pep has to be made for the whole clan that the prolonged ceremony of pepkarichti has to be carried out. This ceremony differs in its details for each clan, and is more complicated in some cases than in others. As an example, I will give the proceedings for the Kuudr clan.
When it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole group of dairies belonging to the clan it is necessary to take the buffaloes to one special dairy. The Kuudr people go to the dairy of Kwirg near Sholur. On the day of going to Kwirg, a feast is held at which the food called ashkkartpimi is eaten.
Whenever new pep is made it is necessary to have a new palikartmokh, and the man who is to undertake the duties goes to Kwirg with the milking buffaloes of the pasthir and is accompanied by a number of Kuudr men. The men take with them a new and complete set of dairy vessels, and reach Kwirg in the early morning of a Sunday after the new moon. The buffaloes are at once penned in the tu. The first business is the ordination of the new palikartmokh, which is carried out as usual. When at the stream for the purification ceremony, the palikartmokh has with him a new mu, which he fills with water at the stream. He takes this vessel to the tu in which the buffaloes are penned, and knocks one of the buffaloes on the back with his wand (pet), so that it moves to one side. Then with the wand he digs some earth from the spot where the hoof of the buffalo had been resting, and mixes this earth with tudr bark. He places part of the mixed earth and bark in the mu and puts the rest on one side; this part of the ceremony is called mukatchkudrspini, or purification of the mu, literally “mu purification I have purified.”
The palikartmokh then brings all the other dairy vessels and implements, beginning with the patat, and purifies them by throwing on them mixed earth and tudr bark, sprinkling them with water from the mu three times, saying “Oñ” each time. The things of the patatmar are purified first and then the things of the ertatmar, and the purified objects are placed in the dairy. Fire is made by friction and the palikartmokh goes out to milk. Buttermilk is not put into the milking-vessel as usual, and the lamp is not lighted. The milk is poured into the patat, and the palikartmokh then prepares food, which he gives to the people who have come with him, but he himself fasts. All the men then go away except one or two, who are to remain as companions of the dairyman. In the evening the palikartmokh takes off some of the cream, [50] which has risen to the top of the milk, and puts it into the lamp which he lights, and then prays, using the kwarzam of Kwirg [51] and the kwarzam of the pep only.
If the milk has coagulated it is now churned, and then the buffaloes are milked as usual, but if the milk has not coagulated, it is left till next morning. In the evening the dairyman takes food as usual.
On the following day, it seems that the milk has always become solid and is churned. Immediately after churning and without taking food, the dairyman puts together the dairy things according to the usual method followed when going from one village to another, and goes with his buffaloes to the village of Kiudr. The dairy vessels are carried in the usual manner, the new buttermilk called puthpep being in the patat and the butter in the mu.
The people living at Kiudr leave the village, and the man who has been filling the office of palikartmokh there throws away all the old dairy things and takes the mani to the stones by the side of that dairy called neurzülnkars (see p. 129). After leaving the bells there for a little time, the dairyman takes them to the pali nipa, and then his office ceases and he becomes perol.
The new palikartmokh, who has come from Kwirg, purifies the dairy and his new dairy vessels and the mani in exactly the same way as when reaching a new dairy, and then places the bells, vessels, and other objects in the dairy. During the next month, till the following new moon, the dairyman and his companions stay alone at Kiudr doing the ordinary business of the dairy. During this time they may be visited by men of the Kuudr clan, but neither by women nor by men of other clans. At the end of the month, on the Sunday after the new moon, the palikartmokh drives the buffaloes (now called ponir, festival buffaloes) to Kuudr, taking with him the puthpep and the dairy vessels. When the people at Kuudr see the dairyman coming with the ponir, they leave the village and all go to Kiudr, which the buffaloes have just left. There they hold a feast to which many people of other clans, both men and women, are invited.
When the palikartmokh reaches Kuudr, he purifies the dairy as he had done at Kiudr and puts the vessels in their places.
Certain men of the clan then come, each with a new mu, and these vessels are laid by the side of the stones called keinkars and tashtikars in the wall of the pen. At Kuudr fifteen new mu should be brought by the fifteen heads of families of the Kuudr clan. The palikartmokh then purifies each mu with tudr bark in the usual way and places the vessels on the patatmar of the dairy, after which he gives food to those who have provided the vessels.
The palikartmokh with his companion or companions then stay at Kuudr for a month, when, again on a Sunday after the new moon, all the Kuudrol assemble at Kuudr and hold a feast. On that day a new palikartmokh is appointed for each dairy of the Kuudr clan. Each man goes through the usual ordination ceremony and then receives one of the new mu containing some of the new pep, which he takes to his dairy. Each new dairyman also provides new dairy vessels, and, when he reaches his dairy, purifies the mu and the new dairy things in the way already described. He puts the vessels into the dairy and then goes to milk, taking some of the new pep in his milking-vessel, and thereafter matters go on as usual. Each new dairyman fasts while going to his dairy with the new pep, although the rest of the people are feasting.
Those who remain at Kuudr bury the mu in which the pep was brought from Kwirg. It is buried by the side of the pen, under a tree called teikhkwadiki.
The ceremony of making new pep is carried out on the same lines in all dairies, but usually it is less complicated and fewer villages have to be visited than in the case of the Kuudrol. It seems that there is a tendency in some clans to perform the ceremony less rigidly than of old. Thus, the Kars people used to go to Keshker for new pep, but now they perform the ceremony at Kars itself, so that the migration to a new place with its attendant ceremonial is avoided.
There are certain differences in the procedure in the case of Teivali and Tarthar clans. One, the necessity for new pep after the funeral of a male, has been already mentioned.
Another difference is that there is a buried mu for each kind of dairy, so that a clan which has two or three kinds of dairy will have two or three mu buried in the pen. If it is the mu belonging to the wursuli which is broken or tampered with, the ceremony is performed by the wursol, who takes earth from the footprints of one of the wursulir. If the mu of the kudrpali is injured, the kudrpalikartmokh performs the ceremony, taking earth from the footprints of one of the other kinds of sacred buffaloes. Thus at Kars he takes it from the prints of the martir.
At Kanòdrs new pep has to be made at a place called Kautarmad, which I could not identify. It is a long way from Kanòdrs, but the people have to go there because the god Kwoto used to make pep there. There is one feature peculiar to the ceremony for this clan. Earth has to be taken from a certain spot from which it was taken by Kwoto, and this earth is mixed with that taken from the footprints of the buffalo.
Another special feature of the Kanòdrs dairy is connected with the buried mu and is probably the result of the fact that this dairy is now only occupied occasionally. When the pohkartpol leaves the dairy on vacating office, he takes up the buried mu, pours into it a small quantity of pep, and reburies the vessel, covering it on the top with a stone. When he resumes office, he takes up the mu and purifies it with the two kinds of earth used in the full ceremony, and puts the pep which has been buried into his milking-vessel when he goes out to milk for the first time. As in other Tarthar clans, the full ceremony of pepkaricha is only carried out when the mu is broken or stolen, and after the funeral of a male.
A characteristic feature of Toda dairy procedure is the coagulation of the milk before it is churned. This coagulation occurs in a few hours without the addition of rennet or other special coagulating agent, the milk drawn in the morning being nearly always solid at the time of the afternoon churning. This rapid coagulation of the milk is almost certainly assisted By the added buttermilk or pep, the curdling being probably an acid coagulation set up or hastened by the addition of the sour buttermilk. If this were the case, it might be expected that habitual failure of the milk to coagulate might be regarded as a reason for making new pep, and I therefore inquired carefully into this point. It was quite clear, however, that delay in the coagulation was not looked upon as a reason for the ceremony. If there was habitual delay, it was customary to consult the diviners, and they always gave one of two reasons for the delay: either that it was due to the action of a sorcerer, or that the dairyman had committed one of the offences against the dairy of which a list is given on p. 295.
If delay were said to be due to the first cause, the sorcerer would be invited to the village, entertained with food, and induced to remove his spell; if to the second cause, the dairyman would have to perform the irnörtiti or similar ceremony; but there was never any question of making new pep, the necessity for this ceremony being entirely dependent on the condition of the buried dairy vessel.
THE IRPALVUSTHI CEREMONY
The ceremony of irpalvusthi (buffalo milk he milks) is performed about the fifteenth day after the birth of a calf. It only takes place when one of the sacred buffaloes has calved, and is not performed in ordinary villages for putiir, nor at the ti for punir. It is performed after the birth of both male and female calves. The ceremony is carried out in the same fashion at the wursuli, the kudrpali and the tarvali, but has different features at the kugvali of Taradr and at the ti.
There are special days for the ceremony. At the tarvali, it must be performed on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday; at the kudrpali and wursuli, on Sunday or Wednesday; at the kugvali on Saturday. The ceremony is performed at the ti, but I omitted to obtain any account of the proceedings at this grade of dairy.
When this ceremony is held at the village of Kuudr, a man from Òdr belonging to the Nodrsol must attend, and similarly a man from Kuudr must be present when the ceremony is performed at Kuudr, this regulation being the result of certain events in the histories of the buffaloes of these places (see p. 647).
At each of the three kinds of dairy which follow the same procedure, the chief part is taken by the dairyman. At the wursuli, the wursol officiates, and at the kudrpali and tarvali, the palikartmokh.
The first appropriate occasion after the fifteenth day from the birth of the calf is appointed and the dairy is purified with dried buffalo-dung. Contrary to the general rule, the lamp is lighted on the morning of this day. All the buffaloes are milked as usual; one or two pun of milk being poured into the patat and all the rest into the ertat.
The dairyman then puts some milk into the milking-vessel, and, carrying his wand, he leads the fifteen-day-old calf to its mother to be suckled. While the calf is being suckled, the dairyman strikes the mother on the right side of the back three times with the wand, saying “Oñ” each time. He then puts the wand on the top of the milking-vessel and, holding both in his left hand, milks the buffalo once or twice with the other hand, so that the milk splashes on the wand as it falls into the vessel. The vessel and wand are then laid at the back of the dairy, which the dairyman enters to prepare food, boiling grain or rice with milk in a special vessel (ertat) kept for the purpose. While the food is being cooked the dairyman takes some of the grass called kakar and the plant called kabudri, and sweeps the interior of the dairy with them, beginning at the patatmar. While doing this and during his other operations on this day, he must not turn his back to the contents of the dairy. After having swept the dairy, he lays the kakar and kabudri by the wall of the building, again takes the milking-vessel and wand from the back of the dairy, and, having called the people of the village, he salutes by raising the vessel and wand to his forehead and prays, all present praying with him. I am not certain whether it is the prayer of the village or a special prayer which is used on this occasion. After praying, the dairyman lays the wand on the top of the patat and pours the milk which he obtained from the buffalo into the patat over the wand. He puts the latter in its appointed place and then goes to the ertatmar, where he prepares a large number of leaves on which he portions out the food (tòrkisthiti) which he has prepared, and all the people present take this food outside the dairy. On the following day, the buffalo which has calved is milked with the rest.
When this ceremony is performed at the wursuli dairy, it is the only occasion on which the wursol prepares food; at all other times, the food of this dairyman is prepared by the palikartmokh. On this occasion the wursol not only cooks food for himself but for all those present. Another distinctive feature of this ceremony is that it is the only occasion on which the milk of the wursulir is ever drunk.
The day of irpalvusthi is the only day on which the dairymen of the three kinds of dairy, with the exception of the wursol of certain dairies, do their work kabkaditi, i.e., do not turn their backs to the contents of the dairy.
At the kugvali of Taradr, the ceremony is more elaborate. It begins in the afternoon, when the dairy is purified with dried buffalo-dung. Three large pieces of the wood called kid are brought, and the dairyman ties the small piece of cloth called petuni to the milking-vessel and to a special wand called irpalvusthpet. [52] He also ties petuni in the form of rings round the ring and little fingers of his right hand and round the ring finger of his left hand. He then goes out with the milking-vessel and wand, and after saluting by raising them to his forehead, he goes to the place where the buffaloes are milked and prays there.
The kugvalikartmokh then takes the calf to its mother and milks as at the other dairies, but in this case he milks the buffalo completely, and if, by doing so, he has not filled his milking-vessel, he fills it with the milk of putiir. He pours this milk into the majpariv, which has been carefully cleaned, and puts the three pieces of kid wood in the fireplace. He puts into the milk three measures (ak) of rice, but adds neither salt nor jaggery. When the food is ready, he portions it out on leaves and gives to those present, who must on this occasion be limited to the people of the village. This ceremony occurs on Saturday evening.
On the following day, the ceremony is repeated, being called on this occasion îrpatadûthti, i.e., “buffalo milk he uses publicly.” When preparing food on this day the kugvalikartmokh puts into the milk eleven ak of rice [53] and adds both salt and jaggery. The number of pieces of wood used is not limited to three, but any quantity may be burnt. When the food is ready, he goes out of the dairy and finds assembled a large number of people, including guests from other villages and clans. Among them a Melgars man must be included or there could be no ceremony. When the dairyman sees the people, he says “Ol pudra?” “People, have you come?” They answer “Pudspimi,” “We have come.” The dairyman then brings the stirring-stick (put), and, taking up some of the food on the stick, says “Tütr erkina?” “At the fire shall I throw?” and the people answer “Tütr eri!” “At the fire, throw!” The dairyman then throws the food on the stick into the fire, and portions out the rest of the food among the people, who eat it outside the dairy.
From the birth of the calf until this ceremony, the buffalo is not milked and the calf is kept, when not with its mother, in the small enclosure called kush. After the ceremony, the buffalo is milked like the rest of the herd, and the calf joins the others in the ordinary calf-house, or kwotars.
GIVING SALT TO BUFFALOES
Salt is given to the buffaloes five times a year, both at the ti mad and the ordinary village. At the ti the salt is given with buttermilk, and the ceremony is known as mòrup. At the ordinary village buttermilk is not given, and there is no general name for the ceremony, though there are special names for three of the five occasions on which salt is given. These special names are also used at the ti. The first occasion is kòrup, or ‘new grass salt,’ which takes place in the month Nalani (February-March). The second is marup or ‘again salt,’ a month later in Ani. The next two occasions have no special names, but in the ordinary village are known as arsup, ‘house salt,’ given in the months Ovani and Kirdivi (June-July and September-October). The last occasion is in the month Emioti (November-December), and is known as paniup, meaning ‘frost salt.’ In the case of kòrup and paniup, it seemed that salt was given shortly before the time at which the young grass and frost respectively were expected.
At the ti the ceremony is performed on the Sunday or Tuesday following the new moon. At the Nòdrs ti it should be done for the tiir on Sunday and for the warsir on Tuesday, but this now only happens when the buffaloes are at Òdrtho and Kudreiil, where the dairies of the two kinds of buffaloes are at some distance apart. At Mòdr and Anto and other dairies, the ceremony is performed for both kinds of buffalo on a Sunday. At the Pan ti the day for the ceremony is Tuesday, and at the Kars ti, Sunday.
On the day before the ceremony each palol [54] digs a round hole called the upunkudi at a prescribed spot, or more commonly enlarges the hole remaining from a previous ceremony. On the following day each palol carries out the usual morning churning and milking, but before drinking buttermilk the dairy is cleansed with buffalo-dung. The palol then pours into the vessel called alug two kudi of buttermilk and takes the vessel and some salt to the upunkudi. He throws bark of the tudr tree three times into the hole, three times into the buttermilk and on the salt, and going to the spring he throws the bark three times into the water, saying “Oñ” each time. The palol then fills the alug with water from the spring, mixing it with the buttermilk already in the vessel. He adds salt, saying “Oñ” three times, and the whole is poured into the upunkudi. A special buffalo is then brought to the upunkudi; at the Nòdrs ti the ti palol first leads up the buffalo belonging to the unir which is called Enmars and the wars palol takes the buffalo of the perithir called Òrsum, this act of sending a special buffalo first being called îrpârsatiti. After this all the buffaloes are taken to drink in groups of five or six. When the hole has been emptied, it is refilled with salt and water, but this time no buttermilk is added. When all the buffaloes have drunk, each palol pulls some of the grass called kargh and throws it into the hole three times and returns to his dairy to take buttermilk from the kaltmokh as usual.
At the ordinary village the salt-giving ceremony is performed about a week after it has been done at the ti. Any day may be chosen except the madnol, palinol, or arpatznol. [55] Thus at Kuudr the ceremony may be performed on any day except Tuesday and Friday; at Kars, on any day except Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
On the three occasions with special names, kòrup, marup, and paniup, guests come from other villages, but at the arsup this does not happen. As in the case of the irpalvusthi ceremony, a man from Kuudr must be present at the salt-giving ceremony of Òdr and a man from Òdr must be present at Kuudr.
The ceremony is performed by the palikartmokh after the people of the village have made the hole or upunkudi. [56] The palikartmokh takes from the dairy the vessel corresponding to the alug of the ti, viz., the tat, but does not take buttermilk. Tudr bark is used in the same way as at the ti.
At a Teivali village, the pasthir drink first. At a Tarthar village at which there is a wursol, the wursulir drink first, the act of sending certain buffaloes first being called irparsatiti as at the ti. After the buffaloes have drunk, kargh grass is thrown into the hole, first by the dairyman and then by all the others present, but it is only thrown once by each person, who says “Oñ” as he throws.
The object of this ceremony is said to be that the buffaloes shall give a plentiful supply of milk.
THE PONUP CEREMONY
At the ti dairy salt is given to the buffaloes on certain other occasions and with a far more elaborate ritual. The ceremony is then called ponup, or ‘festival salt,’ and takes place soon after the migration from one dairy to another. At the Nòdrs ti the salt is given on the Wednesday following the Sunday on which the migration has occurred, and at the Kars ti and the Pan ti, on Sunday, a week later than the procession.
On the night before the ceremony the palol shuts up the buffaloes in the special pen called the pon tu.
On the morning of the appointed day, when the churning is finished, but before the buffaloes have been milked, each palol brings six sprigs of the shrub called puthimul, each sprig having on it five or six leaves. Three of these sprigs are put on one side, and the other three are used as follows:—Rice has been previously prepared and placed either on the leaf called kakuders or on that called katers. The palol makes a hole in this food in which he puts butter, and, taking the first sprig of puthimul, he plucks from it one leaf and, using it as a spoon, takes up some of the food and puts it on the fire in the fireplace called tòratthwaskal, saying the name of the chief teu or god of the ti. He then takes some of the butter, and holds it over the fire till it drops, when he utters the name of the same god. He repeats this with a second leaf of the puthimul, saying the name of the second most important god of the ti, and so on with the other leaves. I obtained the fullest account of ponup from Koboners, who had been palol of the Kars ti, and here food and butter were put on the fire six times, saying the names of Anto, Nòtirzi, Kuzkarv, Kulinkars, Onkomn, and Karmanteu.
The kaltmokh then brings water taken from the ordinary stream in the vessel called mòrkudriki, and gives it to the palol, who sits in the outer room facing towards the inner room, and throws some of the rice in front of him once, some behind him once, and the rest outside the dairy. He puts some salt on the fire, and taking the water brought by the kaltmokh, he sprinkles it before and behind him as he had done with the food.
Then follows kaizhvatiti, i.e., the kaltmokh pours out buttermilk for the palol. This is the only occasion on which this act takes place before the buffaloes have been milked, the ceremony of drinking buttermilk on every other occasion taking place when the morning’s work is over. The palol gives food to the kaltmokh, and here, again, there is a feature peculiar to this day, for the kaltmokh eats his food sitting in the place in the hut where the palol usually sits.
The buffaloes are then milked, after which the palol fetches three sticks of the kind ordinarily called kwadrikurs, but at the ti, kakul. Each is used for a special purpose and has a corresponding name, one being called irpasthkakul, the second kwarkul, and the third parkul.
The palol takes buffalo-dung in both hands and the irpasthkakul in the right hand, and separates certain buffaloes from the rest by knocking their backs three times with the dung and stick. At the Kars ti two buffaloes are separated in this way; at the Nòdrs ti five buffaloes are set apart, one of each kind, three by the ti palol, and two by the wars palol. These buffaloes are known as ponir. The dairy is then purified with the dung and water. The irpasthkakul is laid on one side, and the palol puts salt in the basket called ponmukeri, and takes it with the water-vessel called karpun to the place where salt is to be given, taking also the remaining sprigs of puthimul and a bundle of fern.
At the place for the ceremony there is a stone called ponkars (when there are two palol there will be two stones), and at the stone the palol makes a vessel of clay and water so as to resemble a milking-vessel. This clay vessel is called teukwoi (teu, god, and kwoi, milking-vessel).
The palol then takes two perfect tudr leaves, and fastens them together with the petioles of other leaves, so that they form a cup which is called püvup. Salt is placed in this leaf vessel, which is laid down by the side of the teukwoi. One such vessel is made for each buffalo, two at the Kars ti and five at the Nòdrs ti.
The palol then takes the stick called kwarkul, and with it makes a hole in the middle of each teukwoi, saying (at the Kars ti) “antok teukwoi ûrîj, paln!” (“To Anto in teukwoi make hole, O palol!”). He then makes other holes round the sides of the clay vessel, saying the names of the other gods in the same manner. (At the Kars ti those which have already been given. At the Nòdrs ti the names of five gods are mentioned—Anto, Kulinkars, Nòtirzi, Kuladrvan, and Kuzkarv.) Two pieces of tudr bark and a sprig of puthimul are then placed in each hole, saying for the first, “Antok teukwoi et, paln!” (“To Anto in teukwoi put, O palol!”), and this is repeated with the name of a different god for each hole.
Next the palol takes the stick called parkul, which has a sharpened end, and makes small holes called upunkudi as in the mòrup ceremony. At the Kars ti only two upunkudi are made; at the Nòdrs ti one palol makes three and the other two holes. Tudr bark is thrown three times into the holes and into the water of the spring. Water is taken from the spring in the karpun, salt is put into the water three times and the salt and water are poured into the holes, and the buffaloes previously set apart are led to the holes and drink three times, one buffalo from each hole. The leaf vessels previously made (püvup) are then given to the buffaloes, and are eaten by them. Care is taken to give the leaf vessels in such a way that the end of the leaf corresponding to the petiole enters the mouth of the buffalo first.
The palol takes Anto’s leaf from the teukwoi and puts it in the karpun with water, then faces towards the place where Anto lives (Anto’s hill) and pours in that direction, saying “Antok,” “to Anto.” This is repeated with the other leaves, the palol in each case turning and pouring towards the place where the god lives.
Then follows the ceremony called tafkeirpudrti, i.e., “fern pool he strokes.” The palol takes the bundle of fern which he has brought with him and goes to the stream, which is blocked up, so that the water accumulates and forms a pool. He waits till the pool is so deep that the water would come half-way up his thighs, when he steps in with the bundle of fern in his right hand and strokes the bundle over the water, saying the kwarzam, or prayer names of certain gods and buffaloes (at the Nòdrs ti the palol says, “Anto idith, Kûlinkârs idith, Nòtîrzi idith, Kûlâdrvan idith, Kuzkârv idith, Mûv idith, Mòrs idith, Pan idith, Kûdreij tîdj idith”: see Chapter X). The palol then buries the fern at the bottom of the pool, so that there is no chance that it may come up again, and throws the grass called kargh into each upunkudi once only.
The palol then goes to the buffaloes and knocks one of the ordinary kind called punir to one side with a bush called pîrskwadriktûr and pours a little water on its back. This is called punîr ûvk nîr atiti, i.e., “he pours water on the back of the punir.”
Finally the palol goes to a stream near the upunkudi and washes there from the hands to the elbows. This final washing is called peiaspiti. Pei is the Tamil word for ‘demon,’ and the word suggested that there was an idea of warding off the influence of some kind of evil spirit, but it seemed that peiaspiti was merely the ti form of kaiaspiti, “he washes the hands.”
The following day is called ûpkârvnol. On this day small Badaga children go to the ti mad and the palol gives them clarified butter on a leaf. On this day also any one who has been a palol (patol) may go to the ti mad and receive food unless the funeral ceremonies for one of his clan should still be uncompleted.
The ceremonies of ponup were said to be designed to invite the gods to be present by means of the clay vessels. The tudr bark and leaves were said to be used in order to purify these vessels after their defilement by human hands in the process of making.
IX. THE TODA GODS
The ceremonies which have been described in the last five chapters make up a large part of the ritual of the Toda religion, but there is one important feature of this ritual which has so far been left on one side, or only cursorily mentioned, because its full consideration only becomes possible after an account has been given of the Toda gods.
In describing the ritual of the dairy and the various ceremonies connected with the buffaloes, it has been mentioned that at certain times the prayer of the dairy or the prayer of the village is used. In these prayers there are references to various incidents in the lives of the gods, and many of the clauses would be unintelligible without a knowledge of these lives. It therefore becomes necessary to consider this branch of Toda mythology before dealing with the prayers in detail.
The typical Toda god is a being who is distinctly anthropomorphic and is called a teu. In the legends he lives much the same kind of life as the mortal Toda, having his dairies and his buffaloes. The sacred dairies and the sacred buffaloes of the Todas are still regarded as being in some measure the property of the gods, and the dairymen are looked upon as their priests. The gods hold councils and consult with one another just as do the Todas, and they are believed to be swayed by the same motives and to think in the same way as the Todas themselves.
At the present time most of the gods are believed to inhabit the summits of the hills, but they are not seen by mortals. Before the Todas were created, the gods lived on the Nilgiri Hills alone, and then it is believed that there followed a period during which gods and men inhabited the hills together. The gods ruled the men, ordained how they should live and originated the various customs of the people. The Todas can now give no definite account of their beliefs about the transition from this state of things to that which now exists.
Each clan of the Todas has a deity especially connected with it. This deity is called the nòdrodchi of the clan, and is believed to have been the ruler of the clan when gods and men lived together. I am doubtful whether there is at the present time any belief that the nòdrodchi exerts an influence over the clan with which he is connected.
There was no department of Toda lore which gave me greater difficulty than the study of the beliefs about the gods. There was no doubt that two gods stood out pre-eminent among the rest. One was a male deity whose name was Ön, and the other a female deity, Teikirzi. A simple question which I had the greatest difficulty in settling was the relation of these deities to one another. According to one account they were brother and sister; according to another, father and daughter. It seemed quite certain they were not husband and wife, and most probable that they were brother and sister. Others of the gods were believed to be related to one another, but on such points as this I found it almost impossible to obtain trustworthy information. It may have been reticence which made the difficulty, but I do not think so, and am inclined to think that the Todas have now only vague ideas about the histories of their more ancient gods, and have nothing like the definite traditions which they possess about deities of obviously more recent origin.
Sometimes there were discrepancies between different accounts which I could not clear up, and in such cases I give the account which seems to me to be the most trustworthy.
PITHI
This god is the earliest of whom any tradition is preserved. His name is Pithi or Püthi, and he is often called Pithioteu. He was born near the sacred dairy of Anto in a cave which had the same shape as the ordinary Toda hut. According to one account, Pithi created Todas and buffaloes, but there seemed to be little doubt that this is not the correct tradition, which assigns the act of creation to his son Ön. There is a suggestive resemblance between the name of this god and the Sanscrit word for earth, Prithivi, which is in common use in Southern India.
ÖN
Ön was the son of Pithi. He created the buffaloes and the Todas and became the ruler of Amnòdr, the world of the dead, where he now lives.
One day Ön went with his wife Pinârkûrs to Mêdrpem (the top of the Kundahs). There he put up an iron bar which stretched from one end of the pem to the other. Ön stood at one end of the bar and brought forth buffaloes from the earth, 1,600 in number. Then Pinarkurs tried to produce buffaloes and she stood at the other end of the bar and produced 1,800 buffaloes.
Behind Ön’s buffaloes there came out of the earth a man, holding the tail of the last buffalo, and this was the first Toda. Ön took one of the man’s ribs (parikatelv or magalelv) from the right side of his body and made a woman, who was the first Toda woman. The Todas then increased in number very rapidly so that at the end of the first week there were about a hundred. [57]
The descendants of the buffaloes created by Ön became sacred buffaloes, while the descendants of those created by his wife are the ordinary buffaloes.
Ön had a son called Püv. One day when Püv was acting as palikartmokh at Kuudr, he was churning in the dairy with a ring on the little finger of his right hand. When the dairyman goes to fetch water he should always take the churning stick out of the patat or vessel in which the milk is churned. On this occasion Püv left it in the patat and went out to fetch water. As he was going a black bird called karpüls tried to check him, saying “tîs, tîs, tîs,” meaning “Don’t go to the water,” but Püv paid no attention and went on. When he was taking the water the ring dropped from his little finger into the spring. Püv saw the ring in the water, but could not reach it, and so he got into the spring. The water was not deep, and yet as soon as he stepped into the spring it completely covered him and he was drowned. When Ön found that his son was lost he cried very bitterly and covered himself with his cloak (tuni). (Ön is said to have been a palol at this time.) When Ön covered himself he looked downwards and saw, as through a veil, his son in Amnòdr playing with the ring, putting it on and off his finger. [58]
When Ön saw that his son was in Amnòdr he did not like to leave him there alone and decided to go away to the same place. So he called together all the people and the buffaloes and the trees to come and bid him farewell. All the people came except a man of Kwòdrdoni named Arsankutan. He and his family did not come. All the buffaloes came except the arsaiir, the buffaloes of the Kwòdrdoni ti. Some trees also failed to come. Ön blessed all the people, buffaloes and trees present, but said that because Arsankutan had not come he and his people should die by sorcery at the hands of the Kurumbas, and that because the arsaiir had not come they should be killed by tigers, and that the trees which had not come should bear bitter fruit. Since that time the Todas have feared the Kurumbas, and buffaloes have been killed by tigers. All the Todas and all the buffaloes appear to have suffered for the evil deeds of Arsankutan and the arsaiir.
Then Ön went away to Amnòdr, taking the buffaloes and the palol of the Nòdrs ti with him, and since that time Ön has ruled over Amnòdr, which is sometimes called Önnòdr after him.
TEIKIRZI
This goddess is perhaps the most important of the Toda deities. She is said to have been the sister, and probably the elder sister, of Ön. I could learn very little about the story of her life, but nearly all the customs of the Todas were referred to her, and it seemed clear that when Ön left this world Teikirzi became the ruler or nòdrodchi of the Todas. Whenever I tried to obtain from the Todas an explanation of any ceremony or custom I nearly always received the reply, which was regarded as final, that it had been so ordained by Teikirzi.
It seems doubtful whether Teikirzi dwells in any special hill like other Toda deities, though there is a hill near Nòdrs especially connected with her. I was told that she lives everywhere in this world, and in answer to a question it was said even that her influence extends to London, where she dwells as she dwells everywhere else.
She is regarded as the ruler or nòdrodchi of all the Todas, and this world is often spoken of as Eikirzinòdr. At the same time Teikirzi is especially connected with Nòdrs, and she is the special nòdrodchi of this clan.
Five customs, or sets of customs, are ascribed especially to Teikirzi. These are:—
(i) Madol pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave madol (clans).” Teikirzi is also said to have divided the Todas into their two chief divisions.
(ii) Ir pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave buffaloes.”
Below Nòdrs, near a swamp called Keikudr, there is a small stream which at the present time Todas will not cross at a certain spot, and Teikirzi stood in this stream. According to one account she beat the water with a wand, saying “Ir padri ma” (“May buffaloes spring”), and buffaloes sprang out of the stream; but it seemed to be more generally accepted that she only divided the buffaloes on this spot by touching each animal on the back with a wand and saying the name of the clan to which it was to belong. The first portion went to Nòdrs, the second to Kuudr, the third to Kars, and the fourth to Taradr. Up to this point she used a wand of kid wood (kidkurs). For the next clan, that of Keadr, the kidkurs was put away and she used a wand of tavat wood, and several other kinds of wand were used. Teikirzi was also said to have ordained at the same time that wursulir should be milked by Teivaliol and to have settled the general regulations concerning the different kinds of buffalo.
(iii) Püliol pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave püliol.”
Teikirzi is said to have ordained that certain people should be the püliol of a man, and that püliol should not marry one another (see Chap. XXI).
(iv) Ir patz id vai, “Buffalo catch who said.” Teikirzi ordained that buffaloes should be caught at the funeral ceremonies (see Chap. XV).
(v) Kwarzam pep ostht ad vai, “Who told the kwarzam and gave pep.”
Teikirzi gave to each village its kwarzam, or sacred name, and settled the method of making new pep.
The name of Teikirzi occurs frequently in other legends. One story not mentioned elsewhere is the following:—
When Teikirzi was living at Nòdrs the people of Mysore came to fight her, but as they approached, the woods made a great noise. When the Mysore people heard the noise they stopped, and then Teikirzi cursed them and said, “Let them become stones,” and they were turned into stones, which are still to be seen below Nòdrs.
TEIPAKH, OR TIRSHTI
I know very little about the life-history of this deity, but he is very widely mentioned in the prayers and incantations of the Todas, and is one of their most important gods. He was the brother of Teikirzi, and differs from most other Toda deities in being a river god, Teipakh being the Toda name of the Paikara river.
Teipakh is the nòdrodchi of the Piedr and Kusharf clans.
Although there was considerable agreement that Teipakh and Tirshti were one and the same god, there was some doubt about it, and, according to one account, Tirshti was only another name for Teikirzi.
ANTO
I am very doubtful about the name and identity of this god. There seemed to be little doubt that he had the same name as the chief dairy of the Nòdrs ti and was the chief deity connected with this dairy. According to one account he was the son of Ön, but it is possible that the two deities were identical, Anto being Önteu. His name was sometimes pronounced Anteu or perhaps more correctly Änto or Änteu.
I have only a few incidents from the life of Anto. He once rolled a huge stone with the hair of his head from Nelkòdr in the Wainad to the top of a hill called Katthvai near the dairy of Anto. The god now lives near this dairy, resting his head on a spot called Ködrs, and stretching his legs on a spot called Tudrs. These places are about two furlongs apart so that Anto is evidently a god of a large size.
Anto is said to have made buffaloes, and the buffalo which founded the ti mad of Makars (see p. 116) was one of his creation. The fact that Anto created buffaloes increases the probability of his identity with Ön, but this is far from conclusive for there were undoubtedly several independent creations of these animals.
KULINKARS
This deity is the nòdrodchi of the Kars clan. His original name appears to have been Kulin, and this was changed to Kulinkars. He is also called Teikhars. He inhabits a hill near Makurti Peak, which is so steep and rocky that “no man has ever climbed it.”
The following story is told of Kulinkars or Teikhars:—He once knocked on the ground and so made two buffaloes. He then told the monsoon (kwadr) to drive the buffaloes to the place to which they were to go, saying, “you must push them on.” As the buffaloes were being driven on by the monsoon, a tiger went after them. When they reached a certain hill, the hill divided into two and the buffaloes went between the two parts, but still the tiger followed them. Then the buffaloes came to Kwaradr and went into the pen, and the tiger also went into the pen. When the buffaloes saw that the tiger had come into the pen, they kicked it and it died. Then one of the buffaloes said to the other, “You stay here in the pen; I am going to Tarsòdr.” Then the monsoon drove on this buffalo to Tarsòdr, which is one of the dairies of the Pan ti. The descendants of the buffalo which stayed in the pen are the pasthir of Kwaradr and the descendants of the other are among the buffaloes of the Pan ti.
Kulinkars was connected with the erkumptthpimi ceremony (see Chap. XIII) and was the mokhthodvaiol or paramour of Nòtirzi. His relation to Nòtirzi is said to have been the origin of the mokhthoditi custom (see Chap. XXII), but I was not able to obtain any detailed account of this part of the history of the god.
Kulinkars has a son called Teikhidap, who lives on Makurti Peak, and the proper Toda name for this hill is Teikhidap.
NÒTIRZI
I have no details of the history of this female deity. She is the nòdrodchi of the two important clans of Melgars and Kuudr, and lives on the hill now known as Snowdon, the Toda name of the hill being the same as that of the goddess. This hill is especially sacred, and any Toda who visits it has to salute with hand to forehead (kaimukhti) in all directions. Like her mokhthodvaiol, Kulinkars, Nòtirzi is connected with the erkumptthpimi ceremony. She is said to have had a son called Tikuteithi or Teukuteithi. It is possible that this is the same as Teikuteidi, who appears in the story of Kwoten (see p. 193), but they are more probably two different deities.
A stone which is said to have been thrown by this goddess from her hill is shown close to the village of Pòln, under the tree known to English visitors to the Nilgiris as the ‘umbrella tree.’
KORATEU OR KUZKARV
Korateu was the son of Teikirzi. One day when Teikirzi was going from one village to another she went into a cave called Teivelkursh, by the side of a stream called Kathipa, near Kakhudri, and there gave birth to a son, who was called Azo-mazo. The afterbirth dropped into the stream and was carried down to Teipakh (the Paikara river). It travelled down the river as far as a place called Marsnavai, where there were growing two plants called tib and purs in which it became entangled. The afterbirth then slowly arose and became a boy, and the boy was Korateu. When Azo-mazo became a man he went to live at Pernòdr in the Kundahs, but Korateu lived in the river till he was eight years old. The river Teipakh was the brother of Teikirzi. As he sat in the lap of his uncle Korateu used often to play at making the buffalo horns called tebkuter (Fig. 35). [59] When he was eight years old he founded a ti and created a male and a female buffalo, making both out of earth. He also built a dairy and a buffalo pen and made the garment called tuni. As soon as the buffaloes had a calf, he went to fetch a churning-stick from Kaiers, beyond Makurti Peak, and took it to Nerva, near Mòdr, where his buffaloes were standing. He then went to Kurkòdr, a bamboo grove near Meipadi in the Wainad, and made a kwoi or milking vessel. He next made the persin and the mani and all the other things of a ti and became palol of the buffaloes at Òdrtho. There was a buffalo here of the kind called kughir, with the horns growing downwards. Korateu cut off these horns and gave them to the kaltmokh at Òdrtho and they are now the horns of the Nòdrs ti. Korateu then made a law that the people of Piedr should fill the office of palol and that the kaltmokh should be taken from the Melgarsol. He appointed a palol and a kaltmokh from these clans, handed over the charge of the ti to them, and went away to the hill Korateu, where he lived in an iron cave which he called a poh. He used to bathe in a pool near the hill.
At this time Korateu was not recognised as a teu, and when the gods held council he was not summoned as a member. This made him very angry.
Near Korateu there was a wood in which there stood a tree of the kind called mòrs (Michelia nilagirica) which was about 80 feet high. Korateu ordered that honey bees (peshtein) should come to the tree, and after a time there were about 300 nests, which made the tree bend down with their weight. One day about twenty men came to collect honey, Todas, Irulas, and Kurumbas. The Todas made a fire under the tree, while the Irulas and Kurumbas climbed and collected honey from the nests. When they had collected the honey from all except three or four nests, the tree became so light that it sprang back and killed the Irulas and Kurumbas, and the Todas went home.
At this time Korateu was unmarried and he carried a stick of iron. One day a Kurumba woman came to the mòrs tree in search of honey. Korateu knocked her on the head with the iron stick and at once she became pregnant. That evening she gave birth to a daughter, who was very beautiful, and Korateu decided to marry the child and sent away the mother that night. (According to another version, the child was so beautiful that the mother was frightened and went away to her own village, and Korateu fed the child with milk and fruit and honey, and when she grew up he married her.)
Soon after the death of the Irulas and Kurumbas a sambhar calf came to Korateu, who caught it, tamed it, and kept it for a month. Then certain Todas went to Korateu and asked him for a place. Korateu gave them a place and said that it should be called Keradr. The people of Keradr then asked for buffaloes. So Korateu gave them the sambhar calf and said that it should become buffaloes for them, and he ordered that the buffaloes should be called miniapir, and that the calves should be called mâvelkar—i.e., calf from a sambhar. This was the origin of Keradr and of its wursulir, which are still called miniapir, and they are the only buffaloes of the Todas which were made from sambhar.
After these things had happened the gods recognised that Korateu was a teu, and calling him asked him who he was. He answered that he was the son of Teikirzi, and the manmokh or sister’s son of Teipakh. He was then admitted as one of the gods and now lives on the hill Korateu, but still sometimes sits in the lap of Teipakh. He is the nòdrodchi of the Keradr and Keadr clans, and the chief villages of these clans are near his hill. He is called Kuzkarv when mentioned in prayer.
Another god, called Etepi, is said to be the same god as Korateu. It appeared, however, that Korateu lived on one hill and Etepi on another, and I could not ascertain the true relation of the deities to one another.
Azo-mazo is mentioned in the prayer of the Kars ti as two deities, Azo and Mazo.
PUZI AND KURINDO
I am very doubtful as to the identity of Puzi. According to some accounts Puzi or Purzi was merely another name for Teikirzi; according to other accounts Puzi was a male deity and the husband of Teikirzi. In the following story Puzi is a female deity, inhabiting a hill near Nòdrs. She gave birth to a son called Kurindo. As soon as Kurindo was born he became fire. Puzi did not approve of this, as it seemed to show that the boy was too powerful, so she took a leaf of the kind called kwagal, pounded it and mixed it with water and sprinkled it on the fire. The fire then turned back again into a boy who was bent to one side.
Puzi said, “I will put you on a hill opposite to me.” So she put him on the hill called Mopuvthut, near the village of Naters, and in order to make the hill higher she put three baskets of earth on the top, so that her son might be seen by everybody.
When Kurindo was on his hill he thought to himself, “My mother has treated me badly; she sprinkled me with water and quenched my power, and she has made me bent to one side; I do not like to be opposite to her.” So he went away to a hill near Kanòdrs. This was before the time of Kwoten and before the Kamasòdrolam had run away (see p. 195). While Kurindo was living on this hill a strange tribe came to the hills, so Kurindo again moved and went away to the hill of Arsnur on the Mysore side, where he still lives.
There is a hill called Puthi on which a fire is lighted at certain times (see p. 291) and the god inhabiting this hill was, according to one account, the husband of Teikirzi. It is possible that Puthi and Puzi are the same, but I think it more probable that they are two separate gods, each having his own hill, Puthi being the husband of Teikirzi, and Puzi being the deity of this legend.
The following legends differ from the preceding in that they appear almost certainly to record the lives of deified men. The first legend deals with three men of different clans, but the sons of three sisters. The second deals with the life of Kwoto, and professes to be the history of a being of miraculous birth who came to be accepted by the gods, not only as one of their number, but as superior to themselves. These two legends were known far more thoroughly and universally than any of the preceding. It seems most probable that they are records of men who really lived, and that the life of each has become a nucleus round which have grown various miraculous and portentous incidents.
KWOTEN, TEIKUTEIDI, AND ELNÂKHUM
There were once three men, the children of three sisters. The eldest was Kwoten, who belonged to Pan, the second was Teikuteidi, who belonged to Taradr, and the youngest was Elnâkhum of Nòdrs. (According to one account the father of Kwoten was Purten, and his mother was Tiköni of Keradr. They lived at Pan and Kiursi, and Kwoten was born at Pan. Purten died when Kwoten was thirty years old and Tiköni died six years later.)
Kwoten had a wife called Kwoterpani. She did not like her husband, but preferred a man of Kanòdrs called Parden. One day Kwoten took his wife to a place called Timukhtar (near the spot where Sandy Nullah toll-bar now stands). He gave her only the loin-cloth called tadrp to wear, hoping that she would be cold and uncomfortable and would sleep with him, but she refused. Kwoten then took her to Kûdrîdjpül near Mulòrs, where there was a large wood. In this wood there was a tree of the kind called külmän, into which Kwoten climbed and made a bed. Below him, about three feet above the ground, he made a small bed for his wife, and under the tree, close to his wife’s bed, he tied a big male buffalo. He did this because he thought a tiger might come to take the buffalo during the night when his wife would be frightened and would climb up the tree to his bed. During the night a tiger came and took away the buffalo, but even this did not induce the woman to go to her husband. Next morning Kwoten took his wife to Pòlâdri, which belonged to the Panol. This village was near Miuni, and there Kwoten became a palikartmokh. One day Kwoten was in the dairy and his wife in the hut when Parden came from Kanòdrs. Kwoten’s wife knew that her husband was in the dairy, and endeavoured to prevent Parden from going into the hut by giving him buttermilk. Kwoten found that Parden had come, and sharpened a big knife to kill him, and when he came out of the dairy, Parden ran away towards Kanòdrs and Kwoten followed with the knife.
Kwoten’s sister had married a Kars man and was living with him at Nasmiòdr, and at this time Kwoten’s mother was staying at this place. As Parden ran away, pursued by Kwoten, they had to pass Nasmiòdr, and Kwoten’s mother saw them, and said, “How is it that my son does not catch Parden?” Then she cursed Parden, saying “On sati udairnùdr, Kârkaḍith mul uḍith pâtmâ”—viz., “If I have reverence to the village, may he be checked by the tree with thorns in the Kark wood.” When Parden reached a stone now called Pardenkars, Kwoten caught him up and tried to kill him, but the knife struck the stone instead and split it into two pieces. Then Parden ran on to the wood called Kark, where he was caught by a tree with thorns (brambles) so that Kwoten was able to kill him.
When the news of the death of Parden reached Kanòdrs all the people were very much afraid, and all ran away except one old man and his wife. As the people were going, they sent a message to the Kotas at Tizgudr. Two Kotas took a grain pounder (wask) and went to Pòladri. When Kwoten was told that the Kotas were coming he went and hid himself. The Kotas came and stood near the village and were told that Kwoten had gone away. Then they told Kwoten’s wife, who at this time was pregnant by Parden, to come out of the hut. She came out and went to the Kotas, who asked her where Kwoten was. She said she did not know, whereupon the Kotas were vexed, and pierced her belly with the pounder, so that she died. Her funeral took place at Tadendari, and that of Parden at Arâdr.
The people of Kanòdrs ran away to a place called Penasmalpet, near Malmathapenpet, and are known as the Kamasòdrolam. They have never been seen since, but the Todas have heard from various wandering tribes that they still exist and that they live on a hill from which they can see Kanòdrs, and that when the Kamasòdrolam see a fire at Kanòdrs they shave their heads and make a special kind of food called ashkkarthpimi.
When the Kanòdrs people ran away there remained behind one old man called Muturojen and his wife Muturach, [60] who were living in a village near Kanòdrs called Mîtâhârzi. When the people left, the old man went to the Kanòdrs dairy to churn the milk left there by those who had run away, and he stayed there, sleeping in the kwotars or calves’ hut, as the dairyman should do at Kanòdrs. His wife used to come every day as far as a place called Pîtipem, where she rubbed a place with buffalo-dung and sat down.
While sitting there one day an eagle (kashk) sat on her head, and she became pregnant, and went back to the village and gave birth to a son. When Kwoten heard of this he wished to kill the child and set out to do so. The old woman’s daughter, who had married a Kars man, sent her husband to warn her parents that Kwoten was coming to kill them. The Kars man met Kwoten and ran away from him towards Kanòdrs, followed by Kwoten’s dog. When he came to a hill above the village he called out that Kwoten was coming. When the old man heard him, he cursed Kwoten and those with him; the latter became stones and Kwoten himself (according to the story as told by the Kanòdrs people) was stung by honey bees and died. The people of Kanòdrs are descended from the son born to the old woman. If this old woman was not a Toda, as her name and that of her village suggest, this would seem to point to a tradition that the people of Kanòdrs are descended from an ancestor of a different race from the other Todas (see p. 640).
Owing to the behaviour of Kwoten to the Kanòdrs people there has ever since been karaivichi (trouble) between the people of Pan and Kanòdrs. They do not intermarry and no Kanòdrs man may go to one of the chief villages (etudmad) of the Pan people nor may a Pan man go to an etudmad of Kanòdrs.
According to the above account Kwoten died after being cursed by the old man, but this is only a feature of the story as told by the Kanòdrs people, and in the account given by others Kwoten had many other adventures and finished his life in this world in a very different manner. He married a second wife, who, like the first, objected to her husband and preferred a man of Keradr, whose name was Keradrkutan. Kwoten lived with this wife at Kazhuradr, near Isharadr. At that time women wore the garment called än, which is dark grey like the tuni of the palol, and is now only used as a funeral garment.
Keradrkutan used frequently to come to Kazhuradr, and this vexed Kwoten, who told his wife to have nothing to do with the man. She encouraged Keradrkutan, however, and this vexed Kwoten so much that he took off her än and brought a thorny bush called peshteinmul and beat her all over with the bush, so that she became covered with blood. Kwoten at this time wore the garment called tuni, which he then took off, dipped it in water, and rubbed it all over his wife so that she became the colour of tuni, and then he gave her back her än and went to his dairy. While he was in the dairy Keradrkutan came stealthily to the village. When the woman saw Keradrkutan she cried very bitterly and said, “Kwoten has beaten me very severely so that I shall die; come and see me.” When Keradrkutan went into the hut, the woman died.
Before this time, when Kwoten was one day beating his wife, she abused him, saying, “Talrs ti oditha vai, Kòlrs kûv oditha vai; en puspad”—“You have no ti, you have no Kotas: why do you beat me?” This was to reproach Kwoten because the Pan people had no ti buffaloes and had no Kotas to make things for them. So Kwoten went and complained to his brother Teikuteidi. Teikuteidi was very sorry, and in order to remove the reproach he persuaded Elnâkhum of Nòdrs to give certain buffaloes of the kind called unir from the Nòdrs ti. Elnâkhum gave a two-year-old calf (pòl) and a one-year-old calf (kar), and also two bells (mani) to put on their necks. The two bells were called Tarskingg and Takhingg. The calves were then standing at Kuladrtho and were taken by Kwoten to the tars poh of Pan. He tied the two bells to one of the calves called Kazhi. These bells ought properly to have been tied to the buffalo called Enmars which remained behind at Kuladrtho. Then Enmars went to Anto and complained as follows:—
“kî mêdr, kî kevi, ninkûtth pòrâni” [61] “inferior neck, inferior ear, to your council I will not come”
i.e., “I will not come to your presence with naked neck and ear.” Anto told him not to grieve because he had lost the mani, and that instead
Melgarsol teirpülk mudâ mâ nî pud Antosh pep ûn Melgars man pül of Anto to in front go may you come at Anto pep drink
i.e., “When you go to Anto, a Melgars man shall go in front of you to the pül of Anto; when you come to Anto you shall drink pep.” To this day, when the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti go in procession to Anto a Melgars man goes in front and the buffalo called Enmars drinks pep at Anto. At the same time Anto prophesied to Enmars that a misfortune would befall Teikuteidi, saying
“wûrâdr nols Teikuteidi tan ennâth piriedkin, “whole year day himself without numbering I will divide,
at vokh!” go away!”
When Teikuteidi heard of this prophecy he was much grieved, and was very careful to do all the following ceremonies:—erkumptthiti, upatiti, punkudrtiti, tatmadthkudrtiti, petkudrtiti, mukudrtiti, adikudrtiti, parivkudrtiti, tatòtiti, muòtiti, ponkastiti and irpalvusthi—viz., sacrifice of calf, salt-giving, purification of pun, tat and madth, pet, mu, adi, and pariv, etc. [62] He performed all these ceremonies to escape the prophesied evil, for if he had succeeded in doing them all for the whole twelve months the prophecy would not have been fulfilled. On the very last day he forgot the prophecy and did not perform the ceremonies, but went to a place called Kirspem, where he sat under the shade of pülmän. There is a flower which blossoms on this tree in the rainy season only, and then the bees come. When Teikuteidi was sitting under the tree it was not the rainy season and he was very much surprised to hear the humming of honey bees in the tree. The noise was being made by a kazun [63] which had taken the form of a bee. He looked up to see if there were any flowers to attract the bees and could not see them, neither could he see any bees. Then he thought for a little while and remembered Anto’s prophecy, so he did not remain under the tree, but went away to Kirsgòrs to attend the funeral of a wursol of Nòdrs (see p. 439). When the funeral was over Teikuteidi set out with companions to go to Kerkars (a place near Paikara). On the way they passed Kwongudrpem (near Kuudi). There he stopped and began to count his companions; he counted them, but forgot to include himself, saying that there were twenty when they started and now only nineteen, and he thought for a long time who the lost person could be. When he was looking in the direction of the funeral-place for the lost companion, he saw a lame man named Keikarskutan, who had a purs and ab (bow and arrow). Keikarskutan lay down and shot the arrow [64] and it came towards Teikuteidi with a sound like a bird’s voice. Teikuteidi was looking to see what sort of bird it was when the arrow pierced both his eyes [65] and he died. When his companions found that he was dead, they held the funeral at Kerâs, and at the place where he died they made a mark with four stones like a cross, one for his head, one for his legs and one for each hand.
Kwoten was responsible for various features of the organisation of the Pan people. He divided them into two parts, the Panol and Kuirsiol, and also divided the ti into two parts, the wars ti, which was to belong to the Panol, and the tars ti to the Kuirsiol. He settled that the palol of the ti should be chosen from the people of Keadr. When there is a funeral in any clan a palol belonging to that clan must give up his office; hence, in order that his ti should never be without a palol, Kwoten separated the people of Keadr into two divisions, the Keadrol and the Kwaradrol, so that a member of one division might be palol if a member of the other division died. This was the origin of the division of the Keadr people into the Keadrol and the Kwaradrol.
One day Kwoten went to the wars ti of Pan and took buttermilk and slept there, and he did the same at the arsaiir ti of Kwòdrdoni, and since that day the people of Pan have had the privilege of taking buttermilk and sleeping at the places of each ti.
Kwoten also made two teiks (stones or wooden posts at which buffaloes are killed at the funerals), the parsteiks for the Panol and the kirshteiks for the Kuirsiol.
It is owing to the example of Kwoten that the Todas now take meals in Kurumba villages. Before his time they had never done so, but Kwoten one day went to a Kurumba village and took food, and since that time all Todas have done so.
Kwoten was also the first Toda to go to a Kota village. He wanted one day to go to Mitur in the Wainad, and as it was getting dark and he was still on his way, he went to the Kota village of Kulgadi (Gudalur). He sat on their tün, or bed, got new pots and food from them, and, taking both to the stream called Marspa or Marsva, he cooked and ate the food there, and then, returning to the village, slept on a Kota tün. Since that time Todas have gone to that village, and have done as Kwoten did, but they will not go to any other Kota village.
One day Kwoten went with Erten of Keadr, who was spoken of as his servant, to Pòni, in the direction of Polkat (Calicut). At Pòni there is a stream called Palpa, the commencement of which may be seen on the Kundahs. Kwoten and Erten went to drink water out of the stream at a place where a goddess (teu) named Terkosh had been bathing. When Kwoten was about to drink from his hands, he found in the water a long golden hair; he measured the length of the hair and found it was greater than his height; he had a long stick in his hand called pirs, and found that the hair was longer than this stick. Then he asked Erten about it. Erten knew it was the hair of a teu, but thought it best not to tell Kwoten, and tried to persuade him that it was of no importance, and proposed that they should return home. Kwoten, however, insisted on finding out from whom the hair came, so they went along the stream. Kwoten went first and Erten had to follow him. As they went they met the bird called karpüls going from the right side to the left, [66] uttering its cry. Kwoten asked Erten why they met the bird, why it went from right to left, and why it made a cry. Erten replied as follows:—
“Nòdr udoi kwudrpedrshai; Naraian sami kaipedrshai.” “Country (God) if there is you will die; Naraian will kill you.”
In spite of this warning, Kwoten persisted in going on, and finally they came to Terkosh, who said to Kwoten, “Do not come near me, I am a teu.” Kwoten paid no heed to this, but said, “You are a beautiful woman,” and went and lay with her. Then Terkosh went away to her hill at Pòni, where she is now, and to this day the Kurumbas go there once a year and offer plantains to her and light lamps in her honour.
Kwoten and Erten returned home. Kwoten went to Kepurs, a village now in ruins, close to Nanjanad, and Erten went to a village called Kapthòri belonging to the Keadrol. Kwoten had about five hundred buffaloes grazing at Pazhmokh, near Kepurs. That night Kwoten slept on the idrtul over which he had spread a sambhar skin. He had on his finger a thick silver ring, which may still be seen at Naters and is used in the funeral ceremonies of men of the Pan clan. When the people awoke next morning they found that Kwoten had disappeared and that there only remained, lying on the sambhar skin, the silver ring and some pug. [67] Kwoten had been carried away by Terkosh and it was found that his five hundred buffaloes had also disappeared.
When Erten got up next morning he went to Kepurs and called out to the wursol of that place, “Wursolia, tar tûrshoḍthrska” [68]—“O wursol, is the man up yet?” The wursol replied, “Pülmâv tars pògh udisvichi”—“On the sambhar skin blood is lying.” Erten replied, “Aroth pun pârs Pâlmän kwark putvai, nadrtivadr”—“Take sixty vessels of milk to the wood of Palmän and pour out.” So the wursol took sixty pun of milk and poured it out in the wood as Erten had ordered him.
Then since Kwoten had gone away, Erten did not want to live any more; he took a large creeper called melkudri, and tied it round his neck and tried to strangle himself, but when he pulled the creeper it broke into several pieces. He was much disappointed, but took another kind of creeper called kakkudri, but this broke in the same way. He then tried teinkudri, which also broke. Finally he took kakhudri, [69] and with this he succeeded in strangling himself. Then the wursol and all those who had helped in pouring out the milk also strangled themselves with kakhudri. Since this time it has been a custom among the Todas to commit suicide by strangling.
Kwoten and Terkosh are now living on two hills near Pòni, which face one another, and Erten has also become a teu and lives on a smaller hill near those of Kwoten and Terkosh. Whenever a Toda sees Kwoten’s hill for the first time, he lies down on his right side and sings twice the following words: “Seizâr zon, Kwoten âr zon, Seizâr zon, Terkosh âr zon.” I could not discover the meaning of these words, and fancy that the Todas themselves do not know exactly what they mean. It is possible that âr is the word meaning six.
The history and fate of Teikuteidi, the second brother of Kwoten, has been given in the story of Kwoten. He belonged to Taradr, and according to one account the kugvalir of that place were sent to him. Very little is related about the third brother, Elnâkhum. He had 1,800 buffaloes, but though he had so many, he was always going to other Todas and saying “I have nothing to milk; lend me a buffalo to milk,” and all his life he used to beg. It is owing to his example that the Todas have begged ever since, and are not ashamed to do so even when they are rich.
Elnâkhum is said to have built the long wall which still exists at the village of Nòdrs.
The story of Kwoten reads very much like that of a man who really lived and was deified after his death. The minute detail with which several of the natural incidents of his life are known might be held to point in this direction, but perhaps more important is the fact that his ring can still be seen, and that his spear was, according to Breeks, in existence not long ago. It looks as if Kwoten was a man who raised Pan from a comparatively insignificant position among the Todas to be one of their chief clans, and was the means of introducing several innovations in Toda custom. It is probable that he was deified after his death, and that some of the incidents of his life have acquired miraculous characters.
KWOTO OR MEILITARS
There was once a man belonging to Melgars who married a woman of Kanòdrs and took her to Melgars. When she became pregnant, the woman was taken by her husband to Kanòdrs. On the way back to Melgars they passed Ushadr, the place where the funeral ceremonies of Melgars men took place. They were standing in front of the funeral hut at that place when the man found a good twadri tree, [70] and, cutting three or four sticks from it, brought them to his wife, who stripped the bark from the sticks. While she was doing this, the pains of labour came on, and soon after she gave birth to a gourd (kem). Both husband and wife were very much ashamed, and they decided to say that a child had been born and had died, and the man went round to all the villages to say that this had happened and that the funeral would be held at Ushadr. Accordingly they had the etvainolkedr (first funeral ceremony) at Ushadr, the gourd being covered with putkuli (cloak), so that it was taken to be the body of a child.
First the buffaloes were caught and killed, and then the supposed corpse was taken to the burning-place, where a fire was made and the gourd in its mantle was put on the fire. The fire first burnt the cloak, and when it reached the gourd, this broke into two pieces. One piece became a little baby, a boy, which took a piece of the burnt cloak and went away in the air to Neikhârs, where there is a big tree, under which it alighted. The other piece of the gourd was split into many fragments by the heat of the fire, and some of the fragments were driven with such force that they killed a kite which had come to the funeral. (To this day the kite does not eat the buffaloes at funerals at Ushadr, though it does so at other places.) The father and mother followed the child to Neikhârs, where they found it sitting on the tree. [71] The father and mother said to the child “Ena, itvâ”—“My son, come here,” and the boy came down and went to them, and was taken away by his parents to Melgars.
As the parents and child were on their way to Melgars they met the buffaloes of the Kars ti going from Kòn to Enòdr. At that time the buffaloes of Melgars and Kars used to go with the ti buffaloes as far as a place called Irgûdrval, on the way between Kars and Enòdr. A Kars man went with the buffaloes, and he wore on his right wrist a gold bracelet (which is still kept at Kuzhu). At Irgûdrval there is a stone called Pidûtkars, and it was the duty of the man with the bracelet to sit on this stone and to make the Melgars buffaloes pass on the right side, the Kars buffaloes on the left side, and the ti buffaloes in the middle. When he had done this, the palol prayed at the stone, and then the buffaloes of Melgars and Kars turned back and the ti buffaloes went on to Enòdr. When the man and his wife saw the buffaloes coming, they waited near Pidûtkars, and while they were waiting the baby laughed. The father asked the boy, “Why do you laugh?” The boy answered, “I know the kwarzam [72] of the ti buffaloes, perner persagun; I know the kwarzam of the Melgars buffaloes, narsüln natüln nâkh; also I know the kwarzam of the Kars buffaloes, inâtviḍshti inâtvan; that is why I laughed.” After the buffaloes had gone on to Enòdr, the parents and child went on their way to Melgars. After they had been at Melgars fifteen days, they noticed that the child grew so rapidly that they could see him getting bigger from day to day, and he was soon grown up. He was called Kwoto.
One day Kwoto went into the buffalo pen and played there with the buffalo-dung, so that he was covered with the dust of the dung. His father rebuked him and was blowing on him to get rid of the dust when the boy changed into a kite and flew away. The next day he resumed human form, but from that time he only stayed in the village at times, and at other times stayed in the woods. This went on for about eight days, and then he refused to take food from the village and became a companion of the gods.
At this time the gods used to hold councils on the slopes below a hill called Tikalmudri. The place where they sat was called Pòlkab. When the gods were holding council at Pòlkab, Kwoto went and sat on the top of the hill Tikalmudri. Then the gods said to one another, “How is it that he sits on the top of the hill while we sit below? It is not at all good.” They consulted together and decided to kill him. So three or four of the gods went to Kwoto and said in a cunning way, “We will show you your country” (i.e., the place which should belong to him; each of the gods had his appointed place). So they took him to a steep precipice called Teipâper, and having deceived him that they would show him his country, they threw him down. Kwoto, however, was not killed, but took the form of a kite and flew back to Tikalmudri. Then all the gods were surprised that he was not dead, but decided to try and kill him again, and they took him to the hill Kòdrtho, near Nidrsi, and threw him down. (The hill Kòdrtho was inhabited by the god Kòdrtho.) Kwoto was not killed, but pulled up a bamboo tree with its roots, and flew back and struck Kòdrtho on the head, and Kòdrtho’s head split into three pieces. One of these pieces is now the well-known hill, the Drug, seen from Coonoor, while the other two pieces are eminences on the ridge running out to the Drug.
Kwoto then returned to Tikalmudri. The gods said, “We cannot kill him; he has some power; let us try his power.” So they gave him the following task:
“Peivoi tirikvâ, pîdâr pîrichvâ?” Low turn high fill?
i.e., “Can he turn the low stream and fill the high stream?” (According to another account the words in which the task was given were, “Alvoi tiriki, Kalvoi pîrsvôka,” i.e., “Can he turn the stream Alvoi and fill the stream Kalvoi?”)
Kwoto then took a huge stone, which may still be seen near Kanòdrs, and put it in the stream so that it flowed upwards. Then the stream begged Kwoto, “We are going upwards according to your order, but it is very difficult for us; we wish to be allowed to go our ordinary way.” So Kwoto took away the stone and the stream resumed its natural course.
The gods saw what Kwoto had done and decided to try his power in another way, so they said:
“Kânêr ât, kutei kurs ütia?” Sun tie, stone chain can he do?
i.e., “Can he tie the sun with a stone chain?” Kwoto then took a stone chain and tied it to the sun and brought the sun down to Nern, near Kanòdrs, and tied it to a tree. When the sun wanted to drink, Kwoto took it to the stream Kalvoi, from which the sun drank, and there is now to be seen a hole in this stream at the place where the sun drank. [73] Then Kwoto took the sun to a pool surrounded by trees called Nerpoiker, also near Kanòdrs. While the sun was tied in this way, it was dark both in this world and in Amnòdr. Then the people of Amnòdr came to the gods and asked why they allowed Kwoto to do these things, and said that they were now living in thick darkness, and they begged that Kwoto should be allowed to put the sun back in its right place. Then the gods went to Kwoto and asked him to put the sun back, and they acknowledged that he was a god and the most powerful of the gods. They said that he should no longer be called Kwoto, but that his name should be Meilitars, because he was superior to all the gods; also that he should go “parnur nòdr, putnur nòdr”, “to 1,600 places, 1,800 places,” i.e., he should not belong to one place only, like the other gods, but should go everywhere.
Then Meilitars put back the sun in its proper place.
(According to another version, the task of tying the sun was given in the words:
“Kânêr ât, pîrsagun patrôkâ?” Male buffalo tie, sun can he catch?
The sun was said to have been at this time sitting on the back of a male buffalo, and Kwoto was told to tie the buffalo and catch the sun. According to this account Kwoto first used an iron chain, kabantagars, which was melted by the heat of the sun. Next he tried a bronze (?) chain called kuchtagars, which also melted. Then he used a stone chain, or karstagars, which did not melt, and he succeeded in tying the sun with this. (This version of the story corresponds with that given by Breeks.)
Kwoto or Meilitars was closely connected with two clans, those of Melgars and Kanòdrs. It is said to be owing to the fact that Kwoto was a Melgars man that Melgars people have the special privileges and duties which are peculiar to that clan. At any rate, this is the view held by the people of Melgars. At Kanòdrs, the name of Kwoto occupies a prominent place in the prayer of the dairy, and several of the special features of the ritual of the Kanòdrs dairy are said to exist in consequence of the many wonderful things which Kwoto had done in its neighbourhood. When new buttermilk has to be made for Kanòdrs, it is made at a place called Kautarmad, far away, because Kwoto made new buttermilk there, and in the ceremony at this place earth is taken from certain places from which Kwoto took it.
Kwoto or Meilitars is the hero of several stories, in none of which does he play a very creditable rôle.
At one time the Todas used to go to and fro between this world and Amnòdr. Those who were dead stayed permanently in Amnòdr, but living people could go to visit them and return. One day Punatvan of Kars went with Meilitars to Amnòdr. They stayed there two days and two nights, and then Meilitars came away without Punatvan’s knowledge. At that time the people of Kars were living at Nasmiòdr, so Meilitars went to Nasmiòdr and said that Punatvan intended to stop in Amnòdr, and wished the Kars people to perform the funeral ceremonies for him, killing thirty buffaloes. So the Kars people caught thirty buffaloes, the chief one being called Enmon. Round the neck of Enmon were hung the two bells (wursuli mani) called Karsod and Kòni. They cut a piece of stick and put it in a putkuli to represent the dead body and then killed the thirty buffaloes. As the buffaloes were on their way to Amnòdr, they met Punatvan on his way back. Punatvan asked the chief buffalo, Enmon, “Why do you come here?” Then Enmon told him what Meilitars had done. The man and buffalo put their heads together and cried, and their tears became a pool of water. [74] Then Punatvan took the two bells from the neck of Enmon and sent them back to Nasmiòdr, where they are kept to this day, but he returned to Amnòdr with the buffaloes. Then Ön, the ruler of Amnòdr, ordered that in future no one should return to the world of the living from Amnòdr, and since that day the Todas have not been able to go to and fro between the two worlds as they used to do.
At the present time the people of Keradr have no ti. Once they had a ti which they lost through the action of Kwoto, who went one day to their dairy at Tîkîrs, near Mòdr, and, hiding the kaltmokh in the wood, took his place. When the palol milks, it is the duty of the kaltmokh to let out the calves and send them to the palol. Kwoto did not do this properly, but sent more calves than were required, so the palol became angry and took his stick (kwoinörtpet) to beat the supposed kaltmokh, but the stroke missed and fell on the palol himself.
Another day the palol told Kwoto to pour out the remainder of the buttermilk at the appointed place. Instead of doing this Kwoto poured it into the stream, and the buttermilk so poured became a god called Mòraman, who sends smallpox. [75] Then the palol became very angry and said he would no longer be palol, if he had to keep such a kaltmokh. Then Kwoto revealed to the palol and to the real kaltmokh that he was a god, and gave them a medicine called mûvòmad, which has the property that anyone who takes it will never grow old.
After giving mûvòmad to the palol and kaltmokh, Kwoto sent them into the air, together with the dairy and the buffaloes and everything belonging to the ti, and they all went in the air to Kupars, near Pan; they stayed there for some time and then disappeared, and now nothing can be seen of them, but if people go near Kupars, they hear the voices of the palol and kaltmokh when they are talking to one another.
Since that time the people of Keradr have been without a ti.
Another story in which Kwoto played a prominent part is connected with the custom of eating flesh. I received several versions of this story and was unable to satisfy myself which was correct.
According to one account Kwoto once went to Mitur in the Wainad, where Kurumbas live. Kwoto played with these people, and one day caught and killed a wild buffalo. He said to the Kurumbas, “I have killed this buffalo; let us eat its flesh”; and he gave to each a portion. The Kurumbas ate their portions, but Kwoto only pretended to eat; he held out his putkuli in front of him and instead of eating dropped his portions inside the cloak. When the Kurumbas had finished, Kwoto got up and all saw on the place where he had been sitting the flesh which he had pretended to eat. Then the Kurumbas were angry and went to beat Kwoto with sticks, asking why he had not eaten the flesh, and they insisted that Kwoto should eat some of it. Kwoto ran away, and when the Kurumbas pursued him he pretended that he was lame and consented to eat some of the flesh of the buffalo. He also told them that he was a god and said that he would dance before them, and did so like a lame man. He told the Kurumbas that whenever he came in the future, he would dance to the Kurumbas first and then to the Todas; and now the Kwoto teuol, or diviner (see Chap. XII), when he dances, does so first to the Kurumbas, and when he dances before them he does so as if he were lame.
After this Kwoto disappeared and since that time has not been seen. He is said to live in a temple at Mitur, but “wherever there is a god, there also is Kwoto, or Meilitars.”
According to another account, this story was told of the people called Panins (Panyas), but in this version Kurumbas were also said to be present, though it was the Panins who were made to eat the flesh.
According to a third account, obtained, however, from an untrustworthy informant, Kwoto practised this deception on the gods themselves, and made them eat the flesh of a calf while only pretending to eat himself. This was said to have been the starting-point of the erkumptthpimi ceremony, and Kwoto was said to have killed the calf with the same formalities as are now used in this ceremony. All other Todas strenuously denied that Kwoto made the gods eat flesh. There was, however, so much reticence about the erkumptthpimi ceremony and its history, that I am not confident that Kwoto was not in some way connected with its origin, and that the version of my untrustworthy informant may in this case have been correct.
OTHER GODS
There are very many other deities. Of the following I can give little more than the names.
Atiato is the nòdrodchi of the Kwòdrdoni clan and also of Pedrkars. He lives near the chief villages of these clans, and has a temple of which the priest is said to be an Irula, and Todas sometimes give to this god offerings of clarified butter.
Konto or Konteu is the nòdrodchi of the Panol, and lives on the hill Konto, to which fire is set by the palol of the Kars or Pan ti (see Chap. XIII).
Kòdrtho is the nòdrodchi of Nidrsi. He played a part in the history of Kwoto, and according to some accounts he was the mun, or maternal uncle, of this god.
Near the source of the Paikara river, there is a cave in which there is a pool called Alvoi. Sometimes this pool gives forth a loud bubbling noise, and this is believed to be due to a teu dipping himself in the water. The name of the god is Alvoi Kalvoi, Kalvoi, situated at some distance from the pool, being a hill on which the god usually lives.
There are other gods about whose histories I have no information. Tiligush is the nòdrodchi of Päm and Karadr of Taradr. Pòrzo inhabits a hill near Nòdrs, and Karzo, a hill near Kars, and the names of other gods, such as Kaladrvan, Teikhun, Peigwa, Karmunteu, Kondilteu and Mundilteu, are mentioned in the prayers of the ti dairies.
In addition to these, who are certainly true Toda gods, the Todas also pay respect to the gods of the other tribes on the Nilgiris, while occasionally the names of Hindu gods are mentioned in their ceremonies. If a Toda be asked if he worships one of these gods, he will almost certainly assent, but at the same time he distinguishes them from his own gods. The only deity who seemed to be confused with their own gods by some of the Todas was Petkon, whose Badaga name was said to be Betakarasami. Breeks calls him Betikhan, and states that he is a hunting god; and according to some Todas Petkon was a son of Teikirzi.
Previous accounts of the Toda gods have been very erratic. Some writers have given the names of Hindu gods. Breeks gives the names of dairies as those of gods, though he also records abbreviated versions of several of the stories given in this chapter. The most curious account, however, of the Toda gods is that of Marshall, who gives [76] the following as the names of five gods which are muttered when milk is put on the sacred bells:—Ânmungâno, Godingâtho, Beligoshu, Dekulâria, and Kazudâva. We puzzled over these words for a long time, and could not discover the names of gods even remotely resembling them. Finally it became clear that the last was “kars ud âva” (“Give me one rupee”). Similarly there was little doubt that “Beligoshu, Dekulâria” stood for “beli karsu tudkersia” (“Will you not give me a silver coin?”), the Badaga equivalent of the last word being very much like Dekulâria. The first two names we could not identify with certainty, but the first is possibly “en mûn gânei” (“Do not see my face”), and the second is possibly the name of a Badaga buffalo-pen.
X. PRAYER
In the chapters in which the ritual of the dairies has been described, one of the most important features of the ceremonial has been passed over which must now be fully described. This feature is the prayer which is always offered at certain stages of the dairy operations. In the village dairies, of whatever kind they may be, no prayer is offered at the morning ceremonial. In the evening the prayer of the dairy is recited twice—once when lighting the lamp, and once when shutting the buffaloes in their enclosure for the night, the prayer on this occasion being said in front of the entrance to the pen.
At the ti dairy the palol prays both morning and evening. In the morning he prays when lighting the lamp and after he has finished milking; in the evening prayer is offered on both these occasions, and also when shutting up the buffaloes for the night. The palol also repeats a few clauses when going out to milk. Prayers are said on certain other ceremonial occasions, and clauses from the prayers are frequently uttered during the many ceremonies of the dairy.
At the evening ceremonial of the village dairy the prayer is said when the lamp is lighted, while during the morning ceremonial, at which the lamp is usually not lighted, there is no prayer. This suggests that the prayer is especially related to the lamp-lighting, and that some idea of worship of the light is involved, but occasionally for some special reason, such as unusual darkness, the lamp may be lighted in the morning, and on these occasions the prayer is not used. Nevertheless, the relation between lamp-lighting and prayer both at the village and ti dairies has probably some significance, and, taken in conjunction with the undoubted salutation of the sun, it points to some degree of worship of light and its sources which may at one time have formed a more marked feature of the Toda religion than seems at present to be the case.
The prayer when shutting up the buffaloes for the night is common to both ti and village dairies. The night is the dangerous time for Toda buffaloes, which are not infrequently killed by tigers, and the prayer on the occasion of closing the pen is probably designed to promote their safety.
At the prayer uttered at the close of the milking at the ti dairy the palol adopts a special attitude which is shown in Fig. 28. He prays leaning on his wand, the pohvet, with his hands crossed over one another. This attitude is not employed in the village dairy, and only on this occasion at the ti dairy.
In all cases the prayer is uttered “in the throat,” so that the words cannot be distinguished by any one who may hear them. Whenever I listened to the recital of a prayer as it was being offered by a dairyman within the dairy, I heard only a gurgling noise in which no words could be distinguished. On one occasion I was allowed to approach the ti dairy at Mòdr while the first prayer was being offered by the palol. I heard the beating on the persin (see p. 92) which accompanies this prayer, and at intervals in the monotonous sound produced by the voice of the palol there were pauses. As we shall see, the prayer of the ti has certain sections which are distinguished from one another, and it seemed possible that these pauses marked off the different portions of the prayer, but it was clear that this was not the case, the palol only stopping when the necessity for taking a new breath became imperative.
Each village has its own prayer, and so far as I could ascertain this prayer is used in all the dairies of the village; thus I believe that at Taradr the same prayer would be used in both kugvali and tarvali. This is not, however, a point on which I can speak positively, for there was much reluctance to talk about this subject and many of the Todas absolutely refused to discuss it. One point seemed quite clear, at any rate among the Teivaliol, viz., that the different villages of a clan had different prayers, though often with many clauses in common.
In general, the prayer of the ti is longer and more elaborate than that of the village dairy. Different prayers are used at different dairies of the same ti, though here again they may have many clauses in common.
In all cases the prayer consists of two distinct parts: a preliminary portion consisting chiefly of names known as kwarzam, followed by a portion which may be regarded as the prayer proper.
The prayer proper should be the same in every dairy, but it seemed to me that there was a good deal of laxity as regards this portion, and there is no doubt that it is often slurred over hastily and is less strictly regulated than the preliminary portion of the prayer.
The following is the most generally accepted form:
Tânenmâ; târmâmâ; may it be well or may be blessed; may it be well or may be merciful;
îr kark tânenmâ; nûv ârk mâ; with the buffaloes and calves may it be well; may there be no disease;
kazun ârk mâ; may there be no destroyer;
nudri ârk mâ; may there be no poisonous animals (snakes and insects);
kâvel ârk mâ; may there be no wild beasts (tigers, &c.);
per kârt pâ mâ; pustht kârt pâ mâ; may be kept from (falling down) steep hills; may be kept from floods;
tüt ârk mâ; mâ un mâ; maj eu mâ; may there be no fire; may rain fall; may clouds rise;
pul pûv mâ; nîr ûr mâ. may grass flourish; may water spring.
The prayer then concludes with the names of two of the most important gods or objects of reverence, followed by the words:
âtham idith emk tânenmâ. them for the sake of for (or to) us may it be well.
There does not seem to be any strict regulation as to the clauses of the prayer, and in different versions some of the given above were omitted, while others were added, especially requests for protection against special animals, as pob ârk mâ, “may there be no snakes,” and pîrzi ârk mâ, “may there be no tigers.” One man concluded with the words erdâdrsink erdâdri ini, “I know half to pray, I know not half to pray,” [77] but I do not know whether this was an individual peculiarity or a special feature of the prayer of his dairy.
It seemed clear that the whole prayer referred to the buffaloes. It may be summarised as follows:
“May it be well with the buffaloes, may they not suffer from disease or die, may they be kept from poisonous animals and from wild beasts and from injury by flood or fire, may there be water and grass in plenty.”
The first part of the prayer contains a number of clauses each of which usually consists of the name of an object of reverence followed by the word idith (often contracted into ith). This word is said to mean “for the sake of,” so that the prayer as a whole seems to consist of clauses mentioning a number of objects of reverence for the sake of which the prayer is said, followed by the prayer consisting of clauses directed to avert evils or bring blessings on the buffaloes of the dairy. The word idith is used in the sense of “for the sake of” in ordinary language. Thus, “for my sake, leave him,” would be “en idith, an pidr” (me for the sake of, him leave).
The objects of more or less sanctity thus mentioned in the prayer are not called by their usual names, but are referred to by means of special names to which the general term of kwarzam is given. In some cases the kwarzam differs little from the ordinary name, while in other cases it bears no resemblance to it.
The kwarzam mentioned in the prayer fall into several groups: there are the kwarzam of the gods, of the buffaloes, of the villages, of the dairy and of its various parts, vessels and implements. In some cases, especially in the case of the ti, we shall find that different dairies differ in the prominence given to each kind of kwarzam; that the prayer of one place consists chiefly of kwarzam of the dairy, while in the prayer of another the kwarzam of the gods or of the buffaloes predominate.
In some prayers there occur kwarzam of a special kind containing references to incidents in legend—incidents which occurred in the life of some deity especially connected with the dairy at which the prayer is used, or other kwarzam may refer to incidents in the history of the dairy or of the village in which the dairy is situated.
I had great difficulty in obtaining examples of the prayers, or rather of those portions consisting of the kwarzam of the sacred objects. There was little objection to giving the prayer proper; it was only when the kwarzam were approached that the difficulty arose. It was evident that it was this portion of the prayer which was regarded as especially sacred and mysterious, and this was doubtless due to the mention of sacred beings and objects by their sacred names.
With much difficulty I succeeded in obtaining the prayers of four village dairies, three belonging to the Kuudrol, while the fourth was the prayer, or part of the prayer, of the Kanòdrs poh. I was also successful in obtaining two ti prayers and fragments of others.
THE VILLAGE PRAYER
The following are the kwarzam of the prayer used in the dairy of the village of Kuudr, the etudmad of the Kuudr clan. On the left-hand side of the page are given the kwarzam, each of which is followed by the word idith when the prayer is uttered. On the right-hand side of the page are given the objects, beings or incidents to which the kwarzam refer.
PRAYER OF KUUDR
Atthkâr Kuudr village and probably also the Kuudr clan or Kuudro. òners Kuudr village. palitûdrpali large dairy at Kuudr (tûdrpali). palikidpali small dairy at Kuudr (kidpali). tûdrpalshpelk lamp (pelk) of large dairy. kidpalshpep all the sacred objects of small dairy. tûtòdrtho large buffalo-pen (tû) at Kuudr. tûkidtû small buffalo-pen (tû) at Kuudr. kadrtorikkadr calf enclosure (kadr) at Kuudr. keishkvet sacred buffaloes (pasthîr) of Kuudr. tarskivan ordinary buffaloes (putiîr). känpep portion of buttermilk (pep) originally given by Teikirzi for pasthîr. âtthpep portion of pep for putiîr. mutchudkars stone in buffalo-pen at Kuudr where the vessels of the large dairy are purified. tarskikars stone in pen where the vessels of the small dairy are purified. nîrkiznîr sacred dairy spring of Kuudr. Eikisiov a buffalo whose milk was the origin of the spring. Pülmâlpül a hill near Kuudr. Emalpûv a buffalo which once lived at Kuudr. Kakathûmûk a hill near Kuudr. Karstum a buffalo which once died on this hill. teikhkwadiki a tree by which the dairy vessel called mu is buried (see p. 170). manikiars the kiars tree by which the sacred bell (mani) is laid when the dairy things are being purified. Keikars a hill near Kuudr. keitnòdi hill near which the erkumptthiti ceremony is performed (see Chap. XIII). petüt pati pethût ir chief buffaloes given when Teikirzi divided the buffaloes with wand in hand (see p. 186). Literally, “wand with divide chief buffaloes.” pûthion nâkh tarzâr calf which was the ancestor of the Kuudr maj putiîr.
Thus, the prayer would run, “Atthkâr idith; òners idith; palitûdrpali idith; .....” and the translation would run, “For the sake of the village and clan of Kuudr; for the sake of the village of Kuudr; for the sake of the large dairy of Kuudr;....” as far as the end of the kwarzam given above, and then would follow the prayer proper, “tanenma, tarmama,....”
This prayer begins with two kwarzam of the village or clan, followed by others referring to the dairies and dairy vessels, buffalo pens and buffaloes. Then follow certain kwarzam of the pep or buttermilk which is of so much importance in the dairy ritual, and those of stones which play a part in the ceremonies attending purification of the dairy vessels. After the kwarzam of the dairy spring, there follow a number of kwarzam referring to certain incidents in the history of the dairy. Eikisiov is the kwarzam of a buffalo which was one day being milked at Kuudr when some of the milk was spilt on the ground. From that day the ground became swampy, and on digging, a spring of water was found which has ever since been used as the dairy spring and is called kiznîr. The two following kwarzam refer to incidents of which I have no record. Karstum is the kwarzam of a buffalo which was one day grazing on the hill Kakathûmûk when it began to bellow and could not be induced to stop; the people tried to take it back to the pen, but it would not go and died on the hill, and has ever since been remembered in the prayer. These kwarzam are followed by two referring to trees of ceremonial importance—one the tree by which is buried the mu on the integrity of which the continuity of the dairy procedure depends, while the other is connected with the sacred bell.
Then follow the kwarzam of a hill on which there are cairns and that of the sacrificial place of the village. The prayer concludes with two kwarzam of a different kind. The first refers to the act of the goddess Teikirzi, who portioned the buffaloes and assigned to each clan its share. In so doing we have seen that she touched each buffalo on the back with her wand, saying in each case to whom the buffalo should belong, and this act is commemorated in the prayer in the form, “for the sake of the dividing of the chief buffaloes with the wand.” The last kwarzam is that of the calf, from which the ordinary buffaloes or putiîr of Kuudr are descended, but I was unable to ascertain the meaning of the words, except nakh, which is the name of a three-year-old buffalo.
In the Kuudr prayer several of the kwarzam refer to incidents of a more or less miraculous nature which are believed to have happened at the village where the prayer is used, while the last kwarzam but one refers to one of the chief events of Toda mythology.
It will be noticed that many of the kwarzam used in this prayer correspond very closely to the names in ordinary use. Some, such as keitnòdi and teikhkwadiki, are the same words as those in general use, while others differ from the ordinary words in the reduplication of part of the name, tûdrpali becoming palitûdrpali and kiznîr becoming nîrkiznîr.
PRAYER OF KIUDR
The following are the kwarzam of the prayer used at Kiudr, which is one of the most sacred of Toda villages.
Kwarzam of Kîlvòh the dairy at Kiudr. kerâni one of the patatmani of Kiudr. mêdrâni the other patatmani. pongg one of the ertatmani. nongg another ertatmani. pelteirzi the lamp of the dairy. îrtîrzi also the lamp. känmûv the way by which the dairyman goes from the dairy to milk; the punetkalvol. nîrtâkh the dairy stream. nîrtîrshki also the dairy stream. keitu the buffalo-pen. tülivaners the posts at the entrance of the buffalo-pen. tashtpâlûv the bars of the entrance of the pen. kadrtûlikkadr the calf enclosure. arkatchar the household stream. inerti also the household stream. ârsvitchkârs the house (ars) at Kiudr. eivitchâv also the house. nersâdrvel the milking place. keikûdr the stream which runs between the house and the dairy (see 307). kwoteiners } kwelthipushol } etamûdri } all of Kiudr village. eraikin } kârmus } pârvakûdr } arspem slope of hill (pem) near Kiudr.
The special features of the Kiudr prayer are the large number of kwarzam of the village and the inclusion of the kwarzam of the house and household stream. The prayer of Kiudr is the only Toda prayer in which either the house or household stream is mentioned, and this fact is in accordance with the high degree of sanctity which has become attached to this village. It will be noticed also that the buffaloes are not mentioned, and that nearly all the clauses of the prayer apply to the buildings and their contents or to other parts of the village or to the village itself. Only the last kwarzam of the prayer applies to a place not actually in the village itself, and I could not ascertain why this place was so favoured. With this exception, the Kiudr prayer is one in which the kwarzam are entirely limited to those of the village and the dairy.
It will be remembered that when the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti migrate from Mòdr to Anto they pass by the village of Kiudr, and that the occasion is observed in various ways by the people of the village (see p. 135). I was told that certain kwarzam referring to this occasion are used in the Kiudr prayer. According to one man, these kwarzam are always recited in the prayer before those which have been already given, but others denied that they were so used. It is possible that these kwarzam are only said on special occasions, such as the day of migration, or it may be that they were formerly used, but are now being forgotten.
These kwarzam are as follow:
uner pâgit nòdr ti buffaloes, come near country. unkeu pâgit nòdr bell of wars dairy, come near country. eupalol pâgit nòdr god palol, come near country. eutuni pâgit nòdr god tuni, come near country. eitût pâgit nòdr hair done up, come near country (this has reference to the practice of tying the hair which is followed by the palol when engaged at his sacred work (p. 92). Teigun ürpit nòdr horn (of warsir) blow country. Kiudkudr ürpit nòdr horn (of liir) blow country.
Then follow the kwarzam already given.
These kwarzam are of a different form from those used in the general form of prayer, and the various persons or objects mentioned are referred to either by their usual names or by slight modifications of them, as in eupalol or euvalol and eutuni. There seemed to be no doubt that these words were abbreviations of teupalol and teutuni, the omission of an initial t being not uncommon in the Toda language. Thus in this prayer the dairyman is called “god palol,” and his garment “god tuni.”
PRAYER OF KWIRG
Kwirg is one of the villages of the Kuudrol and is the place to which their buffaloes go when it is necessary to make new pep for the whole clan.
Kwatakwirg Kwirg village. kûlpudshol Kwirg village. palikeithiolv the dairy. tûmadshû the pen. kadrkeiri the kadr (calf enclosure). nîrtiûdsh the dairy stream. pinpunûv a hill. pilkârs a hill. âtthpep } känpep } mutchudpep } keishkvet } see Kuudr prayer. tarskivan } petüt pati pethût îr } pûthion nâkh tarzâr maj }
It will be seen that many of the clauses are common to this prayer and that of Kuudr.
The three kwarzam of pep were said to be used in every dairy of the Kuudrol, but it did not appear that they were used at Kiudr. The third, mutchudpep, is not included in the Kuudr prayer, but mutchudkars appears in its place. Two hills are mentioned in the Kwirg prayer, but there are none of the references to special events connected with the village such as exist in the prayer of Kuudr.
THE PRAYER OF THE KANÒDRS DAIRY
When I was staying at Pishkwosht and visited the conical dairy at Kanòdrs with Neratkutan, he told me that the prayer of this dairy had forty kwarzam referring to the gods, as well as many of other kinds, but on going into detail I could only obtain the following:—
Pâr nûr teu the 1600 gods. pût nûr teu the 1800 gods. Kwoto Kwoto or Meilitars (see p. 203). Atioto Atioto (see p. 210). Kurindei teu Kurindo (see p. 192). Konteu Konteu or Konto (see p. 211). Anteu Anto (see p. 188). Pòrzo Pòrzo } Kòdrtho Kòdrtho } see p. 211. Kârzo Karzo } Teikhunteu Teikhun mänpóh Kanòdrs village. mutîrshpóh ditto. tûnertû the pen. kânêr the sun ? (see p. 206). kuteikurs the stone chain used by Kwoto (see p. 207). aners Kuzhu village. tûtashki Pishkwosht village.
This prayer is quite unlike those of the other village dairies and was much more like that of a ti dairy. As we have seen, the poh of Kanòdrs resembles a ti dairy both in the elaborateness of its ritual and in the high degree of sanctity of its dairyman, and this resemblance is now seen to extend to the prayer used in the dairy ritual.
Other dairies of the Tartharol which have an especial degree of sanctity are the kugvali of Taradr and the conical dairy of Nòdrs. I made great endeavours to obtain the prayers used in these places, but without success.
THE TI PRAYER
The prayers offered at the ti dairies are as a general rule longer and more complex than those of the ordinary village dairy. The latter portion of the prayer, or the prayer proper, does not seem to differ from that of the ordinary dairy, the differences being in the kwarzam recited at the beginning. The different dairies of the same ti may have different prayers; thus, at the Nòdrs ti there is a special prayer for the dairy at Anto which is longer and more complicated than that used at Mòdr, but it is probable that this is exceptional and is owing to the great antiquity and sanctity of Anto. The other dairies of this ti probably use much the same prayer as at Mòdr, though there may be certain slight modifications at each.
THE ANTO PRAYER
This prayer is characterised by a very large number of kwarzam referring to the dairy, its contents and surroundings. On ordinary days a shortened form of the prayer is used which consists wholly of kwarzam of this kind. On special days, such as the occasions of ponup and irnödrthiti, other kwarzam are said, including those of gods and buffaloes.
The following kwarzam are those in daily use, each being followed by the word idith as in the village prayer:—
Kwarzam of Anto the ti. eithipôh ditto. mêdrpôh the ti poh. pôhtîrzh the wars poh. ûv the milking place (pepkarmus). pero the special pen used on the night before the ponup ceremony. keirv the pen used on the night before the migration of the buffaloes. kâtû the ordinary pen. Teirz a hill near the dairy on which Anto lives. tîlkav the back of the dairy (pohpalikef). îrbâr the way by which the kaltmokh goes to and from the dairy. Pîthipôh the cave where the Pithi was born (see p. 184). nersâvul sacred path to the dairy by which the mani, pep, &c., are taken. karkadr path by which ordinary people approach the dairy. tadipül ditto. einpül path by which the palol goes to draw water. panpül path by which the palol returns from drawing water. Kiûln a hill near the dairy. Keini another hill. titkîn stream at which the palol bathes and washes his garments. tîtòr stone by this stream marking the spot by which the palol bathes, &c. teirpül spot at which the palol halts and prays for the third time during the procession to Anto (see p. 135). teirpôh ditto. nîrkûli place at which palol and kaltmokh defæcate. Katthvai hill near Anto (see p. 188). Kubul ditto. Ködrs place near Anto (see p. 188). Tudrs ditto. teibithikars stone rolled by Anto. teibithival lower part of the hill Katthvai (see above).
On ordinary days these kwarzam are followed by the prayer tanenma tarmama, &c. On special occasions the following kwarzam are inserted between those already given and the prayer proper:—
Kwarzam of Ekîrzam meidjam Teikirzi, Tirshti. Kûdreij Kudreiil dairy. tîdj ditto. Kûlâdrtho Kuladrtho dairy. Perithi ti vaners ti dairy at Perithi in the Wainad. Kòti One of the hills at which fire is lighted by the palol at the teutütusthchi ceremony (see p. 291). pagvôh ditto. Pûthi another hill at which fire is lighted. ânul ditto. Kûlinkârs Kulinkars (see p. 188). Nòtîtrzivan Nòtirzi (see p. 189). Kuzkârv Korateu (see p. 190). unir one group of tiir (see p. 112). unkeu mani of wars dairy. Persin mani of ti dairy. kûdrs mani bells of punir. tadsth axe which came from Amnòdr with the buffaloes. tâpâr an iron bar. âter the second group of tiir (see p. 112). teiter the third group of tiir. Keirz the buffalo which has the mani called Keu put on its neck. pîlti buffaloes (unir). persv ditto. Keirv buffalo which drinks pep on day of migration (see p. 135). Kîthi buffalo which wears the kudrs mani. kudûvòrs the path at Mòdr by which ordinary people approach the dairy. tadrpòrs place near Mòdr at which the palol and kaltmokh defæcate. tarikipül place near Mòdr where the erkumptthpimi ceremony is performed. kidkadr calves’ hut (karenpoh) at Mòdr. ponpôh ti dairy at Mòdr. kidpôh wars dairy at Mòdr. Òdrtho ti dairy at Òdrtho. Kûdreiil wars dairy at Kudreiil. munârten a ti dairy.
The following is all I was able to obtain of the prayer used at Mòdr:—“Ekîrzam meidjam idith, Anto eithipôh idith, Kûlinkârs idith, Nòtîrzivan idith, Kûlâdrvan idith, Teukuteithi idith, Kûdreij tîdj idith, Kuzkârv idith, Alvoi Kalvoi idith, tanenma tarmama,” &c. Two of these kwarzam, “Teukuteithi idith” and “Alvoi Kalvoi idith” are not mentioned in the Anto prayer. I have no doubt that the list of kwarzam is very incomplete.
THE PRAYER OF MAKARS
The following is the prayer used at Makars, the chief dairy of the Kars ti. The kwarzam of the dairy are here comparatively few in number, but the prayer is especially rich in the kwarzam of gods and buffaloes, and it furnishes a very good example of the relation of the prayer formulæ to the Toda legends.
The kwarzam of the prayer run as follow:—
Anto The god Anto. Nòtîrzivan Nòtirzi. Kûlinkârs Kulinkars or Teikhars. Kuzkârv Korateu. Onkonm Onkonm who lives on a hill in the Kundahs. Ekîrzam meidjam Teikirzi and Tirshti. Azo } Azo and Mazo. Mazo } Katadrvanpoh place near Kûlinkars. Peigwa god living on hill near Makurti Peak. Karmunteu Karmunteu. Kotzgârth the Paikara river (Teipakh). Kondilteu Kondilteu, a god opposite the hill of Kòti. Mûndilteu a god on a hill near the last. Onûlvpoh place near Majòdr. Kûlâdrazenteu god on a hill near Kuladrtho. kaban adi arten teu “iron door shut god.” kaban kûl eiten teu “iron stick held god.” mòrs ver arten teu “mòrs tree under event god.” kûghîr kùdr kwaten teu “crooked horned buffalo horn cut god.” tebkúter at, tan mun “imitation buffalo horns took, his madrik teu mother’s brother’s lap god.” mâvel kâritan teu “sambhar from calved god.” (The last six kwarzam refer to the story of Kuzkarv (see p. 190). pülnerkûrz buffaloes of tî called pürsîr. tetnîrkan ditto. pirsk muneki potitth îr “sun to facing that came buffalo.” nerk muneki potitth îr “bell to facing that came buffalo.” putûḍr mun kekitth îr “tûḍr tree back (face?) rubbed buffalo.” Kitheri kûtk ethkitth îr “Kitheri stream to jumped buffalo.” pâtûsh kattith îr “desolate pen from made buffalo.” Warwark ethkitth îr “Warwar (stream) to jumped buffalo.” ö khuberam kitj erditth “seven heaps buffalo-dung fire set êram buffaloes.” pêrnêr bell (mani) or pürs dairy. unêr ditto. persagun mani of pars dairy. talg ditto. nârvtüls lamp. poikar pürs dairy. pârsvôh pars dairy. tînnudri pen. kakûnnudri ditto. nîrkar dairy spring. tülinîr ditto. pünpôh dairy at Enòdr. kâtû pen at Enòdr. pünnîr spring at Enòdr. Enòdr Enòdr ti mad. mêdrpôh dairy at Pars. peiltû pen at Pars. tülinîr spring at Pars. Pars Pars ti mad. âtârnudri dairy at Neradr. nêrieners pen at Neradr. Neradr Neradr ti mad. pülvôh dairy at Kòn. aners ditto. tedrvâs pen at Kòn. pûvârsnîr spring at Kòn. Kòn Kòn ti mad.
Then follow “tanenma tarmama,” &c.
The kwarzam of the prayer given above are arranged in a definite order. First come the kwarzam of sixteen gods or of hills or places closely connected with gods, then follow six kwarzam referring to various incidents in the life of the god Korateu. These are followed by two kwarzam of buffaloes, and then follow six referring to various features of the founding of Makars, of which an account has been given on p. 116. Then follows a kwarzam relating to an incident which is probably recent. The palol of this ti used to make seven heaps of the dung of the buffaloes. There is a law that the dung should not be sold, which the palol disobeyed, and soon after a fire broke out suddenly from the seven heaps, and this event is commemorated in the prayer by means of the kwarzam meaning “seven heaps of buffalo-dung, fire set buffaloes,” and is included among the kwarzam relating to buffaloes, probably because there was a belief that the anger of the buffaloes was the cause of the fire.
The buffalo kwarzam are followed by eleven referring to the bells of the ti and to the dairy, pen and spring of Makars, and these are followed by kwarzam referring to the other places of the ti—viz., Enòdr, Pars, Neradr, and Kòn. In each case there are said the kwarzam of the dairy, pen, spring, and place except in the case of Neradr, where for some reason the kwarzam of the spring is omitted.
The feature of the Makars prayer which is especially interesting is the reference to legend in the kwarzam. This reference occurs in the Kuudr prayer and in those of Kanòdrs and Anto, but the references are far more elaborate in the Makars prayer. These references were very useful in providing incidental confirmation of the details of legends previously obtained, while in other cases they put me on the track of stories which I might otherwise have failed to obtain. One point of interest connected with them is that, in the absence of the legends, they might easily be supposed to be meaningless sentences. We have seen that there is reason to believe that the Todas are forgetting much of their mythology, and if the legends referred to in the Makars prayer should be forgotten, these kwarzam would become meaningless formulæ. This appears to have happened already in some cases; there were certain kwarzam of which I could obtain no translation; thus, all the kwarzam of the clans and villages were of this nature and could not be explained, though they almost certainly had a definite origin. A good instance of a kwarzam which is on its way towards a similar fate is that at the end of the Kuudr prayer. The meaning of only one word was clear—viz. nâkh—while maj was probably the word for cloud, and the kwarzam appears to refer to some incident of legend in which a three-year-old calf and a cloud were concerned, but I could obtain no record of the incident, nor of the legend of which the incident was a feature.
I have treated these formulæ of the dairy as prayers, and I think there can be very little doubt that they are of the nature of supplications, and are believed to invoke the aid of the gods in protecting the sacred buffaloes. It must be confessed, however, that there is no actual evidence in the formulæ of direct invocation of the gods. The name of no god is mentioned in the vocative form. In some prayers there is barely mention of a god at all, if the term ‘god’ be limited to the anthropomorphic beings of the hill-tops.
The exact relation between the formula and the gods largely depends on the exact meaning of the word idith, which is not quite clear. But, whatever the meaning of this word, it is evident that it is used in exactly the same way in the case of a god as in the case of a buffalo, a place, a dairy vessel, or other even meaner object.
Perhaps the nearest approach to an appeal to gods in the prayer is in the words at the end, in which the names of certain gods are mentioned, followed by the words âtham idith emk tânenmâ, “for their sake may it be well for us.”
There is little doubt that the Todas offer prayers to their gods in their ordinary daily life, altogether apart from the dairy ritual. I was told by one man that when anyone leaves an etudmad he should pray that he may return safely, and in this case my informant said that he prayed to Teikirzi. Unfortunately I did not ask the exact form of the prayer, and do not know whether the goddess was invoked by name or whether kwarzam were uttered of the same form as in the prayer of the dairy. We may, however, be confident that the idea of supplication to the gods is not foreign to the Toda mind.
We shall see later that in the formulæ used in Toda sorcery, the names of gods are mentioned, followed by the same word idith which is used in the dairy formulæ. In the magical formulæ the evidence of appeal to deities is somewhat stronger than in the case of the dairy formulæ, which are certainly of a religious character. It seems most likely that the word idith was at one time used especially in connexion with the names of gods, and carried with it some idea of supplication. Gradually other sacred objects were included in the prayer, the same form being used for them as for the gods, this inclusion being prompted by the belief that the mention of any sacred object might help to promote the efficacy of the prayer. Later, when any mysterious and seemingly miraculous incident occurred at a village, it seems to have become the custom to commemorate it in the prayer.
It is quite clear that at the present time the earlier portion of the prayer, consisting of the kwarzam, is regarded as more important than the latter portion, which reads like the actual prayer. I suspect even that in practice the prayer proper is often omitted, or that only the first two words, tanenma, tarmama, are said. There certainly seemed to be no very rigorous laws as to the exact number or order of the clauses of this part of the prayer. The earlier portion, on the other hand, is very strictly regulated, and the order in which the kwarzam are to be uttered is definitely prescribed. Certainly there is far more reticence in connexion with the kwarzam, and this may safely be taken to indicate that a higher degree of sanctity attaches to them than to the words of the prayer proper.
It is probable that the alteration in the relative importance attached to the two parts of the prayer would have to go little further in order to produce a state of things in which the Toda dairyman would use the first parts of the formulæ only, and an anthropologist visiting the Todas at this stage would find them using formulæ which would not be recognisable as prayer.
If, at the same time, the process of forgetting their mythology should also have advanced, the Todas would then provide an excellent example of a people using in their religious ritual meaningless forms of words, and the Toda kwarzam seem to furnish one way in which people may come to use such meaningless forms.