XV. FUNERAL CEREMONIES
The funeral ceremonies of a Toda may be prolonged over many months. Soon after death the body is burnt and the general name for the ceremony on this occasion is etvainolkedr, the first day funeral (literally, “first which day funeral”). After an interval which may vary greatly in length, a second ceremony is performed connected with certain relics of the deceased which have been preserved from the first occasion. The rites on this occasion are more elaborate than at the etvainolkedr. The Toda name for this second funeral ceremony is marvainolkedr, the second day funeral, or “again which day funeral.” The final scene, in which the relics are burnt and the ashes buried, takes place before daybreak on the morning following the marvainolkedr, and this part of the ceremony is known as azaramkedr, the name being derived from the azaram, or circle of stones within which the final cremation takes place.
The funeral ceremonies are open to all and visitors are often invited by the Todas. In consequence, the funeral rites are better known, and have been more frequently described than any other features of Toda ceremonial. Like nearly every institution of the Todas, however, they have become known to Europeans under their Badaga names. The first funeral is called by the Badagas hase kedu, the fresh or green funeral, and the term ‘green funeral’ has not only become the generally recognised name among the European inhabitants of the Nilgiri Hills, but has been widely adopted in anthropological literature. The second funeral is called by the Badagas bara kedu, the ‘dry funeral,’ and this term also has been generally adopted. I never heard these terms used by the Todas themselves, who always spoke of the etvainolkedr and the marvainolkedr, though it seemed that the first funeral might sometimes be called karchokedr, which probably means fresh or green funeral.
The funeral ceremonies have undergone some modification in recent times owing to the intervention of the Government. Formerly it was the custom to slaughter many buffaloes at every funeral. This impoverished the people and was prohibited by the Government about forty years ago, and since that time the number of buffaloes killed at each ceremony has been limited to two for each person. This has had most influence on the second funeral ceremonies, which, largely owing to this prohibition, are now much less elaborate and prolonged than in former times.
The funeral ceremonies are held at certain appointed places called kertnòdr, different for each clan. Sometimes these places are at, or close to, villages where the people are now living; sometimes they are at places which were formerly inhabited; while in other cases, again, there is no evidence that the funeral places have ever been inhabited. In every case, whether inhabited or not, the place where a funeral is held is called a mad, the same name as is used for a village.
Each clan has at least two funeral places, one for males and the other for females, and in several cases a clan has more than one funeral place for each sex. Some clans have different places for the two funeral ceremonies, and the Piedrol, who have one outlying branch of their clan at Kavidi in the Wainad, have special funeral places for the first funeral of members of this branch, the second funeral, or marvainolkedr, being held at the chief funeral place of the clan. Others, again, have a special place for boys who have not passed through the ear-piercing ceremony.
In general, a funeral hut (see Fig. 48) is specially built for the reception of the dead body, this hut being usually erected within a stone circle found at the funeral place. At the funeral of a male, this hut is called kertnòdrpali or neilpali. It is left standing after the funeral and may be used on a second occasion if it has not fallen into too great disorder.
Five clans of the Tartharol possess special dairies, each with three rooms which are used as funeral huts. These buildings are habitually or occasionally used as dairies; but when a man of the clan dies his body is laid in the outermost of the three rooms, either on the day of the funeral or for two or three days before it. While a dead body is lying in the dairy, women are allowed to enter the outermost room just as they may go into any other funeral hut, but they may not pass beyond. Men are allowed to enter the middle room, but the innermost room is only entered by the dairyman, who carries on his dairy work as usual.
The five villages at which these three-roomed dairies now exist are Nòdrs, Taradrkirsi (Kars), Keradr, Tim (Pan), and Akirsikòdri (Nidrsi). At Taradr a temporary funeral hut with three rooms is constructed within a circle of stones near the village. In the outermost room of this hut the corpse is placed, and women may only enter this room, while men may enter both outer and middle rooms as in the three-roomed dairies. In the innermost room the palikartmokh of the village places a vessel of the kind called mu, and he only is allowed to enter this room.
This temporary building is almost certainly the representative of a three-roomed dairy which at one time existed at this village; and it is probable that at other male Tarthar funeral places the funeral hut should be made with three rooms, though at present this is not done.
In every case the funeral hut which receives the body of a man is called pali, or dairy, and it is probable that at one time among the Tartharol it was the universal custom to place the body of a man in a dairy before the last rites. It is possible that the stone circle within which the funeral hut is built is the representative of the wall surrounding a dairy which formerly existed on the spot. Among the Teivaliol the funeral hut is also called pali, but there is no instance among them of an actual dairy being used to receive the dead.
At the funeral place of women a hut is specially built for the reception of the body, but it is always burnt down after each funeral. This hut is called ars, or house, and has a different name for each ceremony, being called nersars for the first funeral, and kursars for the second. Each kind of hut is constructed within a circle of stones, and the name seems to indicate that at one time the body of a woman was placed in the house of the village. Here again the stone circle may possibly be the representative of an actual house which once existed at the funeral place.
If, for any reason, the funeral of a person is not being held at the proper place, the funeral hut is not constructed within the circle of stones; thus at the funeral of a girl, Sinerani (see p. 392), the hut was placed by the side of the stone circle because her funeral was being held at the kertnòdr of her father and not at that of her husband.
At every funeral place there should be a second circle of stones forming a tu, or buffalo-pen. These pens are now rarely, if ever, used, and are a relic of the time when the ceremonies of the marvainolkedr were prolonged over two days, the buffaloes being caught and penned on the first day, and killed on the second. A third ring of stones is the azaram, at the opening of which the ashes are buried at the final scene of the funeral rites.
There are specially appointed days for the funeral ceremonies. These days differ to some extent for different clans and for the two sexes. Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday are the most general days for the funerals of males, only two clans having Saturday as a funeral day for men. For females Thursday and Saturday are most frequently chosen, two clans only holding the funerals of women on Tuesdays. In no case could I find that funerals are performed on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. These days are, on the other hand, the most usual days set apart as madnol or palinol, [133] and villages which have their madnol or palinol on Sunday or Tuesday do not appear to have their funerals on these days. The general rule is that a funeral must not take place on a madnol or palinol. In several cases I was told that if the mani, or sacred bell, were used, the funeral must be on one day of the week; thus for the Karsol, it must take place on Sunday; for the Kwòdrdoni people, on Tuesday. These obligatory days of the funeral ceremonies often involve the necessity of keeping the corpse for several days.
I did not make special inquiries into ceremonies of the deathbed, but Marshall states (p. 171) that a man who is not expected to recover is dressed in the ornaments and jewellery of his house, which he will wear till he dies or recovers; and Marshall mentions an instance of a man who had revived from what was thought to be his deathbed who paraded about, wearing the finery with which he had been bedecked. In this case, it was said that he would be permitted to carry the ornaments till his death. Marshall also states that the relatives give the dying man milk to drink when on the point of death.
After death the body should be wrapped in a dark cloth called än, which is of the same material as the tuni worn by the palol and other dairymen, and, like the tuni, is procured from the Badagas of Jakaneri. It is doubtful, however, whether this custom of enwrapping the body in the än is now kept up with any regularity. Outside the än should be an ornamented mantle (pukuruputkuli) and then a mantle of the ordinary kind.
The body of a woman is kept in the hut in which she has died till the day of the funeral, and, with special exceptions, this is also done with the bodies of men.
When a man dies at the village of Nòdrs, his body is taken into the three roomed tarvali and placed on the right-hand bed (meitün) of the outermost room. While the body is lying here, the building is still used as a dairy, but women are allowed to enter the outermost room except when the palikartmokh is actually engaged in the business of the dairy. It is only when it is being used as a funeral hut that women are ever allowed to enter a dairy, and then they may only sit on the left-hand bed—the kitün.
On the day appointed for the elvainolkedr, the body is carried to the funeral place. In some cases certain ceremonies are performed at the village at which the death has taken place; thus, at Kars, the body of a man is first laid in front of the kudrpali and then on one of the two eminences called imudrikars (see Fig. 21), which stand near the dairy, and from this it is taken to the other imudrikars, and after lying here for a while it is borne to the special funeral village of Taradrkirsi. At Kuzhu, another village of the Karsol, the body is taken from the hut and laid by the side of the stone called menkars; then it is taken to a stone called imudrikars in front of the kudrpali, and laid with the head at the stone and the feet towards the dairy. A buffalo of the ordinary kind (putiir) is then milked; the milk is put into a vessel and from this poured into a leaf cup of kakud leaves, and from this cup milk is poured three times into the mouth of the dead man.
In other villages at which there is no imudrikars, the body is laid in front of the dairy and fed with milk in the same way.
The body is borne from the village to the funeral place on a wooden bier, called mänpedrkudr (wood bier). It is taken by a specially appointed route, and in some cases certain ceremonies are performed by the way. Thus, when the body of a man is taken from Kars to Taradrkirsi, earth is thrown at two places. We shall see shortly that one of the most important features of the funeral of a man is that earth is dug at the entrance of a buffalo pen at the funeral place and thrown on the corpse and into the pen. On the way to Taradrkirsi this is also done at two places, which are probably the situations of the old buffalo pens of villages which have now disappeared. I did not hear of any similar practices for any other clan, but Kars is probably not exceptional in this respect.
Before the body arrives at the funeral place the people will have begun to assemble, and when the funeral procession reaches its destination all those present go one by one to the corpse, bow down by the side of the bier, and touch the body with their foreheads. Those older than the deceased and those related in certain ways (see Chap. XXI) bow down at the head of the corpse. Those younger and those related in certain other ways bow down at the foot. When all those present have saluted, the body is placed in the funeral hut, or in the dairy if the funeral is being held at one of the places where funeral dairies still exist, and late-comers enter the hut or dairy to perform their salutations. As soon as the body is placed in the hut or dairy, the female relatives and friends of the dead person collect round the hut and lament together in the characteristic Toda manner, arranging themselves in pairs and pressing their foreheads together while they wail and weep (Fig. 48).
While this is going on the men are busied in making preparations for the cremation. A place is cleared in a wood near the funeral place—the methkudi—and here a pyre is built of wood, some of which has been brought by the funeral party, while the rest is found near the burning ground. The wood used on this occasion must be of the kind called kers [134] and the pyre is built of an oblong shape, rising about three feet above the ground.
The first of the funeral ceremonies is different for the two sexes. At the funeral of a male the ceremony of puzhutpimi, “earth we throw,” or kedrpuzhutpimi, “funeral earth we throw,” is performed, while the corresponding ceremony for a woman is to place certain leaves in the armlet on the right arm of the corpse.
THE PUZHUTPIMI CEREMONY
In the puzhutpimi ceremony a man digs up a little earth in front of the entrance to the buffalo pen. The digger must belong to the Tartharol, if the dead man is one of the Teivaliol, and vice versâ; thus, at the funeral of Pursevan (53) [135] of Kuudr, the earth was dug by Kedjeri (6) of Nòdrs. In this case the Tartharol were told to send someone to dig, and they selected Kedjeri.
At the funeral of a Tarthar man the earth is first thrown by the wursol, who must be, on this occasion, one of the Teivaliol. A Melgars wursol may not perform this office. After the wursol has thrown earth, it is thrown by certain relatives of the deceased who are present. At a Teivali funeral only the relatives perform this ceremony, no one corresponding to the wursol taking part.
Before the people begin to throw earth, one of the dead man’s division asks “Puzhutkina?”—“Shall I throw earth?” and a man of the other division replies, “Puzhut!”—“Throw earth!” At the funeral of Pursevan a Teivali man asked the Tartharol in this way, and the Tartharol responded. At this funeral earth was thrown by the following: Punatvan (53), a younger brother of the dead man; Kuriolv and Piliar (52), Pöteners (54); Targners, Pungusivan and Tevò, the sons of the dead man, and Pòl, the son of Punatvan. In this case all who threw earth were not only Kuudrol—i.e., of the same clan as the dead man—but were also of the same family, so that their relation to one another can be traced in the genealogies. Kuriolv, Piliar and Pöteners would all have called Pursevan “aia,” or father, and were first cousins once removed according to our system of kinship. I do not know whether the earth-throwing is usually limited to the nearer relatives in the same clan. The family to which Pursevan belonged was unusually numerous, and it is probable that in most cases other families of the clan are called upon to take a part.
At a funeral seen by Mr. Walhouse [136] the earth was thrown into a circle made of rough stones laid upon the grass with an opening on one side, and Mr. Thurston [137] records a similar case in which the earth was thrown into a circle of stones about a yard and a half in diameter, which had been constructed for the occasion. This is probably done when the funeral is held at a place where there is no tu, and it is possible that these funerals were not being held at regular funeral places of the clan, and that the circles of stones were intended to represent buffalo pens. At the funeral seen by Mr. Walhouse the ‘priest’ handed a bag to the nearest relatives, who tied it to the stick with which they turned up the earth.
Each man, as he throws, kneels down, facing the opening of the pen, and then bows down so that he touches the earth with his forehead, many saying “Swami” as they do this. Three handfuls of earth are thrown into the pen, and then three handfuls are thrown backwards on the corpse, the man standing up as soon as he has done this. Each man covers his head with his cloak before he throws, as shown in Figs. 49 and 50. [138] Fig. 50 shows the special action employed in throwing backwards, the hand being turned inward.
The earth-throwing ceremony is one of several funeral rites, in which men of one division take part in funerals belonging to the other division. Thus, at a Tarthar funeral the earth is dug by one of the Teivaliol; the Tartharol then ask for permission to throw the earth, and the permission (or order) is given by the Teivaliol—i.e., those who have dug the earth have to give the word that the earth may be thrown.
THE TIVERI TÛR CEREMONY
At the funeral of a woman no earth is thrown, but a ceremony is performed which is said to correspond to it. A woman goes in search of the leaves of the tiveri plant, [139] the leaves being called tiveri tûr. The woman who plucks the leaves must be the motvilth (daughter-in-law) of the dead woman, but if it is a child who is dead the leaves are plucked by the mother-in-law or potential mother-in-law. If a dead woman has no daughter-in-law, it was said that her daughter might pluck the leaves, but at the funeral of Kiuneimi (3), a childless woman, the leaves were sought and plucked by Naburveli, the wife of Mushkers (28), who would have called the husband of Kiuneimi “brother,” being of the same family and generation, although only his second cousin according to our system of kinship. In this case, therefore, the leaves were plucked by a sister-in-law, or, more strictly, by the wife of the ‘brother’ of the dead woman’s husband. In this case both Kiuneimi and Naburveli were daughters of Nòdrs men, but this was probably only a coincidence.
At the funeral of Kiuneimi, Naburveli was accompanied by a man and by another woman, but it was quite clear that they would on no account be allowed to touch the leaves, which must be plucked by the daughter-in-law or other relative who is performing the ceremony. When found, the tiveri leaves are put by the woman in the armlet on the right arm of the dead woman. Then the men present say to the woman:—
“Parthûl ütchka, tiveri tûr parch pudthka?” In the armlet is it put, tiveri leaves plucking have you come?
and the woman replies:—
“Tiveri tûr parch pudthpimi, parthûl ûtchpimi, Tiveri leaves plucking we have come, in the armlet we have put,
îr patz!” the buffalo catch!
The woman thus announces that this ceremony has been completed, and that they may proceed to the next event of the funeral rites, that of catching the buffalo.
The tiveri tûr ceremony of a woman’s funeral was said to correspond to the earth-throwing ceremony of a man’s funeral, but this correspondence may only mean that each is the first of the actual funeral ceremonies. Since, however, a woman belongs to the clan of her husband, the leaves are always put into the armlet by a woman of the same clan as the deceased. In this respect the ceremony resembles that of earth-throwing, but my informants laid stress on the fact that the ceremony should be performed by a motvilth or other relative-in-law, and no reference was made to the fact that they would be of the same clan. This makes it probable that there is no real correspondence between the two ceremonies.
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE BUFFALOES.
The next stage in the proceedings is the catching and killing of the buffalo or buffaloes. At the present time the Todas are only permitted by the Government to kill two of these animals, and if the family of the dead person is poor only one may be killed. At the funeral of a man it is customary that one of the animals killed shall be an ordinary buffalo (putiir) and the other a sacred buffalo; one of the pasthir in the case of the Teivaliol, and usually one of the wursulir in the case of the Tartharol. At least one sacred buffalo must be killed at one or other funeral ceremony for every man, but this may be done either at the etvainol- or the marvainolkedr. Sacred buffaloes are only killed at the funerals of men, never at those of women.
When it was the custom to slaughter more than two buffaloes, there was often a rule that these should be of certain kinds; thus, at Nòdrs, it was once the custom to kill seven buffaloes at a man’s funeral—viz., two wursulir, two putiir, and one each of the following kinds: nashperthir, pineipir, and persasir.
If the family possess no sacred buffalo, they must procure one by exchange, and it is customary to give two ordinary buffaloes for one of the sacred kind.
There is a definite spot appointed for the slaughter of each kind of buffalo. The ordinary buffalo is usually killed near the funeral hut, and sometimes there is a stone marking the spot at which the animal is to die. The wursulir are killed at a place usually marked by a stone called teiks. In cases where there is no stone the spot is marked by a wooden post (see Fig. 51), which has the same name, and I was told that it should be made of teak. [140]
In some cases there are other appointed stones or unmarked spots where buffaloes of other kinds are slaughtered; thus, at Nòdrs there are seven stones, at each of which a buffalo used to be killed, and the people of Pan have two stones called teiks, one for each division of the clan.
The catching of the buffalo is one of the most exciting incidents of a Toda funeral. When only one or two buffaloes are to be killed it is usual to take about four buffaloes from the village of the dead person to the neighbourhood of the funeral place. When the preliminary ceremonies are over, all those who are attending the funeral move towards the place at which the buffaloes are standing, while several of their number are chosen to catch the appointed animal or animals. At the same time, the buffaloes, which are usually standing in some hollow so that they cannot be seen from the funeral place, are driven towards the people. As soon as they appear the appointed men drop their cloaks and race to meet the buffaloes. The buffaloes are driven on from behind in a more vigorous manner than that to which they are accustomed, are more or less infuriated, and often rush wildly about in their efforts to avoid the racing Todas, one of whom succeeds in catching the appointed animal, seizing it by the horns, and then hangs round its neck with one hand and seizes the cartilage of the nose with the other. Another of the men seizes a horn and also hangs round the neck of the animal, and both men put their whole weight on the neck of the buffalo and bear it to the ground. Often they are carried many yards before they succeed in getting the infuriated animal under control, and when catching the horns they are sometimes severely gored, though this rarely happens now, and I could hear of no case in which there had been fatal consequences.
The men who are appointed to catch the buffalo belong to the Tartharol at a Teivali funeral and to the Teivaliol at a Tarthar funeral. They are usually chosen from among the younger and more agile of the community, but at an important funeral the older and more experienced men may undertake the duty. The catching of the buffalo is critically watched, and some men have acquired great reputations for the adroitness with which they perform the feat.
I have some reason to think that it is the custom to catch the buffaloes at different places at the funerals of males and females (see p. 393), but my information on this point is not satisfactory.
The captured buffalo has next to be led to the spot appointed for its slaughter. The people of both divisions drive the animal, beating it with sticks, while the course taken by the animal is directed by the two men hanging on its horns and round its neck. The buffalo is beaten much more vigorously than ever happens on ordinary occasions, and it has seemed to many who have watched a Toda funeral that this vigorous beating must have some significance, and the idea of vicarious punishment is naturally suggested. I could obtain no information from the people on this point, and I am doubtful whether the beating means more than that, under the exceptional conditions, the animal requires much more vigorous driving than usual. Ordinarily the buffalo follows out its daily routine with little interference; it goes to its usual pasture, and, as I have seen myself, it may return to the dairy of its own accord at the proper time.
At one funeral at which I was present the buffalo was so alarmed or so infuriated by the proceedings that it lay down and absolutely refused to move, and the efforts of all present were insufficient to drag the animal to the slaughtering place. This incident will be described more fully later, but I mention it here to show that it may often be difficult to drive the buffalo, and that the unaccustomed vigour with which the animal is beaten may have a natural and not a ceremonial reason.
Before the buffalo is killed two things have still to be done. A bell or its substitute has to be hung on the neck of the buffalo, and butter rubbed on its back, head and horns.
If one of the wursulir is to be killed there is hung on its neck the sacred bell called mani, while the ordinary buffalo or putiir is given only the kwungg or household bell. A mani may also be used for the varieties of sacred buffalo called nashperthir, persasir, &c. Probably at one time there was a mani for each kind, but some of the sacred bells have been lost, and it is only in some clans that a bell can now be used. Those clans which have no mani do not use an ordinary bell, but they tie the sacred buffalo to the teiks by means of a piece of the creeper called kakhudri, about two yards in length. This is the case with all the Teivaliol except the people of Piedr and with the Melgarsol among the Tartharol. The kakhudri is said to be used in place of the mani.
The details as to the use of the mani differ somewhat in different clans. The Nòdrs people have two mani, called Kòdj and Kagur, which are now kept at Òdr. When a Nòdrs man dies these bells are fetched from Òdr by the wursol and one is hung on the neck of one of the mersgursir and the other on the neck of one of the nashperthir. [141] After the etvainolkedr these bells are kept outside the conical dairy at Nòdrs in a special hole in a stone called karsalb. The people of Kars similarly take their mani to Taradrkirsi for the first funeral and keep it there till the funeral ceremonies are completed.
Among the Teivaliol the Piedrol are the only clan to possess a mani, which is called Kerâni. It is kept in a wood or shola near the funeral place and lies in an earthenware pot buried in the ground. At the funeral of a Piedr man the bell is hung on the neck of a buffalo belonging to the kudeipir (the special name for the pasthir of this clan). It is dug up by the Teivali palikartpol and given by him to a Nòdrs man, who ties it on the neck of the buffalo. The Nòdrs man chosen for this office must bathe on the morning of this day and must go without food till after the funeral.
Just before the buffalo is killed butter is smeared on the back of the animal, on the horns and on the part of the head between the horns. This should be done by a man of the same clan as the dead person.
The killing of the buffalo is called îrkîpti. It is done by striking the animal on the head with the back of an axe (masth). The animal is usually killed by one blow, though in some cases more are necessary. The wursulir are killed by the wursol and the ordinary buffaloes by men of the same division as the deceased, but of a different clan. Certain clans appear to have a prescriptive right to kill the buffalo; thus, among the Teivaliol, a Kuudr man kills at the funerals of members of all other clans, while at the funeral of a Kuudr man a member of one of the other clans performs this function. Among the Tartharol, the members of the Nòdrs and Kars clans appear to occupy the most privileged position, but the relations are more complicated than among the Teivaliol. At a Kars funeral the ordinary buffalo is killed by a man of Nòdrs, Taradr or Pan. At a funeral of a member of any of these three clans, a Kars man kills. At funerals in other clans, the buffalo is usually killed by men either of Kars or Nòdrs, but in the case of a Kwòdrdoni funeral, it seemed that the killing might also be done by a man of Päm or Nidrsi. Each buffalo is killed at the appointed stone or post, and the teiks at which the wursulir are killed is at some distance from the funeral hut, and a woman is not allowed to approach the spot lest she should see the sacred bell.
Though there is no definite landmark for the killing of the putiir, each buffalo is killed at an appointed spot; thus, at the funeral of Sinerani (see p. 392), the buffalo at the etvainolkedr was killed on the left-hand side of the funeral hut.
As soon as the buffalo is felled, the corpse is brought up and placed by the head of the dying animal (Fig. 53). At the funeral of a man, the covering of the body is unfolded and the right hand of the dead man is made to clasp one of the horns. At the funeral of a woman, the body is laid with its feet by the mouth of the buffalo. [142] At the funeral of a Pan man, Kwoten’s ring is placed on the finger of the deceased before his hand is made to clasp the horn. Then the men present come to the buffalo and salute it by bowing down and placing their foreheads on the horns and on the head between the horns.
The people then group themselves round the buffalo and corpse and cry together by placing forehead to forehead so that their tears and cries mingle. In the case of the sacred buffalo, wearing the mani, this circle is composed of men only. The lament [143] usually consists in calling first the name of the buffalo and then speaking of the dead person, not by his name, but by the term expressing the bond of kinship between the lamenter and the dead. Thus at a funeral at which the buffalo killed was called Pundrs, one man would cry:
“Pundrsia, en potch aia ivanersia, en potch aia” O Pundrs, O my father.
I could not ascertain the meaning of ivanersia, except that its latter part is the word for buffalo with the vocative termination ‘ia.’
For a son, a man would cry after the name of the buffalo, “en mokh ûpa”; for an elder brother, “en potch anna”; and similarly for other relatives. For a wife a man would cry “iza kughia”, and for a husband a woman cries “iza mókhia” (iza is merely exclamatory).
It might appear from the form of lamentation that the buffalo itself was regarded as the father, son, &c., of the lamenter, and I could not satisfy myself as to what the people really had in their minds when they were lamenting in this way. It has been supposed that the lamentation is for the slaughtered buffalo, and I am unable positively to say that this is not the case. It is probable that the people grieve for the departure of one of their much-loved buffaloes, but I do not think that there is any decisive evidence that they are lamenting for the buffalo rather than for the dead person.
Within the group of mourners there is much going hither and thither. After two people have mourned together for a while they separate, and each seeks a new partner with whom to lament. When separating, the salutation of kalmelpudithti often takes place, and, as in general, it is the younger of each pair who bows down his head and raises each foot of the other so that it touches his forehead. It seemed to be the duty of everyone to salute certain of the older men in this way; and round these men there would be a continual coming and going, each person saluting by placing his head beneath the feet of the elder. At times the band of mourners would form a confused mass of struggling people, some crying forehead to forehead, others saluting head to foot, while others would be struggling through the mass to seek partners with whom to mourn (Fig. 55).
THE CLOTH-GIVING CEREMONY
During or after the lamentation a ceremony is performed which is known as kachütthti [144] (kach, cloth, ütthti or ütiti, he puts). The essential feature of this ceremony is that a cloth is given by a near relative of the dead person to those who have married into his family, and the cloth is placed on the dead body by the wives of those to whom it is given. This ceremony takes place at the funerals of both sexes and for members of all clans. It is an inconspicuous ceremony, and with one exception [145] has escaped the observation of all those who have previously witnessed and recorded the procedure of Toda funerals. It takes place in the middle of a crowd, who gather round the corpse possibly while the lamentation is still going on or while other ceremonies are in progress. In the first funeral I witnessed the ceremony took place while dancing was going on, and I missed it entirely, though I was told afterwards that it had taken place as usual, and was able to obtain the names of the chief actors.
In the ceremony of kachütthti, a man belonging to the clan of the deceased gives a cloth to one of his paiol, or brothers-in-law. The latter gives the cloth to his wife or wife’s sister, or to some woman whom he would be allowed to marry, and the woman places the cloth on the corpse. The man who originally gave the cloth then takes it from the body and gives it to another paiol, and the ceremony is repeated till the cloth has been given to all the paiol present.
The man who gives the cloth should belong to the same clan as the dead person. At the funeral of a male, the proper person is the father of the deceased, if he is alive, or some other elder of the clan. At the funeral of a woman, a man of the clan of the woman’s husband is chosen. Thus, at the funeral of Kiuneimi (3 and 28), a widow of Kanòdrs, the cloth was given by Neratkutan (28), who was of the same family as the husbands of the dead woman and the eldest representative of their generation. At the funeral of Sinerani (52), the cloth was given by Tebkudr (68), who was the younger brother of the father of Keinba, the husband of the dead child.
The men called paiol, to whom the cloth is given, seem to include all those who have married women of the same clan as the giver of the cloth. Thus, at the funeral of Kiuneimi the cloth was given to Pepob (44) of Melgars, and to Nelkush and Tevò (3) of Nòdrs, who had all married women of Kanòdrs.
At the funeral of Sinerani, the cloth was given to Kuriolv (52), who was the father of the dead child, not, however, for this reason, but because he was the husband of Sintharap, Tebkudr’s sister. At this funeral the only other man to whom the cloth was given was Piliag (52), who received it in the place of his brother, Piliar (52), who was not present. The latter, like Kuriolv, was the brother-in-law of Tebkudr (68). If there is no paiol present the cloth may be given to a matchuni, [146] and this may also happen even when paiol are present. Thus at one funeral at which I was present, the marvainolkedr of Pursevan (53), the cloth was given by Piliar (52) to Teikudr (63), his matchuni. Piliar was the son of Mutevan and Teikudr was the son of Kavani, the sister of Mutevan.
If neither paiol nor matchuni be present, it was said that the cloth might be given to a brother, i.e., a man of the same clan, but this probably never happens and the statement is possibly an error.
The man who receives the cloth hands it to his wife, if she is present; if she is not present, he may put it on the corpse himself, and I saw this done more than once. On one occasion a man gave it to a woman who was not his wife, but in this case he was acting as a substitute for the husband of the woman.
This ceremony is one in which a man of the same clan as the deceased person gives a cloth to a man who has married into his family. The latter hands on the cloth to his wife, who was, before her marriage, of the same clan as the giver of the cloth, and it is this woman who places the cloth on the dead body.
The father of each woman who places the cloth on the body receives a fee of one rupee called kachkars, or cloth-rupee, but the sum is not paid till the woman has attended twenty funerals. An account is kept and twenty rupees are paid when the number is completed. The money is paid by the husband of the woman.
In the ceremony of kachütthti, the men who have married into the family of the dead person have to perform this ceremony and have to pay a fee to the family of the dead person. As we shall see later, the chief mourner at a funeral should receive a buffalo from each of his sons-in-law, and we see here that this tribute is supplemented by an addition to the account kept of the times the cloth is given. The cloth-giving ceremony involves a payment to the family of the dead man of certain fees from those members of other clans who have married into the family.
The cloth used is a red loincloth of a kind which is never worn by the Todas, but, so far as I could ascertain, it is only an ordinary cloth procured in the bazaar.
THE CREMATION
After the kachütthti ceremony the body is replaced on the wooden bier and borne to the methkudi, where the funeral pyre has been erected within the wood, usually at no great distance from the funeral hut.
The bier is laid by the side of the pyre, and the dead person is then supplied with the various necessaries for the other world. Many of the things are placed in the large pocket, or kudsh, between the two folds of the cloak in which the body is enclosed.
The things supplied are chiefly food, ornaments, and money. The food includes grain, rice, jaggery, limes, and honey. Some of the food is put directly into the kudsh, while some of the grain, rice, and honey are mixed together and put in a metal bowl. Tobacco, coconuts, ghi, or articles of food from the bazaar may be added.
A number of square boxes made of rattan and called pettei [147] are also placed on the bier. They are procured from Mitur in the Wainad, and are often called miturpettei or mitudpettei. Jaggery and other things are put into each of the boxes, and they are covered with cloth, tied with thread, and adorned with cowries.
The ornaments placed on the corpse included rings for the fingers, armlets, necklaces, and earrings.
The money is collected from all present and put in rolls into long purses, called tinkani. Most of the money used for this occasion is old with Arabic inscriptions and is known by the Todas as irajkars, the more recent coinage being called englishkars. In one collection of coins which I was allowed to inspect many bore the date 1780, and among the more recent coins were included two Japanese yen. The rolls of coins are placed within the cloak, often near the feet of the dead person.
Meanwhile the pyre has been lighted. At the funeral of a man this must be done by means of fire made by friction. I have not recorded whether the fire is made by any special relative of the deceased or other special person. At the funeral of a woman, the fire is started by means of a lighted rag which has been soaked in ghi. The rag is lighted by a man, who at present uses matches for the purpose. Though lighted by a man the fire is applied to the funeral pyre by a woman, usually of the same clan as the dead person. The pyre is lighted on the top, where small pieces of wood have been placed, and butter is poured on the fire which gradually spreads downwards. The progress of the fire is very slow, and at every funeral at which I was present the fire was far from strong when the body was placed upon it.
At the funeral of a male, imitation buffalo horns of wood (tebkuter or petkuter, see Fig. 35) are placed on the fire and burnt. This was also done at the funeral of the girl Sinerani, but it seemed clear that this was unorthodox and was done by Kuriolv, the father of the dead girl, on account of his great sorrow at her death.
The body on the bier is now taken up and swung three times over the fire, while a small wooden framework resembling a miniature bier is held under the larger bier. As the body is swung over the fire in this way the bearers say:—
“Kedr tütth tâzâr mud tirk tûkitth tâthi.” Funeral fire over three times lifted must.
These words seem to be connected with the small wooden framework held under the body, for this is called tütth tâzâr tûkitth kûrs, or “fire over lifted (or lifting) stick.”
The bier is then replaced on the ground and nearly all the objects of value are removed from the bier or from the pocket of the cloak. In one case I observed that the bangles were taken from the arms, all the rings except one were taken from the fingers, and the coins were removed and redistributed to those who had given them. The people told me that when the body was swung over the fire, the dead person went to Amnòdr with all the ornaments and objects then on the bier, and that the removal of the things afterwards would not deprive the dead person of their use in the next world.
It would seem as if this ceremony of swinging the body over the fire was directly connected with the removal of the objects of value. The swinging over the fire would be symbolic of its destruction by fire, and this symbolic burning has the great advantage that the objects of value are not consumed and are available for use another time.
This is probably the real explanation of the ceremony, but it is not the explanation given by the Todas themselves. They say that long ago, about 400 years, a man supposed to be dead was put on the funeral pyre, and, revived by the heat, he was found to be alive and was able to walk away from the funeral place. In consequence of this the rule was made that the body shall always be swung three times over the fire before it is finally placed thereon. I could not discover the significance of the small wooden framework held under the body. Its appearance suggests that it is a miniature bier.
The objects of value having been removed, the body is now burnt. Formerly it was put on the pyre face downwards, and in the accounts of funerals given by Marshall [148] and Walhouse [149] thirty years ago, this was done, but it is no longer the custom, and in recent funerals attended by Mr. Thurston and myself the body was put on the fire with the face upwards. I was told that Teikirzi ordained that the body should be consumed face downwards, and it was believed that if this were not done, the dead person would have to make the journey to Amnòdr backwards. This seems to imply that the world of Amnòdr is below this world and that the dead person should be burnt in such a way that his face is set towards his future abode.
At some time during the day, Kotas will have arrived, some to act as musicians (Fig. 56), others to take the flesh of the slaughtered buffaloes. The musicians play on their instruments, which may include a clarionet, a drum, tambourine, and brass horn, though usually I saw only the clarionet and drum. The musicians become especially active while the body is consuming. The other Kotas, who carry sharp sticks on which to carry away the flesh, begin to cut up the buffaloes as soon as the people have left the neighbourhood of the funeral hut. On more than one occasion I noticed Tamil women sitting not far from the funeral scene, and was told that they had come to buy some of the flesh from the Kotas, and I believe that it is not unknown for the flesh to find its way to the bazaar at Ootacamund.
Before the body is finally placed on the fire, a lock of hair is cut from the head to serve as one of the relics for the second funeral. It is cut by a near relative of the dead person; in the case of Sinerani, it was cut off by her boy-husband. According to Breeks, [150] one of the nails should also be removed, but I could not hear of this being done at the present time, and similarly I heard nothing of the practice of keeping the knee-cap bone, which is said by Hough [151] to have been preserved. When the burning is over, a piece of the skull is sought from among the ashes, and this, together with the hair, is put within two pieces of bark and wrapped in a cloak to be kept for the marvainolkedr.
The remainder of the ashes are left on the burning-ground till they are dispersed by wind and rain.
SOME SPECIAL FUNERAL CEREMONIES
In the previous account certain ceremonies which may be performed by special individuals have been omitted. In general, at the funeral of a man, the part of chief mourner and director of the ceremonies is taken by a brother or son of the deceased. At the funeral of a woman the husband takes the chief place.
While the mourning is going on, a ceremony will have been performed if the dead person should be a man or woman whose spouse is still alive. The husband of a dead woman goes to one of his paiol, most commonly to his father-in-law, if he is living, and the paiol draws up the cloak of the widower so that it covers his head. The man who has his head covered in this way is called mad âr mitch nidvai, “head on covered who stands” (see Fig. 61). The widower keeps his head covered in this way as a sign of mourning and does not take off the cloak till the end of the second funeral. When the paiol has arranged the cloak of the mourner, the two men cry together with forehead to forehead.
Similarly the wife of a dead man has her cloak drawn over her head as a sign of mourning, and this is done for her by her own father or someone of his clan who takes his place. This ceremony is performed by a relative of the woman, whether it is husband or wife who is dead.
It is the duty of the widower or widow to mix the grain and honey which is put into a bowl on the bier.
Other special ceremonies fall to the lot of the mokhthodvaiol or sedvaitazmokh of the dead person if there should be such. The mokhthodvaiol of a woman is the recognised lover whom she may have in addition to her husband or husbands. The sedvaitazmokh is the name of the woman in this Toda institution. The mokhthodvaiol of a dead woman goes to the funeral wearing his ring on the ring finger of the left hand. Before the buffalo is caught he pays the kalmelpudithti salutation to the father of the woman; bows down before him and raises each foot to his head. He then puts into the pocket of the cloak of the woman some limes, three handfuls (mudteir) of patcherski and one large piece of jaggery. He also puts a piece of the dark cloth called än into the pocket of the cloak, this act being called än kudshk it pudithti. The mokhthodvaiol asks the husband of the woman three times “än kudsh idukina?” (“Shall I put än into the kudsh?”) and the husband answers each time “idu!” In putting the various things into the pocket, the mokhthodvaiol has to use his left hand throughout.
When a man dies his sedvaitazmokh, if there be one, goes to the funeral ceremony wearing a ring on the ring finger of her left hand, and similarly puts limes, grain, jaggery, and a piece of än into the pocket of the dead man’s mantle. Before doing this the brothers of the dead man do kalmelpudithti to the father of the woman, and this was said to be done in order to obtain permission from him for his daughter to put things into the cloak.
At the funeral of a girl, or of a childless woman, there are performed the ceremonies of urvatpimi and pursütpimi which are usually performed during pregnancy. In life the urvatpimi, or hand-burning ceremony, is performed before that of pursütpimi, but after death the order may be reversed. These ceremonies are most frequently performed at the funerals of children, and a full description may be reserved till a later section (see p. 391).
In the case of an adult the ceremony is only performed if it has not been performed in life. If a woman dies in the later months of pregnancy after these ceremonies have taken place, they would not be performed at the funeral.
If an unmarried boy dies, a girl who should be the matchuni of the dead boy, is chosen to act as his wife. It seemed that the girl might be of any age, but she must be unmarried, and therefore must nearly always be young. One of the elder brothers of the dead boy performs the salutation of kalmelpudithti to the girl’s father, or if there are no brothers this will be done by the boy’s father. The head of the girl is then covered with her mantle by her father and the girl puts food into the pocket of the mantle of the dead boy. Thus, there is no pursütpimi ceremony in the case of an unmarried boy, but a girl is chosen to act as his widow would have done if he had been married.
At the funeral of a Teivali or Melgars male who has not held any dairy office, a piece of tudr bark is placed in the right hand of the deceased by a man of the Tartharol. Every male of the Teivaliol or Melgarsol who has been a dairyman of any grade will have been purified with tudr bark during the ordination ceremonies, and the piece of bark is only given after death to those who have not been so purified.
THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE TWO FUNERALS
As soon as the body is consumed at the etvainolkedr, the people go home, the near relatives taking with them the relics of the deceased. These relics are enclosed in two pieces of bark called pitûdri, taken from the tree called mûtmän. I was once told that tudr bark was used, but this is unlikely. The relics and bark are covered with plain cloth, and the whole is enclosed in a mantle of the kind ordinarily worn.
The relics, which are known as the kedr, are not taken to the chief village (etudmad) of the clan, but to other villages, usually to a definitely appointed village for each clan. If the clan should only have one village, or if the appointed village should be inconveniently distant, a small hut may be especially built in which to keep the relics till the second funeral. The near relatives of the dead person may not go to the chief village in the interval between the first and second funerals. If they are living at the chief village at the time of the death, they must leave it and live elsewhere till the second funeral is over.
The term kedr is not only applied to the relics of the dead person, but also to the period between the two funerals, or rather the people say, “There is kedr in his family,” or “So and so, or such and such a clan, has kedr,” so that the same word is used for the funeral, for the body of a dead person, for the relics, and for the condition of persons or clans while funeral ceremonies are uncompleted.
All those who go near the corpse at a Teivali funeral become ichchiloivichi, usually abbreviated to ichchil, and the same is true of anyone who goes to a Teivali village where the relics are being kept. The whole family in which the death has occurred is spoken of as being ichchil. If anyone wishes to attend a funeral and yet avoid becoming ichchil, he must sit at some distance and take no part in the funeral proceedings. At several funerals I have seen people sitting apart from the rest in order that they might not incur the disabilities associated with the condition of ichchil, the chief of which is that it is forbidden to approach or salute a palol.
A person who has incurred ichchil remains so till the next new moon. Those in the family of the dead person remain ichchil till the new moon after the marvainolkedr, owing to the fact that between the two funerals they probably either live at or visit the village where the relics are kept.
The condition of ichchil arising from attendance at a funeral is regarded as of the same nature as that incurred by a visit to the seclusion-hut after childbirth.
Both Teivaliol and Tartharol may become ichchil at a funeral of one of the Teivaliol, but there is no ichchil due to attendance at a Tarthar funeral. All those who throw earth at a Tarthar funeral, however, are called puzhut, and incur the same disability as those who are ichchil—i.e., they may not approach or salute a palol.
Melgars people incur the same disabilities as other Tartharol, and it is probably for them that the restrictions are of most importance, for they lose their special privileges as mòrol while they are in the condition of ichchil or puzhut.
During the condition called ‘kedr,’ all the men of the clan in which the death has occurred must tie their hair in a knot in front, as is shown in the case of the second man in Fig. 61. This method of wearing the hair is called mad tutvai, or “head (or hair) who rolls.” When the people of a clan are in this condition they must not hold any of the feasts in which the food called ashkkarthpimi is used, but they may attend as guests at feasts held in the villages of other clans.
A person who is keeping the funeral ceremonies should not traverse the path by which the ti buffaloes go from one grazing ground to another. The ostensible reason why the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti did not journey to Anto at their usual time in 1902 (see p. 131) was that Teitnir, whose wife had died, had passed over the road. The ti buffaloes, also, may not pass a place where the relics of a dead person are being kept between the two funerals. In 1902 the relics of the dead wife of Teitnir were removed from the village of Karia in order that they should not be in the way of the buffaloes. On this occasion the relics were followed by a procession of people and Teitnir gave a feast. This was said to be very unorthodox, and on cross-examination it was found that the procession and the feast were not connected with one another, the latter being part of another ceremony which was being performed on the same day. [152]
There are special regulations for widowers and widows—i.e., for those who have their heads covered at the etvainolkedr. While they wear the mantle over the head they must never put out their hand or arm from above the mantle, but always from below. When they salute by raising the hand to the forehead (kaimukhti), they must do so by putting out their hand below the cloak, and in eating and all other acts they must do the same. When the mantle is over the head, it is probably most convenient to put the hand out of the mantle from below rather than from above, but it was quite clear that it was now regarded as wrong to do the latter.
When a man crosses the Paikara or Avalanche rivers he must usually do so kevenarut, with his right arm outside his mantle, but if he has the mantle over his head as a sign of mourning he merely protrudes his right hand, so that it can be seen below the mantle. Similarly, the throwing of water done by matchuni (see p. 501), when they cross these rivers on certain days, is not done by people of a family in which there has been a death—i.e., not between the two funerals—but they only chew the grass, which is the preliminary act of the ceremony.
The mourner who has his head covered has certain restrictions in regard to his food. A widower is not allowed to eat rice nor drink milk, and on every return of the day of the week on which his wife died he takes no food in the morning and only has his evening meal. The same holds good for a widow. This fasting on each weekly return of the day of death suggests that some rite is, or used to be, performed on this day, but I did not obtain an account of any such ceremony. The day of the week on which a man dies is always observed by his children, and is called arpatznol.
The wursol who attends to kill the sacred buffalo loses his office by so doing, and becomes perol. Similarly, if a palol, wursol, or kaltmokh wish to attend the funeral of a relative, he can only do so by giving up his office, and this is a common cause of change in the various dairies. The dairyman who has thus given up his office often resumes it when the funeral ceremonies are completed, and if he expresses his intention of returning, the temporary occupant is often said to be doing the work for the other.
Between the two funerals it is the duty of every Toda who was not present at the etvainolkedr to salute the remains. When anyone visits the village where the remains are kept for this purpose the cloth containing the relics is brought out and the visitor bows down and touches the cloth with his forehead, just as is done with the body at the funeral. When I visited the village at which the kedr of Olidzeimi was being kept my Toda guide took the opportunity of performing his duty to the remains, and I was able to witness the reverent way in which the duty is performed. While I was on the hills, Tersveli, the wife of Teitnir, died while Sintagars was in the seclusion-hut after the birth of her first child, and on the morning on which Sintagars went from the puzhars to the aliars (see p. 327), she visited Karia to salute the kedr of Tersveli. Her first act after her period of seclusion was to show her respect to the remains of her dead relative. If anyone is too ill or feeble to visit the village the remains may be taken to them for salutation.
XVI. FUNERAL CEREMONIES—continued
THE MARVAINOLKEDR
The second funeral may be held little more than a month after the etvainolkedr, or there may be an interval of a year or more, and in the case of a child both funeral ceremonies may be performed on one day. In the old days the marvainolkedr was a great occasion. The proceedings lasted for two whole days, and were prolonged till daybreak of the third. Many buffaloes were slaughtered; they were caught on the first day, when they were shut up in the circular pen and bells put on their necks. On the second day they were taken from the pen to the slaughtering place, and various ceremonies took place in connexion with and after their deaths. This kind of funeral was called tuütthkedr, meaning “the putting in buffalo-pen funeral.” In the old days this putting into the pen was sometimes omitted, especially in the case of poor or unimportant people, and the catching and killing of the buffaloes were both carried out on one day, and this kind of funeral was known as marppitkedr. At the present time the Todas only have the marppitkedr, owing to the restrictions on the number of buffaloes killed. The Todas seem now to believe that the Government have actually prohibited them from putting the buffaloes into the pen at the funerals, but I could not find that this was the case.
It is now the custom, and seems long to have been so, to hold the marvainolkedr of several people at the same time. The Government allows two buffaloes to be killed for each person, and if two or more funerals are held simultaneously it gives an appearance of the olden times. So far as I could ascertain, however, the funerals of two or more people only take place together when they belong to the same clan.
In some cases, however, the funeral places of two or more clans are very near one another. In such a case there might be a certain amount of combination of the different ceremonies, but some of the rites would be carried out at different spots for each clan. Something of this kind appears to have happened at the funeral ceremonies recorded by Mr. Thurston (Bull. i., p. 176). Similarly the marvainolkedr of a man or woman of the same clan may be held simultaneously owing to the fact that the funeral places for the two sexes are usually close to one another. The buffaloes would, however, be killed at different places, and the remains would not be burnt and buried at the same azaram.
Owing to the custom of having the marvainolkedr of several people simultaneously, it has often been supposed that the Todas have a kind of anniversary ceremony for all those who have died during the year, but there is no doubt that this is wrong. There was a large marvainolkedr soon after I left the hills (in January, 1903), but it was a ceremony for two women only, Narskuti (63 and 56), and Tersveli (63 and 52), both belonging to the Kuudrol, and it was held at Kurkalmut, the proper funeral place for the women of Kuudr. It is quite possible that owing to the restrictions on the slaughter of buffaloes it may become more and more the custom to hold several marvainolkedr simultaneously, and that this custom may develop into an anniversary ceremony. This could only come about, however, by throwing over the custom that the funerals of each clan should be held at a definitely appointed place, and there is no doubt that this has not yet happened.
At the second funeral ceremony the relics are placed in a special hut, and at a man’s funeral the hut has the same name as at the etvainolkedr, and apparently it may sometimes happen that the same hut is used at both ceremonies. The second funeral is not always held, however, at the same place as the first, and the interval between the two ceremonies may be so great that it may have become necessary to rebuild the hut. At the only marvainolkedr at which I was present a new hut had been built for the occasion.
The hut at the second funeral of a woman differs in name from that of the first funeral, being called kursars instead of nersars. After the second funeral the kursars is burnt down, but my notes do not make it clear whether the nersars is always burnt down after the first funeral, or whether it may not sometimes be kept for the second ceremony. The difference of name, however, makes this improbable.
If the marvainolkedr of two or more people are held simultaneously, a hut is built for the remains of each; thus, at the ceremony in January, 1903, there were two huts, one for Narskuti and the other for Tersveli.
The relics, now called the narskedr, are brought to the funeral place on a bier made of bamboo, and called kailpedrkudr instead of mänpedrkudr (wood bier) as at the first funeral. The narskedr is wrapped in an embroidered mantle (pukuruputkuli) and placed in the hut, and then all the women of the dead person’s division who are present cry together, forehead to forehead, in the usual manner. The chief things to be burnt with the remains are also placed within the hut.
At a funeral witnessed by Mr. Thurston the relics were taken from a hole cut at the base of a tree, and the hair was unwrapped from off the skull, burnt in an iron ladle, and anointed with clarified butter before being placed in its cloth. This was probably a ceremony which should have been performed on the following morning at the azaramkedr (see p. 379).
As on the former occasion, a man’s funeral begins with the ceremony of earth-throwing, which is carried out in the same way as at the elvainolkedr. The narskedr is laid at the entrance of the buffalo pen, and earth is thrown into the pen and on the remains in the manner already described. There is nothing corresponding to the tiveri tur ceremony of the woman’s first funeral.
At the present time the driving, catching, and killing of the buffaloes are carried out in very much the same way as at the etvainolkedr. At the funerals of Teivaliol the buffaloes are caught by Tartharol and killed by Teivaliol of a clan different to that of the deceased. At the funerals of the Tartharol the buffaloes are caught by Teivaliol, and killed by the wursol or by a Tarthar man of a different clan, according as they are of the sacred or ordinary kind.
As the buffalo dies, the narskedr is brought up and laid by the head of the animal, and the lamenting and saluting take place around the buffalo and the remains, exactly as at the first funeral.
Sometimes a ceremony occurs immediately before the buffalo is caught. A man takes a ring of the creeper called kakhudri and throws it at one of the driven buffaloes. It should fall on the horns or neck of one of the buffaloes, but it does not matter whether on a buffalo which is to be killed or on another.
This throwing of the creeper, which is called kakhudri erspimi, or kudri erspimi, [153] “we throw the creeper,” is done by the wursol at a Tarthar funeral, while at the funeral of the Teivaliol it is done by a palikartmokh of the same clan as the deceased. This ceremony used not to be performed at those funerals which lasted two days, when the buffaloes were shut into a pen on one day and killed on the next, but it should always be performed when the funeral ceremonies are limited to one day. It seems possible that the circular ring of creeper may be intended to represent the act of putting the animals in the circular pen, but the Todas could give me no information on this point. It seemed clear that it is only done at those funerals in which the buffaloes are not put into the pen.
THE KOÒTITI CEREMONY
Among the Tartharol, with the exception of the people of Melgars, a ceremony is performed at the funeral of a male which is called koòtiti. In this ceremony blood is used which in the present day is drawn from one of the slaughtered buffaloes, but formerly a special buffalo was killed for this purpose.
According to the old custom the buffaloes were killed about four o’clock in the afternoon. About an hour later another buffalo of the ordinary kind was brought to the funeral place and killed by striking it on the head with a stone, and not with the back of an axe, as in the case of the other buffaloes. It might be killed by any Tarthar man, and then the wursol made a cut in the right side of the animal at the part called kegampkwûdr (over the ribs near the forelegs). The blood which ran from the wound was received into a cup made of tudr leaves, and powdered tudr bark was mixed with the blood in the cup. It is to this part of the ceremony that the name koòtiti (“blood he takes”) is properly applied. At the present time the blood is drawn from one of the buffaloes killed in the ordinary course of the ceremony. However the blood may be obtained, the next step is to bring a female buffalo calf less than one year old. The mantle with which the remains have been covered is taken off, and is worn by a Teivali man who has adorned himself with many ornaments, including those ordinarily worn by women, such as the chain (tagars), necklace (keiveli), earrings (kevthveli), and bracelet (pulthi). He also holds a long pole called tadri. The remains, which are now covered with a loincloth (tadrp) only, are carried by two women to the place where the calf is standing.
The wursol and Teivali man then walk to the calf, the former throwing before and behind him as he walks the mixed blood and tudr bark from the cup. When the wursol comes to the calf he throws down the leaf cup, and the Teivali man then hangs on the neck of the calf a bell of the kind called tukulir mani, and, taking a bow and arrow in his hand, he says three times to the Tartharol, “purs adikina?”—“Shall I touch with the bow?” Each time the Tartharol reply, “Purs ad!” The Teivali man then touches the remains with the bow and arrow. He puts down the tadri on the ground, and the calf is driven away from the spot on which it had been standing. As soon as it begins to move all present, Tartharol and Teivaliol, cry out, “ua! ua!” and fall down and touch the earth with their foreheads. The bell is then removed from the calf, which is not killed, but is allowed to go free. The bell (tukulir mani) is kept by the Kotas or Badagas till it is required by the Todas for another funeral.
The assumption of the cloak covering the remains by the Teivali man is called ârtûrverutiti, and the throwing of the mixed blood and bark by the wursol is called kedrkarchiti—i.e., funeral (or remains) purifying. Either at this stage or later the blood and tudr bark are rubbed on the piece of skull and hair which form the narskedr.
One of the most important features of this koòtiti ceremony is that the sacred tudr bark is used. The ceremony is not performed at the funerals of the Teivaliol or of the Melgarsol, because they may use tudr in the ordination ceremonies for the offices of palol, wursol, or kaltmokh.
The object of the ceremony appears to be that members of those clans who have no chance of being purified with tudr during life shall be purified with this substance before they go finally to Amnòdr. A Teivali or Melgars man, however, has only used tudr if he has been ordained to one of the three offices above mentioned. If the dead man has not been through an ordination ceremony, however, the purification does not take place at his second funeral, but a Tarthar man puts a piece of tudr bark into his right hand at the first funeral (see p. 367).
In the account which Breeks gives of this ceremony he states that certain formulæ are said, including “Karma odi pona,” “May the sin run away.” I could not confirm this, and I do not believe that karma is a Toda word. It is probable that the use of these or other formulæ is an innovation.
The Badagas of the Nilgiris let loose a calf at a funeral to bear the sins of the deceased. [154] It is possible that the calf in this Toda ceremony may have the same significance. If so, the practice has not improbably been borrowed, and the fact that the bell which is hung on the neck of the calf is kept by Kotas or Badagas suggests that the whole incident may have been borrowed by the Todas from one or other of these races.
After the buffalo is killed dancing takes place at the funeral of a male. The men only dance and they may begin soon after the killing of the buffalo, while other ceremonies are still in progress. In the dancing the same tall pole (tadri or tadrsi) is used as is carried by the Teivali man who wears the cloak of the narskedr. It is a tall pole which, it was said, might sometimes be as much as 39 feet in length. I only saw a tadri at one funeral, when it was much smaller. It is decorated with rings of cowries, which are called nîrpul, the ornaments in general being called tadri asteram (see Fig. 67).
The pole is procured from Malabar through the Kurumbas. It is used at the funeral of males only of both the Teivaliol and Tartharol, and is burnt at the end of the azaramkedr.
In the only dance which I had the opportunity of seeing, the men danced within the circular wall surrounding the funeral hut. In this case the floor of the enclosure was below the general level of the ground. The men formed a circle and danced round in slow step; one man said the name of the slaughtered buffalo—in this case, Purkirsi—and another repeated this name; then the first man said “hau! hau!” which was repeated by the second man.
After a time one of the men took the tadri and they danced round in a similar way, taking the pole with them as they danced (i.e., they did not dance round the pole).
After the dancing is over, food is distributed to all the people present and most return to their homes, while the remainder wait at the funeral place till the following morning, when are held the final ceremonies, which are known as the azaramkedr.
THE AZARAMKEDR
This is the name applied to the ceremonies connected with the final burning of the remains and burial of the ashes. After food has been distributed at the marvainolkedr, many of those attending the funeral return home. The remainder stay at the spot during the evening, those nearly related to the deceased lamenting in the usual fashion almost continuously. At a funeral attended by Samuel, the people took the setting of Kadsht and the appearance of Keirt [155] as the indications that the final ceremonies were to begin, and this was about two o’clock on the following morning.
At every funeral place used for the marvainolkedr, there is a circle of stones, smaller than that in which the hut is built, with an opening which in some cases faces the east. This circle of stones is the azaram, and before the ceremonies begin, a man digs a hole by the opening in its side. The various objects to be burnt with the remains are now brought from the hut in which they had been placed on the previous day, and are laid outside the azaram and the narskedr is laid by their side. As the remains are removed from the hut, the wailing becomes louder and the people cry bitterly. Outside the stone circle a fire is made of the wood called kidmän, [156] upon which clarified butter is poured. This fire, which is known as the puntüt, is lighted by a man of the same clan as the deceased. At the funeral of a male, there is burnt on this fire the dairy vessel called ertatpun which had belonged to the dead man, and the imitation buffalo horns called petkuter, about ten in number for a man and five for a boy. At the funeral of a woman, I think that a majpatitthpun is burnt, viz., a vessel used for fetching buttermilk from the dairy, but I am not certain of this.
There now follows the ceremony called narsatipimi, i.e. “the nars we rub,” in which the leading part is taken by a person of the same sex as the deceased. I only have a full record of this ceremony at a woman’s funeral, and in this case a woman took the relics out of their covering, and threw away the pieces of bark in which they had been enclosed. She rubbed butter on the pieces of skull and the hair, put the hair between two pieces of skull, tied them together with thread, and replaced them in the ornamented cloak (pukuruputkuli). She then bowed down and touched the remains with her forehead, and then this salutation was performed by all those present.
At a funeral seen by Mr. Thurston, [157] this ceremony was performed on the previous day at the marvainolkedr, and in this case the hair was burnt in an iron ladle before the clarified butter was applied.
This ceremony of narsatipimi is performed by the daughter-in-law of a woman, or by the mother-in-law of a girl or woman who has no daughter-in-law. At the funeral of Narskuti (56 and 63) it was performed by Piliurs, the wife of Tüliners (56), the son of the dead woman. At the funeral of Tersveli (52 and 63), a much younger woman, who had no daughter-in-law, the relics were anointed by Muteimi (52 and 69), the mother of Teitnir, Tersveli’s husband. I have no record of the person who performs this ceremony at the funeral of a man.
The next step in the proceedings is to light a fire within the circle of stones, this fire being called the azaramtüt. Firewood is put within the azaram and the narskedr in its covering is placed on the wood. If the azaramkedr is being held for two or more people simultaneously, the remains of all are put on the wood together. [158] In the pockets of the mantles forming the coverings are placed grain, jaggery, and coins. The azaramtüt is then lighted by taking three firebrands in succession from the puntüt. The firebrands are placed on the firewood and on the remains by the daughter-in-law or mother-in-law of a female as in the last ceremony. [159] Then all the people take up the burning wood from the puntüt and place it within the azaram over the remains. The various objects previously brought from the funeral hut are now placed on the fire and burnt, and the special food known as ashkkarthpimi may be thrown into the fire. Then all the people cry together, forehead to forehead.
The following are the objects burnt with the remains on the azaramtüt, at the funeral of a male:—
(a) In the pocket of the cloak, jaggery, the husked grain called patcherski, husked barley (kodjerski), and rupees in two bags, one called tinkani, made by the Todas themselves, and the other called katshiram, procured from Hindus.
(b) Sticks of the following kinds of wood: pars, karneizi tavat, kali, toarsmitch, kar.
(c) A nanmakud, a club or stick cut from the pars tree (Fig. 67).
(d) A tadri, or long pole used in the dance and in the koòtiti ceremony of the previous day.
(e) Several wak, bamboo vessels filled with grain, butter, ghi, honey, &c., usually ten in number for adults and five for children.
(f) A tek, a basket made by the Kotas in which barley or poppy heads are put.
(g) A bow (purs) and three arrows (ab) (Fig. 67).
(h) A kafkati, or knife, called on ordinary occasions kudrval.
(i) A masth, the axe used to kill the buffaloes on the previous day, called on this occasion îrkîpmasth.
(j) A miturkwadr, the palm-leaf umbrella, so called because procured from Mitur in the Wainad.
(k) A kudshmurn, a special kind of sieve made by the Kotas and not used in ordinary life.
At the funeral of a woman boxes called pettei or miturpettei are burnt instead of the wak. These are small boxes made of rattan, covered with cloth and adorned with cowries. There are also burnt the three objects especially connected with women, the pounder (wask), sieve (murn), and broom (kip), but the pounder is only burnt after the following ceremony has taken place.
As soon as the things have been placed on the fire, there follows the ceremony [160] called îrsankâti. At the funeral of a male, the matchuni, or cousin, of the dead man puts on the woman’s ornaments known as tagars, keiveli, and pulthi, and stands at the opening in the circle of stones with his right arm outside his cloak (kevenarut). He is joined there by the man who has lighted the fire, and they cry together, both standing at the entrance of the azaram, where they remain till the fire is extinguished. Owing to the fact that the fire is lighted by a man of the same clan as the deceased, the two men who cry together will also be matchuni—thus, at the funeral of Karspisti (12), the fire was lighted by his half-brother Karzo. Pakhwar (16), who performed the irsankati ceremony, was the matchuni of both Karzo and Karspisti, being the son of the brother of Tedjveli, the mother of Karzo and stepmother of Karspisti.
At the funeral of a female, the woman who stands at the entrance should also be a matchuni of the deceased. She is decorated with ornaments, in this case proper to her own sex, and she stands at the entrance of the azaram holding the pounder. She is joined by a woman closely related to the deceased and the two women cry together. After crying together for a while, they go round the circle and then put the pounder on the fire, after which they take off their ornaments.
At the funeral of Narskuti (56 and 63), Mutkadrk (56 and 72) stood in front of the circle holding the pounder, and was joined by Munat, the daughter of the dead woman.
At the funeral of Tersveli (52 and 63), Edjog (56) stood at the entrance; she was the matchuni of the dead woman, being the daughter of Tüliners, the brother of Tersveli’s mother. She was joined by Teimidz (52), the sister of the dead woman’s husbands.
The fire is now extinguished by pouring on water (kêdr tüt ârs kudrchi). Some of the food put into the pocket of the putkuli and in the various vessels may now be taken out [161] and given to the Kotas, who up to this time have been playing the special funeral tunes called sagerthkwelv.
The ashes are now swept into the hole which had been dug at the opening in the stone circle. They are covered with earth dug from elsewhere and the spot is covered with a stone.
At the funeral of a male, a man of the same clan as the deceased then brings a bell (kwungg) and goes round the burial-place three times ringing the bell, while another man goes with him holding him by the waist. The man who rings the bell then takes a new pot, ordinarily used for carrying water, and, raising it over his head, brings it down and breaks it on the stone covering the ashes. He bows down and touches the stone with his forehead, gets up, and goes away to the funeral hut without looking back toward the azaram. All the others present bow down to the stone in the same way and go away from the spot without looking back. The ceremony of bell-ringing and stone-saluting is called kwungg tûki kârs nersatiti, “bell lift, stone he salutes.”
At the funeral of a woman, the bell is rung and the pot broken by her husband or by one of his brothers if he be dead. If it is the husband, he will have been wearing the cloak over his head [162] up to this time, and he takes it off just before he bows down to salute the stone. At the funeral of her husband, a widow will similarly remove the cloak from her head before she salutes the stone.
After saluting at the azaram, all go to the funeral hut, where they take food, having fasted during the night. Each person cuts a lock of hair from the head as a sign of mourning and then all return home.
At the funeral of a woman, the funeral hut is burnt before the people leave, this being called ars pon atipimi, “house up we send.” It is the duty of the woman who first lighted the azaramtüt to set fire to the hut.
The foregoing account of the second funeral ceremonies is that of the proceedings at the present time. When the marvainolkedr was prolonged over two days, the proceedings of the first day opened with the capture of the buffaloes, which were put in the pen, and then followed a scene in which the Todas entered the pen, flourishing heavy clubs. The animals were belaboured and driven round and round the pen, and at intervals several men would catch and hold down a buffalo. According to some accounts the bells were hung round the necks of the buffaloes during this performance, but at a funeral witnessed by Mr. Walhouse [163] this was not done, and he believed that the object of the fray was that the men might exhibit their agility and skill. There is little doubt, however, that the bells were put on the buffaloes at some time on this day. The remainder of the first day was occupied with dancing, singing, and feasting. On the second day, the proceedings began again in the middle of the day with more dances and with a repetition of the driving and catching within the pen. In the afternoon, after the earth-throwing ceremony, the buffaloes, now wearied and subdued, were dragged from the pen and killed, and then followed the ceremonies which have already been described.
At the funeral witnessed by Mr. Walhouse, part of the second day was occupied by the proceedings of a diviner, and divination seems to be a frequent feature of funerals, having been also seen both by Mr. Thurston and myself. In the latter case, the occasion of the divination arose directly out of the proceedings, but it is probable that the gatherings are used as opportunities of consulting the gods on other matters. A funeral may also be used as an occasion for settling disputes, especially those which concern the people especially connected with the funeral.
FUNERAL LAMENTS
At some stage in both funeral ceremonies laments for the dead may be sung or said which consist of sentences praising the virtues of the deceased and recounting incidents of his or her life. To these sentences the same term kwarzam is applied which is used for the words and clauses of the prayers. I am not certain at what stage of the proceedings the recital of these laments takes place, but it is certainly after the killing of the buffaloes, probably in many cases during the general wailing round the buffalo and the remains. At the second funeral of a male, however, I believe that the lament is recited during the dancing.
I did not succeed in obtaining any examples during my visit, but soon after my departure Samuel sent me two laments, one composed by Teitnir (52) and uttered by him at the second funeral ceremony for his wife Tersveli. The other was also composed by Teitnir for the first funeral ceremony of Pidrvan (9) of Kars.
The Toda name for these laments is kunedstkin or kunedsti, and certain men have great reputations as composers both for funerals and on other occasions, and Teitnir was one of these. The following is the lament for Tersveli:—
Iza kûgh ia, [164] iza kutei, atâth atia, pervoth O woman oh! O woman, not born before you were born, renowned
perpia, pûv îrsimitch ia pûv elet ia, you were born, flower lime oh! flower (a bush) oh!
kavath kud katethik, patath kud patiathenk, proper husband (?) found you married, proper wife found I married,
tevukhk nurs îr notei kadrthenk, (kwarzam of Piedr) to beautiful buffalo looked I gave,
âtthkark nurs mokh notei patiathenk, kuteia mun (kwarzam of Kuudr) to beautiful woman looked I married, built house
kutenathuk, kokiji [165] kis narsiathûk kûter we built, imitation bracelets made we played, imitation buffalo horns
kis narsiathûk, âr mokh puchiathûk, âr îr tû made we played, six children we would produce, six buffalo pen
odethûk, orppasan (?) oithîk pudrkwadr ners oithîk, we would enjoy, liberal you were, umbrella tree shade you were,
irom ed ithotkûk, pukkom ed peithûk, kalav we will live that we thought, we will go together that we went, strong
îr kadathûk, pûa tadri pusiathûk tudm athi ed kadrtethûk, udi buffalo we bought, ? pole we beat, fine it is that we gave, have
athi ed kadrtethûk, kutei ath kotei peithûk, keirtith it is that we gave, built bungalow we went, running waters
keir peithûk, ö katcheri peithûk, ö kapel peithûk reservoir we went, seven courts (law) we went, seven ships we went,
pedrk muri ituthûk, pash it pudth kisthûk pudth Tamil to complaints we spoke, words spoke prize we won (made), prize
it pudth kisthûk, ûkudrem ed thûk, kan spoke prize we won, we will not be shaken that we said, eye
udjem ed thûk, mûn ânem ed thûk, en it we will not fear that we said, face ? that we said, me here
puchvînia, en it pîshvînia, purs kan nîr pîrevînen, purs keep you went, me here leave you went, right eye water I shed, right
metûvi kurseivînen, patnenk kanânen, pesoduthenk nostril I smart, I bewailed I could not find, I called out
kanânen, enk ud swâmi aivînen. [166] I could not find, to me one god I have.
The free translation of this is as follows:—
“O woman of wonderful birth, renowned were you born, O flower, lime, O flower, tree. Having found a proper husband you married; having found a proper wife I married. I gave my best buffalo to Piedr for you. I took you as a beauty to Kuudr. A house we built, bracelets and buffalo horns we made in sport. I thought we should have had many children and many buffaloes should we have enjoyed. Liberal you were and refreshing like the shade of the umbrella tree. We thought that we should live long. We went together as we willed. We bought strong buffaloes and we prevailed over injustice. Peacefully we paid our fine. We lent to those that had not. We went to see the bungalows and the reservoir. Many courts we visited and ships also. We laid complaints before the native magistrate; we made bets and we won. We said that we would not be shaken and would fear the eye of no one. We thought to live together, but you have left me alone, you have forsaken me. My right eye sheds tears, my right nostril smarts with sorrow. I bewailed but could not find you. I called out for you and could not find you. There is one God for me.”
This translation is based partly on the literal meanings of the kwarzam, partly on explanations and renderings given to Samuel by Teitnir. The dead wife was a Piedr woman and the husband a Kuudr man. The mention of injustice refers to trouble which arose when other men wished to take his wife from Teitnir. The visits to bungalows, &c., probably refers to a time when Teitnir and his wife lived in Ootacamund under the protection of the Zenana Mission. The ships must be purely imaginary on Teitnir’s part, unless he is referring to boats on the lake at Ootacamund. The numbers six and seven are those generally used for ‘many’ under ordinary conditions, and there is a clause towards the end which probably refers to the evil eye. Teitnir was under, or pretended to be under, missionary influence, and his reference to “one God” at the end is certainly due to this.
The following is the lament composed by Teitnir for Pidrvan:—
Epukers ia! elipukers ia! Pedth tedshk îr ia! Pekh Kwarzam of maiir oh! kwarzam of maiir oh! rattan ring buffalo oh! ?
kudeik kinim ia! peivalei muk ia! keiveli mêdr ia! kapasth kal ia! ? plate oh! ? ? oh! necklace neck oh! trousers leg oh!
kûdukatith kûdr ia! âna metu ia! arshan mudr ia! etamâv ia! car horn oh! elephant foot oh! European walk oh! sambhar oh!
nurs îrk kan âkithenk, kalochikum ed thînk, beautiful buffalo to eye I kept, old woman to (?) that they said,
kalòlkum ed thînk inâtvidshti inâtvan, iza kâra ö old man to (?) that they said, kwarzam of Kars clan, O chief seven
vûr kada, pûrvunkâra! pudrvantol [167] ia! kavatkâra! village chief, conqueror oh! peace-loving man oh! strong man oh!
Kavanadi pali put oia! tû vut tüli ia! atâth ud Kavanadi dairy carried oh! pen carried posts oh! not born before one
atithîk, pervoth ud pertithîk, pûa kûtm paneithîk you were born, renowned one you were born, ? council you held,
saver òkithîk, ter ud òlk edstethîk mokh ud money fine you imposed, buffalo fine one man to you told, girl one
òlk kisethîk, maiîr kodtk peithîk, pîrer to man you made, barren buffaloes in the midst you went, buffalo
nòdik peithîk pudr òdichi peithîk, pan to the neck you went, chosen number beat you went, chosen number
ertevîthîk, kal òt òdithîk peiveli pileidik ninth ud you ran before, leg dance you danced ? ? your one
kalvi kisethîk, ninth ud kek kisethîk, id kan mûn new things you made, your one invention you made, to-day eye face
âvini, Kars kazun podstha? parsners podstha? I saw, Kars kazun has it come? kwarzam of kazun has it come?
methkûdis mai kooisivini âzâratrs kargh patevini. [168] burning-place at ashes heaped, azaram at grass grew up.
The first part of this lament begins with the kwarzam of the maiir, or barren buffalo, slaughtered at the funeral. It is not quite clear which of the clauses at the beginning refer to the buffalo and which to the man. I do not know the meaning of the second clause. The free rendering of the third and fourth was said to be, “Your horns crept so well; your horns crept well to the front.” The general sense of the other clauses was said to be as follows: “O, your leg like trousers, your horns like a car, your foot is like that of an elephant, you walk with a step like a European soldier, your appearance is like that of a sambhar. I saw you were the most beautiful buffalo of all.” It seems probable that the lament so far refers altogether to the buffalo. Then follows, “They said that you would be the parent of the dead, but now you are dead yourself”; or, “When old people are yet alive, why are young ones taken?” Then follows the kwarzam of the Kars clan, and the rest obviously refers to Pidrvan himself: “O chief of many villages, conqueror, peace-loving and yet strong man. You were like Kavanadi, who carried the posts of the buffalo-pen. [169] O man of wonderful birth, renowned you were born; you held councils; you fined some by money and some by buffaloes; you settled who should marry the women. In the midst of barren buffaloes you went; you caught the throats of the buffaloes; you ran first and caught the buffaloes before the chosen men; well you danced and shouted finely; you invented new things. To-day for the last time I saw your face. Has the angel of death come to you? I see nothing but ashes in your burning-place. In your azaram place I see nothing but grass growing.”
PURIFICATION CEREMONIES
Certain further ceremonies are performed about the time of the first new moon after the marvainolkedr.
At one or both of the funerals of a Tarthar man a sacred buffalo will have been killed by the wursol and the sacred bell (mani) will have been used. By his acts at the funeral the wursol loses his office, and by its use on the same occasion the mani is defiled. On the day before the new moon following the funeral all the things in the dairy of the wursol are thrown away. Either a new dairyman is appointed and goes through the usual rites, or the old wursol is re-appointed and has to repeat his ordination ceremonies. This is done on the Sunday after the new moon, which is the proper day for the ordination of a wursol, exactly the same ceremonies being performed as those described in Chapter VII. The old wursol puts the mani in the dairy stream (pali nipa), and if he is not re-appointed, his duties then cease. The new wursol, or the old wursol who has undergone new ordination ceremonies, takes the mani from the stream and purifies it by rubbing it all over with pounded tudr bark and water. He then takes the bell to the dairy, which is now empty, finds a new stick on which to hang it, and puts both stick and bell in their proper place on the patatmar. Then the new dairy vessels are purified and put in their places in the usual manner.
This purification of the dairy is not done by the Teivaliol, and seems to be only necessary when the mani and the dairyman who looks after it have been defiled by the funeral ceremonies. In the case of the Nòdrsol, the mani between the two funeral ceremonies is kept at Nòdrs, and is taken back to Òdr on the Sunday after the new moon following the second funeral, and it is at Òdr that the purification takes place.
Similarly the Kars mani is returned from Taradrkirsi to Kars on this day. I was told that the pepkaricha ceremony of making new pep is performed after the funeral of a man among the Tartharol, and it seems as if this new appointment of a dairyman and this use and purification of new dairy vessels are regarded as a form of the pepkaricha ceremony.
Another ceremony which takes place after the marvainolkedr is designed to purify the places used during the funeral rites and especially the azaram. This ceremony is called kertnòdrkarchpimi “funeral place we purify,” or mutnolnòdrvusthpimi, “new moon day place (or ceremony) we keep.” On the day of the new moon following the second funeral two men of the same clan as the deceased take a buffalo in the early morning from the pen to a spot about half a mile from the village. They wait there till about eleven o’clock, and then kill the buffalo by striking it on the head with a stone. They draw blood from one side of the animal and mix the blood with earth in a basket. The Teivaliol and Melgarsol add tudr bark to the earth and blood. The mixture is then taken to the funeral places and scattered over the spots where the buffalo was caught and killed, where the dead body or the narskedr had lain at the two funerals, at the methkudi and the azaram. If the places for the etvainol- and marvainol-kedr are different and far distant from one another, the spots used at the former may be omitted, but the most important place which must always be purified in this way is the azaram. In any case this place is the last to be purified, and the men then throw away the basket and go straight back to their village, where they bathe and take food, having fasted till this time.
This ceremony is only performed after the funerals of males. The buffalo killed is called the nòdrvusthpir. The Teivaliol and Melgarsol use a male buffalo calf for the purpose; the Tartharol, other than the Melgarsol, use an adult female buffalo.
No use is made of the flesh of the animal; the body is left where it falls and is not given to the Kotas.
After a funeral, the members of the Tarthar clans, except the Melgarsol, shave their heads, but this is not done either by the Melgarsol or Teivaliol. I did not inquire fully into this matter, and do not know what regulations there are in connexion with the practice, or whether it is regarded as purificatory.
THE FUNERALS OF CHILDREN
The body of a still-born child is buried at the same time as, and together with, the afterbirth, without any ceremonial. In one case which occurred during my visit, this was done by the woman who assisted at the delivery. The body was buried in the early morning on the day on which the mother underwent the ceremonies attending removal to the seclusion-hut.
If a child less than two years of age dies, both funerals are held on one day. The etvainolkedr takes place in the morning, the marvainolkedr in the afternoon; a buffalo is killed at each, and the azaramkedr is held on the following morning as usual. If the child is very young, less than a month old, a male buffalo only may be killed, but if the father chooses, two buffaloes may be killed as at the funeral of an adult.
Thus, the child of Piliag and Sintagars (52) died while the mother was in the seclusion-hut, and two ordinary buffaloes were killed. On this occasion, the two funerals were held on the same day as that on which the child died, owing to the death having taken place on one of the appointed days for a funeral of the clan. When the youngest child of Podners (47) died, only one male buffalo was killed for both ceremonies.
When a male child dies who has not cut his teeth nor been through the ear-piercing ceremony, the funeral is not held at the usual funeral place for males, but at another. Thus the Karsol do not take the body of such a child to Taradrkirsi but to a place called Punpali.
When I attended the funeral of a girl named Sinerani (52), the daughter of Kuriolv of Kuudr, both ceremonies were performed on the same day, and a number of incidents occurred which were very interesting as illustrations of many of the practices which have been described throughout this chapter. The child was about two years old and had not yet been betrothed, but as soon as she was dead it was arranged that she should marry her matchuni, Keinba (68), a little boy about four years of age, the son of her mother’s brother, and this boy occupied a prominent position among those taking part in the funeral rites. Owing to the marriage of the dead child to this boy, the dead child would come to be one of his clan, the Keadrol, and there seemed to be no doubt that, according to strict custom, the funeral should have been held at the funeral place of this clan. Kuriolv, however, arranged that the funeral should take place at Kurkalmut, the funeral place for women of the Kuudrol, but as the girl did not properly belong to this clan the funeral hut was not erected within the circle of stones at this place, but outside it.
The beginning of the funeral ceremonies was delayed for some time because the little boy, Keinba (Fig. 57), had to be taken by his father, Perpakh, in search of the wood and grass out of which to make the bow and arrow to be used in the pursütpimi ceremony, and they had to go far to find the proper plants for the manufacture of the mimic weapon.
After this delay the ceremonial took its natural course till the buffalo which had been caught by the Taradr men was being taken to the place appointed for its slaughter by the side of the funeral hut. The people had great difficulty in making the buffalo move, and at last it lay down on a boggy piece of ground, and the efforts of all failed to make it go further. The diviners, Midjkudr and Mongudrvan, were then called upon to ascertain the cause of the obstinacy of the buffalo, and then followed the performance which I have already described (see p. 252).
The reasons given by Midjkudr were not very clear, and there seemed to be a good deal of doubt as to what he had really said, but the following appeared to be the chief reasons given:—
The buffalo, Kursi, which had delayed the proceedings, was the property of Kuriolv and was descended from a buffalo which had belonged to Teitchi, Kuriolv’s grandfather. Since this buffalo was thus family property, it should go to the sons, and ought not to be killed for a daughter, and especially for one who now belonged to another clan. Kuriolv ought to have used a buffalo which he had acquired in his own lifetime. Midjkudr went on to say that Kuriolv, having done wrong, must pay compensation to the dead, and told him to give the buffalo named Perov. As a sign that he would do so, Kuriolv performed the kalmelpudithti salutation to Perner, the grandfather of Keinba and also through Sintharap, of the dead girl.
Another reason given was that the buffalo had been caught at the wrong place—viz., at the place where it ought to be caught at the funeral of a male. I only heard of this reason a few days later, and I do not know whether it was one of the reasons given by Midjkudr or whether it was a later surmise. A third reason was that Perner and Tebner, his brother, had been on bad terms; and to put this right Tebner, the younger, performed the kalmelpudithti salutation to Perner.
The next special feature of the ceremony took place after the buffalo had been killed and before the kachütthti ceremony. Keinba knelt down before Kuriolv and Piliag and the two men touched the head of the boy with their feet, thus accepting him as the husband of Sinerani. Then followed the pursütpimi ceremony. The mantle covering the dead child was opened, her right hand unclenched, and Keinba placed the little bow and arrow in the hand, and the fingers of the dead child were closed over the bow so that they held it as they would have done in life. Then the bow was taken out of the hand, placed on the breast of the child, and the mantle was again folded over her. Teitnir, the half-brother of Kuriolv, who had now become the paiol of Keinba, came up and covered the head of the boy with his putkuli as a sign that he was a widower, and then Teitnir and Keinba put their foreheads together and cried. After crying together for a while, Teitnir touched Keinba’s head with his foot. Then Sintharap, the mother of Sinerani, gave grain and jaggery and limes to Keinba, who put them in the pocket of the mantle of the dead child. Sintharap and Keinba then cried together, and Sintharap touched Keinba’s head with her foot.
After the cloth-giving ceremony, the body was taken to the burning place, and Keinba mixed honey and grain in a metal bowl; when Keinba began to stir the grain and honey he put his right arm out from above his cloak as usual, but was speedily corrected and made to put out his hand from below the cloak in the manner proper for a widower.
The wrists of the girl were burnt as in the urvatpimi ceremony, the burning being done by Silkidz (53), the wife of a younger brother of Perpakh, Keinba’s father, and, before her marriage, like Sinerani, one of the Kuudrol. Silkidz also lighted the pyre.
In spite of the results of his previous infringement of funeral law, Kuriolv made a further departure from orthodox custom in burning on the pyre imitation buffalo horns, which should only be burnt at the funerals of males. Then after being swung over the flames as usual, the body was placed on the pyre.
Less than half an hour later, and long before the body could have been consumed, the marvainolkedr began, and passed off without any special incident. Another buffalo was caught and killed and laid by the side of a mantle containing hair which had been cut from the head of the dead child by Keinba. The mantle should also have contained a piece of skull, but the body had not been sufficiently consumed to procure this, and so the hair alone was held to be sufficient.
Later a distribution of grain took place, and those who were to take no part in the azaramkedr on the following morning went to their homes.
At another funeral of an unmarried girl, Olidzeimi (21), the ceremony of pursütpimi was performed by the boy Pulgudr (38), who had been married in infancy to the girl. He was her matchuni, being the son of Teijer, the sister of Parkeidi, Olidzeimi’s father. On this occasion Pulgudr said to his father-in-law, Parkeidi, three times, “pursadikina?”—“Shall I touch (with the) bow?” and Parkeidi replied each time, “Pursad!”—“Touch with the bow!” Then Pulgudr put the bow and arrow into the hand of the dead girl, and Parkeidi covered Pulgudr’s head with the cloak, and the boy put grain, jaggery, and limes into the pocket of the cloak of Olidzeimi. At the funeral of Sinerani, Keinba did not say the proper formula, probably because he was too young.
FUNERAL CONTRIBUTIONS
In the old days, when a large number of buffaloes were slaughtered at the funerals, and especially at the marvainolkedr, it was the rule that every manmokh, or sister’s son, should supply a buffalo, while in the case of a child it seemed that buffaloes were sometimes given by the mun or mother’s brother.
Buffaloes were also given by the husbands of the daughters of a man, whether they were the manmokh of the man or not. They might be given by other relatives, but it seemed that the gift was especially a duty of the manmokh and paiol. The mokhthodvaiol of a woman should also contribute a buffalo for her second funeral.
At the present time the limitation of the number of buffaloes which may be slaughtered has removed the necessity for these gifts, but it still remains the custom for one of the buffaloes to be supplied by the manmokh or some corresponding relative, or, at any rate, it seems to be usual for one buffalo to be supplied by relatives of a man on the male side, and the other by relatives on the female side; thus, at the funeral of Sinerani (52) one buffalo was given by Kuriolv, the father of the dead child, and the other by Perner (68), the father of the child’s mother, and also the grandfather of her husband.
Contributions in money may be made by any relative, and all those who have married into the family of the deceased, even if only boys, should contribute eight annas or a rupee towards the general expenses, this custom being called tinkanik panm ûtpimi. The mokhthodvaiol of a woman should contribute at least five rupees to the expenses of the second funeral.
The ceremony of kachütthti (see p. 358) also involves a payment from his sons-in-law to a man of the same clan as the dead man. The money is not paid, however, till the woman who places the cloths on the body has attended twenty funerals and is, therefore, probably not paid at all in many cases, but it may be regarded as tribute from those who have married into a family at each death in the family.
The contributions of buffaloes and money from a man to the relatives of his wife are called pòdri.
Contributions of food are received from various relatives, who also contribute certain of the objects used for the adornment of the body. Each relative gives a waist-string called pennar, made of black and white thread, which is put round the body of the corpse. That given by a manmokh is exceptionally honoured in that it is tied round the body inside the mantle together with that given by the son of the deceased, those given by other relatives being put outside the mantle.
Many of the necessaries for the funerals are provided by the Kotas. The part they take as the musicians has been already mentioned. In addition they provide for the first funeral the cloak (putkuli) in which the body is wrapped, and grain (patm or samai) to the amount of five to ten kwa. They give one or two rupees towards the expenses, and if they should have no grain their contribution of money is increased.
At the marvainolkedr their contributions are more extensive. They provide the putkuli, together with a sum of eight annas for the decoration of the cloak by the Toda women. They give two to five rupees towards the general expenses and provide the bow and arrow, basket (tek), knife (kafkati), and the sieve called kudshmurn. The Kotas receive at each funeral the bodies of the slaughtered buffaloes, and are also usually given food. The method by which these contributions from the Kotas to the Todas are regulated will be considered in Chapter XXVII.
AMNÒDR
Amnòdr [170] is the other world of the Todas to which the dead go. It lies to the west and is lighted by the same sun as this world. The sun goes there when it sinks to the west so that when it is dark on the Nilgiris it is light in Amnòdr, and when it is dark in Amnòdr it is light on the Nilgiris. When Kwoto tied down the sun it was dark in both worlds and the people of Amnòdr complained (see p. 206) and joined with those of this world in the request that the sun should be restored to its proper place. Amnòdr is considered to be below this world, and this was given as the reason why the dead used to be burnt face downwards. It will be remembered also that Ön was looking downwards when he saw his son Püv in Amnòdr (see p. 185).
Amnòdr is presided over by the god Ön, who went there after the death of his son Püv, and it is often called Önnòdr after him, while this world, presided over by the goddess Teikirzi, is known as Inanòdr or Eikirzinòdr. [171] The people of Amnòdr or Önnòdr are known as the Amatol. Formerly the Todas used to go freely to and fro between Amnòdr and Eikirzinòdr, but this was stopped owing to the behaviour of Kwoto, and since his time only the dead go to Amnòdr and they do not return.
The Amatol live in much the same way as the inhabitants of this world. They have their buffaloes and their dairies, and the daily life of the people appears to be much like that of the living Todas. As the people walk about, however, they wear down their legs. They have to walk every day, and when a man has worn down his legs as far as the knees Ön sends him back to this world as another man.
Ön will not allow any pigs or rats to enter Amnòdr, as they would root up and spoil the country.
Dead people travel to Amnòdr by well-defined routes, which are different for Tartharol and Teivaliol, while the Taradrol have a separate Amnòdr for their clan.
The dead do not set out for Amnòdr till after the second funeral, taking with them the things burnt at the azaramkedr. Both Tartharol and Teivaliol journey westwards towards the Kundahs and cross the Pakhwar or Avalanche river at the same spot.
The paths for the two divisions then diverge. The Tartharol go by a place called Katchâr, while the Teivaliol go by Kusheigûdr, situated by the bridle path now leading from Avalanche Bungalow to Avalanche Top. Whenever a Teivali man passes this spot for the first time he throws three stones called oviônikârs. Similarly, a Tarthar man passing Katchâr for the first time throws three stones in the same way. At the top of the hill there is a spot at which every Toda salutes (kaimukhti) in all directions.
The two paths meet again at a stone called Nidzmûtkârs (hot knock stone). When the dead Todas reach this stone they knock on it, and in so doing lose all their love of this world. They proceed and reach the stone called Panîpikârs, on which also they knock, and by so doing lose all their diseases and become strong again, so that they are sound and vigorous when they reach Amnòdr.
After knocking on Panîpikârs, the dead pass a wood called Katiârnpül, in which there is a tree called main, and as they go they make a cut on this tree with the kafkati or knife burnt with them, and Todas who pass by Katiârnpül on the day after a funeral have often seen the newly made cut on the main tree. For women there is another place in the wood called Patkadipem, and here the woman pounds with the wask burnt at her azaramkedr.
On proceeding the dead Todas come to a ravine and river called Püvûrkin, near Sisapara. Across this river there is a thread bridge, and those who have been bad Todas during life fall into the river and are bitten by leeches (püv or püf). The people who cross the thread bridge successfully go straight to Amnòdr, but those who fall are helped out of the river by the people of Padrmukhteir (crowd plain swamp), who belong to all tribes and live on the further bank of Püvûrkin. The people of Padrmukhteir may keep the offending Todas in their country for some time. The greater their offences, the longer are they kept, but all, however bad, reach Amnòdr sooner or later.
The following are the people who fall into Püvûrkin:—(a) the karainol, selfish people; (b) the kashtvainol, jealous and grudging people; (c) the kaspivainol, those who have committed any offences against the dairy, whether pali or poh.
The danger of falling into Püvûrkin does not seem to have much influence on the people. It has been spoken of as the Toda Hell, but it is rather a mild variety of Purgatory, and only involves some discomfort and delay on the journey to the next world. The people of Kavidi in the Wainad may travel direct to Amnòdr without going over Püvûrkin at all, and they run no danger from this source, however bad they may have been.
The people of Taradr are said to have a separate Amnòdr near Külvari or Perithi, and they do not travel by Nidzmûtkârs or by Panîpikârs, nor do they cross Püvûrkin. They have no dangers by the way, and however wicked they may have been they go to their Amnòdr in security. Men, women and buffaloes all follow the same path.
ORIGIN OF FUNERAL CUSTOMS
The various funeral customs are said to have been partly ordained by Teikirzi. The following story is given as the account of their origin:—
At first no Toda died. After a time a Piedr man died at the village of Erparskòdr. He died in his hut and the Todas took his body to the funeral place, but on the way they laid it by a heap of stones between Erparskòdr and Umgas. The stones are still to be seen, and are called Möditikars. [172] While the body lay by these stones, some of the people were weeping bitterly; others were dancing and singing, and others were going to drive buffaloes. Teikirzi, who saw the people weeping, took pity and came to bring the dead man back to life. When she came to the place she found that though some of the people were crying, others seemed quite happy. She liked what she saw, and decided not to raise the dead man, so she went away and ordained that in the future some should cry at funerals and others should be happy, and her laws as to the conduct of the funeral ceremonies have been followed ever since.
Then the people took up the dead body and went on to Kûrûvòrs, near Umgas, where they performed the funeral ceremonies.
In the various complicated ceremonies described in this chapter there are certain features which may be briefly discussed.
There is no doubt that the buffaloes killed at the funeral are supposed to go to Amnòdr with the dead person. Sacred buffaloes are only killed at the funerals of men, for they would be useless to women, who, in the next world as in this, have nothing to do with dairies at which the sacred buffaloes must be tended. There is no evidence that the slaughter of buffaloes is in any way a propitiatory sacrifice, and there seems to be a very marked absence of anything resembling prayer or other forms of appeal to higher powers in the funeral ceremonies. [173]
Dairymen take part in the funeral ceremonies, but chiefly in connexion with the sacred buffaloes. The highest kind of dairyman, the palol, has no duties whatever, and loses his office if he takes part merely as a visitor. At Tarthar funerals the wursol has important duties, chiefly connected with the sacred buffaloes and with the mani, which is hung round their necks. He also takes the chief part in the koòtiti and accompanying ceremonies of the second funeral, probably because the sacred tudr bark is used. In one rite there is no obvious reason why the wursol should play a part—viz., in that of throwing earth. As this ceremony, however, is of especial importance, it suggests that formerly dairymen may have had more to do with funeral ceremonies than is the case at present.
Among the Teivaliol, the palikartmokh has less important functions. He probably kills the sacred buffaloes, though on this point I am not certain. Only one Teivali clan possesses a mani which is used at a funeral, and it is noteworthy that, though the bell is removed from its hiding place (see p. 354) by the palikartmokh, it is taken to the funeral and hung on the neck of the buffalo by a Tarthar man belonging to the Nòdrs clan.
The facts that the wursol takes part in the funerals of men; that sacred buffaloes are killed; that dairies are used in these funerals, and that the funeral hut of a man is always called pali or dairy, even when built for the occasion, all bring the funeral ceremonies of men into connexion with the religious dairy ceremonial of the Todas. On the other hand, even in those cases in which a dairy is used as a funeral hut, the dairyman of that dairy has nothing to do with the funeral ceremonies; thus, at Nòdrs the dairy in which the body of a dead man is laid is the tarvali, but the tarvalikartmokh has no duties in connexion with the funeral, and does his dairy work as usual, while it is the dairyman of the conical poh, the wursol who takes an active part in the funeral rites.
The earth-throwing ceremony is of especial interest, because it would seem to be a relic of burial. Earth is thrown three times on the corpse before it is burnt. In connexion with the idea that the ceremony is a relic of a previous stage, in which the Todas buried their dead, it may be mentioned that a ceremony with some points of similarity is performed at the funerals of the Hill Arrians of the Western Ghats, [174] who bury their dead. A man of the same clan as the deceased takes a new cloth and tears from it a narrow strip which he fastens upon himself. He then goes backwards to the place fixed for the grave and digs with a hoe, removing three hoes full of earth. In this ceremony he is said to be calling on the earth to give up six feet for the dead. There is a suggestive resemblance between the ceremonies performed by these two hill tribes of South-west India, which lends some support to the view that the earth-throwing ceremony of the Todas is a relic of inhumation.
It perhaps may be regarded as a fact inconsistent with this view that the earth-throwing ceremony is performed at both funerals, and again the throwing of earth into a buffalo pen is so essential a feature that it is possible the whole ceremony may have some other meaning.
It is tempting to extend the conjecture by supposing that the dead were at one time buried in the tu or buffalo pen, but there is, as far as I know, no evidence that this was ever done by the Todas or by any other Indian tribe. Unless, indeed, the azaram is the representative of a tu, in which case the burial of the ashes at the entrance of the azaram may be a survival of a time when the body was buried at the entrance of a pen.
The custom of burning the hut at a woman’s funeral is probably a survival of the common custom of burning the house of a dead person, but it is possible that in the case of the Todas this may have been associated with the belief that the hut would be useful in the next world. The funeral hut of a man is not burnt, and this is almost certainly because it is, or represents, a dairy. The motive for the burning of the house of a dead person is probably to remove a place which the ghost may haunt, and the sanctity of the dairy was probably such as to render this precaution unnecessary after the death of a man.
The Toda custom of cremating their dead is accompanied by a belief that the dead go to a distant spirit-world. It seems quite certain that the Todas believe that the dead do not set out on their journey to the next world till after the second funeral ceremonies, but I am not at all clear what is supposed to become of the spirits of the dead in the interval between the two ceremonies. The spirit of a Melgars man during the interval is said to be a kazun or malignant spirit, but I was unable to obtain a full account of the Toda belief about the kazun, nor was I able to find out whether there is any belief in the malignity of the spirits of the dead of other clans. [175] That such spirits are impure is, I think, shown conclusively by the impurity of the relics of the dead and of all those who have been in contact with them. The intense objection to the sacred ti buffaloes or their guardians coming into relation, however indirectly, with the relics is evidence of the belief in the impurity, if not in the malignity, of the spirits of the dead between the two funeral ceremonies.
There is one rite which seems to point to the influence of the spirits of the dead on the living, and this is the obscure ceremony of tersamptpimi, which is performed on the day after the marvainolkedr of a Tarthar man (see p. 333). The ceremony consists in cutting a lock of hair from a young child. One obvious explanation would be furnished if we supposed that the spirits of the dead are malignant and that the ceremony was postponed till after the spirit had set out on his journey to Amnòdr, but there are two objections to this explanation. If the Todas had had this in their minds, they would have said that the ceremony might not be performed while there was kedr among the Tartharol, i.e., while the funeral ceremonies of a Tarthar man were still incomplete. For the tersamptpimi ceremony, however, it seems that a child has to wait till after a marvainolkedr even if there has been no recent death among the Tartharol. Further, if the proposed explanation had been correct, there is no reason why the karvnol, or day immediately after the funeral, should have been appointed for the ceremony. The fact that this day is prescribed points rather to some beneficial influence which it is hoped may emanate from the dead.
XVII. SACRED DAYS AND NUMBERS
We have seen that nearly every Toda ceremony has its appointed day or days, and that the choice of these is often dependent on another Toda institution, the sacred day, either of the village or of the dairy. Every clan has certain days of the week on which people are restricted from following many of their ordinary occupations, although they are not the occasions of any special ceremonies. These sacred days are the madnol or village day, and the palinol or dairy day. Another occasion to which the same kinds of restriction apply is the arpatznol, the day of the week corresponding to that on which the father of a man has died.
THE MADNOL AND PALINOL
The madnol is literally the village day. Each village has its madnol, and in some cases it would seem that different villages of a clan might have different madnol, but in general the madnol is the same for the whole clan.
Certain things may not be done on the madnol:—
(i) ponkisthògadi, a feast may not be given (lit. feast may not divide, i.e., food must not be shared out).
(ii) kêdrvîtògadi, funeral ceremonies may not be performed.
(iii) kwadrtògadi, nothing may be given (from the village). Since buying implies the departure of money from the village, a secondary consequence is that nothing may be bought on the madnol, but if anything is given to an inhabitant of the village, he may bring it into the village on this day.
(iv) Women may not leave the village, nor may women from other places come to the village.
(v) The people may not bathe nor cut their nails on the madnol, and the men may not shave. Clothes may not be washed, nor may the usual cleansing of the house with buffalo-dung be done. The ordinary meals may be prepared, but the people must not cook rice with milk.
(vi) The stone called tukitthkars may not be touched.
(vii) The dairyman may not leave the village, and the ordination ceremonies of a dairyman may not take place on this day.
(viii) The people may not migrate from one village to another, nor may the buffaloes be taken from one place to another.
Among the Teivaliol the madnol is the only sacred day of the week, but among the Tartharol there is also a dairy day or palinol, and if there is more than one dairy there may be one such holy day for each kind of dairy, each named after the dairy, the wursulinol, the kudrpalinol, or the tarvalinol. Similarly, Taradr has a kugvalinol and Kanòdrs a pohnol.
On these days milk and ghi may not be given out from the dairy, nor may they be sold. Butter and buttermilk may be distributed, but only to the people of the village. Buffaloes may not be driven on these days. Women may not leave the village, though women of other villages are allowed to come. Cleansing with buffalo-dung must not be done. There was some difference of opinion as to whether money might leave the village on these days. Some said not, but it seemed clear that at Kars money might be taken from the village on the palinol. The rules were said to be the same for the holy days of all kinds of dairy.
There are various recognised methods of evading the rules for the holy days, and of avoiding the inconvenience which the regulations might entail on a village.
Money may be taken out of the village on the day before the madnol and buried or left in some spot where it can be found on the following day, so that if there is an urgent reason why a purchase should be completed on the holy day this can be done.
Similarly, women who wish to leave the village on a holy day do so before daybreak. They wait outside the village till the sun is up, then return to the village, have their meals and do any necessary work, and may then leave. Having left the village before daybreak, a woman is apparently regarded as ceremonially absent during her return to the village, and by making this false start she is held to be keeping the law.
If there is an urgent reason why a woman from another village should come on a madnol, she must arrive after sunset.
If any of these rules are broken, the culprit may have to perform the ceremony of irnörtiti or one of the other allied rites. It seemed quite clear, however, that this only happened if some misfortune should befall the offender, his family, or his buffaloes. It would seem that a man might habitually and notoriously desecrate the madnol, but no steps would be taken by himself or the community so long as things went well with the man. If he should become ill or if his buffaloes should suffer in any way, he would consult the diviners and they would then certainly find that his misfortunes were due to his infringement of the laws connected with the sacred days.
As a matter of fact, it does not happen, so far as I could find, that anyone habitually infringes the laws, and breaking the madnol or palinol rarely forms an occasion for the irnörtiti ceremony.
THE ARPATZNOL.
Another sacred day is the arpatznol or arpasnol. This is the day of the week on which the father of a man has died. The father of Kutadri and Kòdrner died on a Friday, and every Friday is the arpatznol of these men. I could not learn definitely what are the restrictions for this day, but they seem to be of the same kind as those for the madnol, though I am doubtful whether they are very strictly kept. Kutadri and Kòdrner once drove their buffaloes from Kars to Isharadr on a Friday; the buffaloes were sick, and they moved them without thinking that it was their arpatznol. Soon after Kòdrner fell ill and one of the buffaloes died, and the teuol found that the desecration of the arpatznol was one of the causes, though they had also bought things on a Monday, the madnol of Kars.
There is much variety in the days appointed as the madnol or palinol of different villages and clans. My records are very incomplete, but they show the most frequent days to be Wednesday and Friday, which are sacred in six clans. Sunday is sacred in five clans, Monday and Tuesday in three, and Thursday in two, while in no clan, so far as my records go, is Saturday a holy day.
It will have been noticed that funeral ceremonies may not be held on a madnol, and it seems to be exceptional that funeral ceremonies should take place on one of the dairy days. There is very little doubt that it is the prohibition of funerals on village and dairy days which chiefly determines the choice of funeral days. Thus, at Nidrsi, Wednesday is the madnol, Monday is the wursulinol, Friday is the tarvalinol, while the funeral of a male is held on Saturday or Sunday and that of a female on Tuesday or Thursday. Similarly, the village and dairy days of Melgars are Monday and Friday, while the funeral days for males are Sunday and Tuesday, for females Thursday and Saturday. At Kwòdrdoni, the village and dairy days are Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, the funeral days Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
In a few cases, it would seem that funerals may be held on dairy days; thus, at Kars Monday is the madnol, Tuesday the wursulinol, and Thursday the kudrpalinol, while the funeral days for males are Sundays and Tuesdays, for females Thursdays and Saturdays. If a mani is used, however, a male funeral must be held on Sunday, and I suspect that the holding of a male funeral on Tuesday is an innovation, and probably the same holds good for the choice of Thursday as a funeral day for females.
The funeral rites are not the only ceremonies which have their appointed days. Nearly every ceremonial occasion among the Todas has its prescribed day, and of these ceremonial days Sunday seems to occupy an especially favoured position. As many ceremonies are appointed for this day as for nearly all the other days of the week put together. It is also the most frequent day for the funerals of males, and it seemed to me that whenever it was possible this day was chosen.
Several clans, however, have Sunday as the madnol, and if the laws of this day are observed ceremonies of which feasts form a part could not be performed on this day in these clans; thus, though I have no definite information on the point, I have no doubt that the irpalvusthi ceremony could not be performed.
It so happens that the clans which have Sunday as their madnol or palinol are Pan, Kanòdrs, Päm, Kwòdrdoni, and Pedrkars, all clans seated in outlying parts of the hills about which my information is less complete than in other cases. None of the larger and more important central clans about whose customs I obtained the fullest information had either madnol or palinol on a Sunday, and I have very little doubt that in those clans which have Sunday as a madnol, ceremonies, at any rate of a festive nature, would not be performed on this day. There is little doubt that the great prominence of Sunday as a feast day would have come out less strongly if my information about the outlying clans had been more complete.
I must leave this point uncertain, but I have little doubt that with fuller information about the customs of different clans we should find that the choice of days for ceremonies is chiefly, if not entirely, determined by the necessity of holding these on some day other than the madnol or palinol.
At the same time, there can be no doubt that Sunday is one of the days appointed for a festival or ceremony very frequently, and this is especially the case at the ti, the procedure of which is to a large extent uninfluenced by considerations concerned with the madnol and palinol. Even here, however, these days are not altogether without influence, for certain ceremonial days at the ti are feast days for the clan to which the ti belongs, and this would make it necessary that the ceremonies should not be held on the madnol of the clan. Certain days were said to be feast-days throughout the whole Toda community, but I have no knowledge as to how these days would be kept by those clans on whose madnol they might fall.
Several previous writers, when recording the choice of certain days for the funeral ceremonies, have ascribed to the Todas a belief in lucky and unlucky days, in days of good or evil omen. One man, when telling me that Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday were days on which the irpalvusthi ceremony might be performed at the tarvali, referred to them as lucky days.
I think it is extremely doubtful whether the Toda in general has any such belief, and if he has, it is probable that the idea is a recent importation borrowed from the Hindus, among whom the belief in lucky or unlucky days is of course very prevalent. The distinction among the Todas is rather into feast and fast days, using the latter term in a wide sense.
It is possible that the institutions of madnol and palinol have grown out of the belief in unlucky days; that certain things were not done on these days because they were unlucky days, and that so there came into existence a code of rules prescribing what might and what might not be done.
The chief difficulty in the way of this view is the fact that the different clans of the Todas have different sacred days. One would expect lucky and unlucky days to be the same for the whole community. The sacred days place very definite restrictions on the intercourse between different clans, and this inconvenience must be increased by the fact that the different clans have different madnol, and there is no obvious reason why this difference in the choice of sacred days should have come about.
The distinction between madnol and palinol is, again, one which can hardly have grown out of the belief in unlucky days, though perhaps, given a village day, it is not an unnatural step for the Todas to have decided that they would have a dairy day also.
Whatever the origin of the laws regulating Toda custom in this respect, I think there is little doubt that when at the present time a given act is done or not done on a given day, the action is not based on a belief in lucky or unlucky days, but, as nearly always among the Todas, on custom prescribing that the act shall or shall not be done on that day.
There are, however, other restrictions or relaxations connected with certain days of the week which have probably arisen out of a belief in lucky and unlucky days.
There is a regulation (now almost a dead letter) that the Todas must not cross the Paikara and Avalanche rivers on Tuesdays, Fridays, or Saturdays. Sundays and Wednesdays, on the other hand, are the days on which the wursol is allowed to sleep in the hut with ordinary people, and Mondays and Thursdays are the days on which the palol is visited by Todas other than the mòrol. Such facts suggest that the three days on which the rivers should not be crossed are unlucky days, but, on the other hand, the days which I was once told were lucky days included Saturday. The evidence at our command is conflicting, and does no more than suggest that the restrictions or relaxations common to the whole community may be connected with the belief in lucky and unlucky days.
Attention may here be called to the fact that the Todas evidently regard the first half of the month as most auspicious for their ceremonies, and it would seem that in most cases the first appropriate day of the week after the new moon is the proper day for nearly every Toda ceremonial. I met with no case in which any ceremony was appointed for the period of the full moon or for the second half of the moon’s period. At the present, it seems that such ceremonies as those connected with the migrations of the buffaloes may take place in the second half of the month, but I have no doubt that this is only a result of modern laxity.
The definite values assigned to different days of the week is a very special feature of Toda custom, and in the madnol we have an institution very closely resembling that of the Sabbath. In a busier community than that of the Todas, the existence of different madnol for different clans of the community would soon become a serious obstacle to carrying on the business of life, and such a community would probably agree that all clans should have the same holy day. At present the madnol is undoubtedly more sacred than the other sacred days, and if the latter were then to be neglected, we should have a community in which various activities were prohibited on one day of the week, and the institution so arising would differ very little from the Hebrew Sabbath. It is possible that the Todas show in an early stage the institution of a Sabbath in which the whole community has not yet settled on a single and joint holy day.
SACRED NUMBERS
Certain numbers recur with great frequency in the dairy ceremonial, and may be regarded as having a special sanctity on this account. There seems to be a general preference for uneven numbers, and this preference comes out very strongly in the tesherst ceremony, in which an uneven number of men must take part on any one occasion. The number of men performing this ceremony together must be three, five, seven, nine, &c.
In the dairy ritual the numbers which occur chiefly are three, seven and nine, but other numbers have also been singled out in other branches of Toda lore. The numbers which occur in ceremonial may now be considered in detail.
Three.—A large proportion of the ritual acts of the dairy are performed three times, usually with the accompaniment of the sacred syllable Oñ uttered thrice, once with each performance of the act. This three-fold performance is especially marked in the ceremony of putting milk or curds on the sacred bells and in the ceremonial drinking of buttermilk. In the ordination ceremonies, the number occurs less frequently. The purificatory drinking is always done seven times or some multiple of seven, but after drinking, the candidate rubs himself three times with the shoots or bark, and, at the ordination of a palol, the candidate drinks three times seven on several occasions. Other acts during the ordination of the palol are also performed thrice, and the same number occurs in the ordination of the kaltmokh.
Acts are performed thrice with special frequency in the ceremonial of the ti, and, at the ordinary dairy, this number is especially connected with the ‘feeding’ of the sacred bell, and there is no doubt that it is a number regarded as especially sacred. Whenever the sacred syllable Oñ is used, it is nearly always uttered thrice, and there seems to be a special association between the number three and this word.
In the erkumptthpimi ceremony three branches of tudr leaves are used, and they and the log with which the calf is killed are passed round the body of the animal thrice. Later in the ceremony three pieces of wood are thrown over the fire.
In the ceremonies connected with childbirth, the woman drinks thrice on various occasions, in the pursütpimi ceremony the name of the bow is asked and the answer given three times, and in the ceremony of name-giving three grains of barley are put into the mouth of the child and three into his hair.
At the funeral ceremonies, earth is thrown three times on the corpse and three times into the pen, the body is swung on the fire three times, and at the final scene of the azaramkedr the man who rings the bell goes round the burial place of the ashes thrice. Three oviônikârs are thrown by the man who crosses the pathway of the dead. The number three is not limited to the dairy ritual, but is of frequent occurrence in the whole of Toda ceremonial.
The number three also appears in connexion with magical or semi-magical practices. The various methods of treatment used by the utkòren are carried out three times and never more frequently than this, and the sufferer who drinks hot water to allay the effects of fright also does this thrice. A remedy is probably held to be more potent if repeated the same number of times as in the case of so many sacred acts.
Five.—This number does not occur in the dairy ceremonial except in certain ceremonies at the Nòdrs ti which are repeated five times because there are five groups of buffaloes belonging to this dairy. The number in this case has, however, no ceremonial significance, and is merely a consequence of the fact that one palol at this ti has three groups and the other two groups of buffaloes. The only other occurrence of the number is at the Kars ti, where the ancient lamp probably had five cavities, but even this is doubtful.
The number five comes in one place into Toda magic. The sorcerer, who wishes to injure one who has not granted his request, hides five stones tied together with hair in the thatch of his enemy’s hut.
Six.—This number does not occur in the dairy ceremonial, but it seems to be regarded as an auspicious number in some ways. In Teitnir’s lament for his wife, reference is made to the hope that they might have had six children and six buffaloes, and in the prayer on the occasion of the ear-piercing ceremony, one clause runs “may he have six sons.”
Six sticks are used to make the artificial dairy of the hand-burning ceremony, but this is an obvious result of the fact that the dairy has to have two rooms.
Seven.—This number is especially prominent in the ordination ceremonies. The purificatory drinking out of leaf-cups is always done seven times or some multiple of seven, the palikartmokh drinking seven times only, the wursol seven times seven, and the palol three times seven, seven times seven and nine times seven at different periods of his prolonged ordination ceremonies. At the dairies of Taradr and Kanòdrs, the number occurs in a different form, seven different kinds of leaf being used in the purificatory ceremonies.
The number occurs again in connexion with the lamp. At the Nòdrs ti and at the Pan ti, and possibly at other dairies, there used to be lamps, each of which had seven cavities and seven wicks. Some of these lamps have been lost, but two remain at the dairies mentioned. I have already referred to the fact that some of the ancient lamps were said to have had five wicks, but it seems clear that in the only two examples which survive there are seven wicks, and it is possible that this was the number in all.
Another occurrence of the number seven is in the old dairies of the Nòdrs clan which had seven rooms. The funeral dairies, which are undoubtedly very ancient institutions, have three rooms, and the Nòdrs dairies, also undoubtedly ancient, had seven, but I heard of no case in which a dairy had four, five, or six rooms.
Outside the dairy ceremonial, the only occurrence of this number is in the lament of Teitnir for his wife, in which he speaks of their visiting seven courts and seven ships.
It is perhaps significant that the number seven should be a sacred number to a people who have so highly developed the cult of different days of the week. It is possible that the purificatory drinkings of the ordination ceremonies were at one time performed seven times with the idea that the candidate was sanctifying himself for each day of the week, but at the present time it is clear that the act is performed seven times because this number is prescribed by custom. It would be interesting to ascertain whether the sanctity of the number seven occurs predominantly in the religious cults of peoples who have a seven-day week.
Nine.—This number only occurs in the dairy ceremonial during the ordination of the palol when the seven-fold purification with tudr is performed nine times.
Twelve.—I only met with this number once, in the prayer at the pilinörtiti ceremony, when the expression “12 years” is used as if it were equivalent to “for ever.”
Sixteen and Eighteen.—The chief interest of these numbers is that they are used in connexion with the gods. There are said to be 1600, 1800 gods, and these numbers are mentioned in the prayer of the Kanòdrs dairy and in the legends. The numbers are probably used in the way in which we should use the word ‘infinite,’ but there must be some reason why they should have been chosen.
The number 18 occurs in another connexion in the rule that the palol should perform a certain ceremony after eighteen years of continuous office.
I have one possible clue to the choice of the number eighteen. The Todas say that a species of Strobilanth growing on the Nilgiris as a shrub only flowers once in eighteen years. They call this shrub püvkat, and it was in flower during the year of my visit. Albert, my interpreter, had only seen it in flower once or twice, but had not paid special attention to the duration of the flowering period. The number of times that several Todas had seen the flowers agreed approximately with their probable ages. Thus, Kutadri saw the flowers in 1902 for the third time, having seen them for the first time when he was twelve years old. This would make his age forty-eight, which seemed from other sources of information to be approximately correct. The Todas use the flower as a record of age, and some Todas are reputed to have seen the flowers seven times, which, taking five years as the age when they were first seen, would make them over 110 years.
There is another Strobilanth called tirparikat which is said to flower every twelve years, and another every six. I do not know of any confirmation of the flowering periods of these plants except the last, which probably refers to Strobilanthes sexennis.
Whether the Toda belief in the eighteen-year period of the plant they call püvkat is correct or not, it seems probable that it may have furnished the suggestion for the special position taken by the number eighteen in Toda lore.
XVIII. SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS
The Todas show undoubted signs of reverence to various material objects. Many of the objects so reverenced have been mentioned incidentally in the account of the dairy ritual and in other places, and in this chapter I propose to consider how far these objects are regarded as sacred, and to give an account of some sacred objects not hitherto noticed.
Of the various objects of reverence the following are the most important: hills and rivers; villages, dairies, their thresholds and contents; bells; the buffalo and its milk; trees and plants; the sun, fire and light; and stones.
HILLS AND OTHER PLACES.
Any place connected with the gods is reverenced by the Todas, and this is especially the case with the hills where they dwell. Only some hills, however, are shown reverence by means of the kaimukhti salutation. One of these is the hill of Nòtirzi (Snowdon), and every Toda visiting this hill salutes with hand to forehead in all directions. Another place where a similar salutation is performed is a spot at Avalanche Top. When I visited this place with Kutadri he saluted in all directions with both hands to his face, and told me that a man who once omitted to do this was killed soon after by a tiger. In this case I could not learn that Kutadri was saluting any particular hill or other spot. He seemed to be saluting the region of the Kundahs on which he was about to enter.
There are doubtlessly other places where the same sign of reverence is used.
The sanctity of the hills will be further considered in the next chapter, when discussing in what sense at the present time the gods are believed to dwell on their summits.
RIVERS
There are two sacred rivers, the Teipakh (Paikara) and the Pakhwar (Avalanche), both identified with or inhabited by gods. They are the two largest streams on the Nilgiris, and there are numerous indications of their sanctity. Every Toda crossing either of these streams must put his right arm outside his cloak (kevenarut) while he is doing so. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a widower who is wearing his cloak over his head, and he shows his respect by putting out his right hand below the cloak. On cold days the Todas wrap their cloaks closely around them, and I have often seen them put out their right arms just before they stepped on the bridge near the Paikara bungalow, and put them in again with obvious relief the moment they had reached the other side.
At one time these rivers might only be crossed on certain days of the week. The Toda believed that if they crossed on a Tuesday, Friday, or Saturday, consequences might ensue which could only be set right by the irnörtiti ceremony. This prohibition is no longer in force, but its influence is still shown in another way.
When two matchuni cross either of these rivers in company they usually perform a ceremony to be described on p. 501, but this ceremony is omitted on the three days above mentioned, probably because the people should not properly be there at all.
The palol may not cross either of the rivers except at certain spots which are not the places used by ordinary people. In the old days there were certain fords, and the palol had his own ford. At the present time, when the Todas habitually cross the Paikara by means of a bridge, the restriction is put in the form that “the palol may not cross the river by the bridge.” The kaltmokh also may not cross the river by the bridge except when he is degraded to the rank of perkursol.
There is a small stream near Nòdrs which may not be crossed at a given spot, this being the place where Teikirzi is reputed to have shared out the buffaloes among the Todas.
The only other restriction on crossing water was of a different kind. One who had been bitten by a snake might not cross a stream, and this applied to any stream and not only to the two sacred rivers of Teipakh and Pakhwar.
VILLAGES
It is difficult to distinguish how far the sanctity of a village is due to its dairy. No village without a dairy is regarded as sacred, but there is no doubt that the village itself may have some sanctity, and it is probable that the chief village of a clan which no longer had a dairy might nevertheless continue to be treated with some degree of reverence.
Reverence is shown to every village which is called an etudmad, but this word is used in two senses. The chief village of the clan from which the people of the clan take their name is the etudmad of the clan or madol, but the same name is also given to any village to which any special idea of sanctity attaches, and this is especially marked if its dairy should possess a mani. The sign of reverence paid to an etudmad is the salutation called kaimukhti or kaburlti. Whenever a man comes within sight of one of these villages he purifies his mouth by chewing some grass, and then salutes the village by placing his hand in front of his face in the way shown in Fig. 10. The salutation is performed with the right hand outside the cloak (kevenarut), and if a man is wearing a turban he will take it off, as is shown in the figure.
When a man salutes in this way he may be two or three miles from the village, the salutation being made, according to some accounts, directly the man sees the village, and according to others, not until he sees the dairy. When my guide Kòdrner was saluting the sacred village of Kiudr, I could see neither the hut nor the dairy of this village, though I could see the grove in which I knew them to be. When going from Ootacamund to Paikara by the bridle path the village of Taradr is saluted at a spot about two miles from the village in a straight line.
When a man leaves an etudmad he turns towards the village when it is about to pass out of view, chews some grass, and salutes in the same way as on first viewing it. On all the chief routes over the hills the Todas know the exact spots at which different villages become visible, and I have noticed that the salutation to a given village has been made by different Todas and on different occasions from exactly the same spot.
In a few cases there was some doubt as to whether a given village should receive the kaimukhti salutation or not. It seemed that there were certain etudmad more sacred than the rest, and they would be saluted by every Toda, irrespective of the division or clan to which he belonged, while in other cases the salutation was only obligatory on the members of the clan to which the village belonged, though these villages were often saluted by others who were scrupulous in following the observances of their people. The villages which must be saluted by every one are the seventeen chief villages of the clans (excluding Kidmad and Karsh), and two others, Kiudr and Miuni, the former because it is a satimad (see p. 421) and the latter because formerly the Toda gods used to hold their naim or council there. I made a list of the villages of each clan to which the salutation is paid by the members of the clan, and found that they were villages with dairies of sanctity, and in every case, so far as I could tell, villages of great antiquity. Many of the villages so honoured are mentioned in legend, and I believe this salutation to be a useful indication that a village is ancient. I shall have to discuss later whether Kavidi, near Gudalur, in the Wainad, is an ancient village or one of modern growth, and I attach importance to the fact that it does not receive the kaimukhti salutation even from the members of the clan to which it belongs.
Certain villages are called kalolmad, or “old man villages,” where only buffaloes and men may live. They are usually villages where there is plenty of grass for the buffaloes, and are in general visited for short periods. The only explanation which could be given was that owing to the short time they are occupied it is not worth while to transfer the whole family to the place. It seemed, however, certain that women were definitely forbidden to live at these villages—a village where a woman may live being distinguished as ishnidvaimad—and this suggests that the institution is based on something more than mere convenience, and that the villages have some kind of sanctity which makes it undesirable that women should live in them.
The following are the only existing villages of this kind:—Taradrkirsi, the male funeral village of Kars; Kudrmas and Telgudr, belonging to Taradr; Perg, belonging to the Panol; and Pirsush, belonging to Kuudr.
Three of these, Taradrkirsi, Kudrmas, and Pirsush, receive the kaimukhti salutation, and are certainly ancient and sacred villages, while there was some doubt as to whether Telgudr should not also be saluted. The only kalolmad I visited was Taradrkirsi, where there is now only a dairy, so that there is a clear reason why women cannot live there, but this did not appear to be the reason at other places.
Again, I could not ascertain why they should be called “old man villages,” and their existence must, I am afraid, remain a mystery, though I think we may be confident that there is, or has been in the past, some ceremonial reason to explain their existence.
Two Todas villages are known as satimad. If a dispute arises between two men they are taken to the front of the dairy of the satimad, and are made to state what has happened, and anything a man says under these conditions will be believed. It is thought that if a man does not speak the truth, he will fall sick and his buffaloes will die.
According to some accounts there is only one true satimad, the village of Kiudr, which we have already seen has several signs of especial sanctity, such as the mention of its house in the prayer, the severe restrictions on its women during pregnancy, and the homage rendered to it by Todas of every clan.
According to other accounts the village of Kanòdrs [176] is also a satimad, and Todas of all clans may be brought there to make statements. It seems most probable that both places are satimad, but that the custom of using Kanòdrs as a touchstone of truth is now no longer followed, Kiudr only being used for this purpose. It will be remembered that both Kiudr and Kanòdrs have features of dairy ritual peculiar to themselves, and that in some respects there is a close resemblance between the ritual of the two places.
In his book written in 1832, [177] Captain Harkness says that the Todas have a temple dedicated to Truth, but identifies this with a ti dairy (teriri). It is probable, however, that his statement was based on what he was told of the satimad, either of Kiudr or Kanòdrs.
THE DAIRY
As we have already seen, there is some doubt whether the reverence paid to a village is paid to the village as a whole or to the dairy. There is no doubt, however, that the dairy draws to itself most of the veneration which a village excites.
Whenever a devout Toda visits a strange village, he goes to the dairy, and prostrating himself at its threshold, utters a prayer. My ordinary guide, Kòdrner, was not devout and did not pay this reverence, but his brother, Kutadri, was very scrupulous in performing these duties, especially when he went with me to the Kundahs. I could not obtain from him the prayer that he employed on these occasions.
The contents of the dairy are regarded as sacred, and, as we have seen, definite means are taken to prevent these objects from contamination by the gaze or touch of ordinary mortals. Of the objects kept in the dairy the bells are undoubtedly the most sacred. The most sacred of the vessels is the mu, which is not kept in the dairy but is buried in the buffalo-pen, and is only used on certain ceremonial occasions.
This mu is closely associated with the general sanctity of the dairy. The prosperity of the dairy is dependent on its condition, and it would seem to have very much the same ideas attached to it as we meet in the life-token. It may also be regarded as the emblem of a dairy, and in the case of the funeral hut of Taradr, we have seen that a building becomes a dairy when a mu is placed in its inner room.
In his account of the Todas, Breeks identifies the special name of the dairy with that of the presiding god of the dairy or village. If he is right, it would seem to follow that the Todas personify the dairy in some degree. The use of the name of dairies in such a formula as that used at the end of the irnörtiti ceremony (see p. 303) might be regarded as evidence of this personification of the dairy. I do not believe, however, in this personification, and if the dairy has attained in some measure to the dignity of a god, there is no doubt that this god belongs to a category very different from that of the true Toda gods of the hill-tops.
THE THRESHOLD
As we have just seen, a man in paying reverence to the dairy bows down and touches the threshold with his forehead, and the threshold also frequently plays a part in the dairy ceremonial. The dairyman bows down and touches the threshold of his dairy before entering upon his work, and this is also one of the acts performed on his entrance into office on ordination.
The Teivaliol at an ordination also sweep the threshold with the grass called kakar, and the same grass is used to sweep the threshold of the dairy by the young girl who performs this office on reaching the new village during the migration ceremony (see p. 128). In the tuninörtiti and pilinörtiti ceremonies the offering is laid on the threshold of the dairy, and in the ceremony of uncovering for the first time the face of a boy, the child is put down by his father so that his forehead touches the threshold.
BELLS
These are the most sacred of the sacred objects of the Todas. It is necessary, however, to distinguish three kinds of bells, the mani, the tukulir mani, and the kwungg, and it is only the first of these which has any great sanctity.
The tukulir mani is only used in the koòtiti ceremony of the second funeral (p. 376), and between these occasions is kept by the Badagas or Kotas. I am doubtful whether it is a true Toda object, and suspect that it is a Badaga or Kota bell which is used in a ceremony borrowed by the Todas from one or other of these peoples.
The kwungg is the household bell and is kept in the hut. It is used in the funeral ceremonies on two occasions, being hung on the neck of one of the ordinary buffaloes before the animal is killed, and it is also the bell which is rung in the final scene of the azaramkedr. The bell may be touched or carried by women, and I have seen a kwungg removed from the neck of a slaughtered buffalo by a Kota who handed it to a woman. Though the bell is used in ceremonial, the fact that it may be touched by both Kotas and women shows clearly that it is not regarded as possessing any sanctity whatever. In general appearance, however, the kwungg probably differs little from the mani, being a large bell of the same oblong shape which is characteristic of cattle-bells.
The mani is a bell which, so far as I could ascertain, never has a tongue, though this loss may be nothing more than a sign of its antiquity.
There are several kinds of mani. At the ti dairy there are two distinct varieties: the mani proper which is kept in the inner room and is hung on the neck of a chosen calf of the persinir on the occasion of the migration ceremonies, and the kudrsmani which is kept outside the door of the dairy. The latter appear to have little sanctity, but the former are probably the most sacred of Toda objects of veneration. They are said to be extremely ancient; some are reputed to have come from Amnòdr, and others are believed to have had miraculous origins, one having been born in a vessel of milk while the buffaloes were on their way from Amnòdr, while another came from the sea. The Todas believe that some of these bells are of gold, and one was reputed to be made of three metals—gold, silver, and iron. The bell born in milk is said to be of iron.
It seems probable that each of the more sacred herds at the village had at one time its own mani, and that a clan which possessed both wursuli and kudrpali would have had two bells of this kind or two sets of such bells.
At the present time, many of the clans have lost their sacred bells, and those which possess mani have only one or two of them. My most definite account for the Tartharol comes from Kars, where it is clear that the wursuli has two bells, the same as those reputed to have been hung on the neck of Enmon in the legend of Kwoto. [178] The kudrpali also had two bells which have now been lost, but the place where they used to hang still shares in the dairy ritual and is fed with milk just as the bells would have been if they had been there.
Since it is the wursol who takes the prominent part in the funeral ceremonies of a male, it seems also clear that the bells which are hung on the necks of the slaughtered buffaloes are those of the wursuli, but I did not definitely ascertain whether the bells of a kudrpali might not be used for this purpose, and indeed I am not altogether certain that any rigorous distinction is made between wursuli mani and kudrpali mani.
One striking distinction between the dairies of the Teivaliol and Tartharol was said to be the absence of mani among the former, except in the Piedr clan, and here there was something exceptional, for when this bell is used at a funeral it is hung on the neck of the buffalo by a Tarthar man belonging to Nòdrs. I was often told that, with this exception, the Teivaliol had no mani, and it was only towards the end of my visit that I became aware of the existence in the dairy of Kiudr of six bells called mani, two distinguished as patatmani and four as ertatmani.
Among the Tartharol there was no distinction of this kind, and it seemed that these bells were looked on by the Todas in a different light to other bells, and were not thought of when they told me that the Teivaliol had no mani. It was quite clear that they were not used at funerals. The suggestion which I have made in the chapter on the dairy ritual would provide an explanation of this apparently exceptional position of the Kiudr mani. If Kiudr is the relic of an old ti dairy and the bells are the old mani of the ti, it becomes clear why the bells have their exceptional character, and why they are not used at a funeral, for the bells of a ti would never be allowed to suffer the defilement to which this ceremonial use subjects them.
Most of the mani have milk, curds, or buttermilk offered to them during the dairy ceremonial. The only exceptions of which I heard were some of the bells of the ti dairy, the bell called Keu at the Nòdrs ti, and that called Pongg at the Pan ti, which are not ‘fed,’ to use the common Toda expression.
At the village dairy the ‘feeding’ is a regular part of the dairy ritual, curds being put on the bells in the earlier, and some of the milk from that first brought into the dairy, in the later part of the proceedings. I only heard of one instance in which bells were given buttermilk. This was done with the ertatmani of the Kiudr dairy, and if the supposition given above is correct, this should, therefore, also be the procedure with the kudrs mani of the ti dairy. It is quite possible that this is one of the details of the dairy ritual which escaped me, or it may be that it was a special custom of the ti dairy from which I suppose the Kiudr dairy to have been derived.
Some writers on the Todas have regarded the bells as the Toda gods, and there certainly is some evidence which would justify one in regarding them as idols. The ‘feeding’ is a definite indication that the bells are, to a certain extent, regarded by the Todas as living beings, and in the legendary accounts of the origin of certain bells, belief in their activity is obvious. One bell is born and another comes from the sea and sits on the side of a milking vessel. It is quite clear, however, that the bell belongs to a different category in the religion of the Todas from that occupied by the gods. Possibly the Todas may have some clear ideas about the connexion between their bells, gods, and dairies, but I could not discover them, and am inclined to believe that the people are now very hazy about the exact place of the bell and the god in their theology.
It was quite clear that they believed an offence against the dairy was punished by the gods, and I cannot say definitely that in this case the bell may not have been personified as a god, but I do not think that this was so.
It seems to me probable that the present sanctity of the bell has come about by a process of transference [179] from the buffalo to the object worn by it. Probably at one time the buffaloes were more directly venerated than they appear to be at present. There is evidence that even in recent times the bell-cow or buffalo which carried the bell was an object of especial veneration. In such books as those of Harkness and Marshall, the bell-cow seems to occupy a more prominent position than, so far as I could tell, it occupies at present.
In the present day the mani of the ti is only hung on the neck of a buffalo at the migration from one ti mad to another and at the Nòdrs ti, only for a few minutes even then. At the village dairy, the mani is never, so far as I could tell, put on the neck of a buffalo except at the funeral ceremonies. The idea in the latter case seems to be that a sacred buffalo should wear its bell, and in order that the buffalo slaughtered at a funeral should go to Amnòdr with its bell, the mani is hung on its neck while it is being killed. The legend of Kwoto and Punatvan shows that the bells are believed to travel to Amnòdr with the buffaloes.
The following may be suggested as a sketch of the probable evolution of the sanctity of the bell. At one time the buffaloes were the chief sacred objects of the Todas. Then this sanctity was concentrated in the persons of the bell-buffaloes, and later became partially attached to the bells, and the Todas then probably reached a stage in which it was doubtful how far the sanctity of the bell-buffalo was due to its position as chief of the herd, and how far to the bell it carried. It is possible that this was the stage of evolution of the idea in which the earliest visitors to the Nilgiris found the Todas. We may suppose that gradually the sanctity became more and more attached to the bell, less and less to its possessor, until now the Todas seem to have reached a position in which the bell-buffalo has little or no sanctity above its fellows, and the sanctity resides almost wholly in the bell. The original use of the bell now only survives in the ritual accompanying the migration of the ti buffaloes and in the funeral ceremonies.
There is one small fact which may perhaps be taken to indicate that the word mani is now applied to any object of a sacred or magical nature. The armlet put on the wrist of a child at the naming ceremony is called kansutimani. If the last part of this word is the same as the name of the bell, it would seem to indicate that the word may be used for an object the significance of which is magical rather than religious, and in connexion with a practice which has probably been borrowed.
RELICS
The Todas have a few relics of heroes which are regarded as objects of veneration, and are kept in the dairies. One of these, which is believed to be the armlet of the Kars man who went with the ti buffaloes in the story of Kwoto, is kept at Kuzhu, and has milk put on it during the dairy ritual in the same way as if it were a bell.
Another object is the ring of Kwoten which was found on the sambhar skin after the disappearance of this god. I saw this ring, which is of silver and far more massive than the rings worn by the Todas at the present time. Breeks states that in his time the Todas also claimed to have had in their possession the spear of Kwoten.
THE BUFFALO AND ITS MILK
In discussing the sanctity of the bells of the Toda dairies we have seen that there is some reason to think that these objects have attained their sacred character, at any rate in part, by a process of transference of sanctity from the buffaloes by which they were borne.
It is in favour of this view that the buffaloes seem at one time to have been more sacred, or to have received more definite signs of reverence than at the present time. The evidence of the legends points to a time when buffaloes were regarded as having anthropomorphic characters, and they probably indicate a belief in the sacred nature of these animals. When the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti first came from Amnòdr, they talked like men, and the buffalo who founded the ti mad at Makars was a very human animal.
In his book, Captain Harkness (p. 16) states that as the buffaloes of the village are about to be penned for the night, the whole family, male and female, salute them by bringing the hand to the face. So far as I could ascertain, this is no longer done, and the only definite sign of reverence paid to the buffaloes, so far as I could learn, is the salutation made, partly to them and partly to the sun, by the palol when he leaves his dairy. Whenever in my journeys about the hills we came across herds of sacred buffaloes, even those of the ti, no salutation or sign of respect was made by the Todas who were with me, though a dairy, especially if it contained a mani, would receive obvious signs of veneration. Except in connexion with ceremonial there was nothing in the behaviour of the Todas towards their buffaloes to indicate that they were sacred animals, and it seems probable that the sanctity of the buffaloes has been to a great extent transferred, partly to the mani and partly to the milk given by the animals.
The milk is undoubtedly regarded as a sacred substance. There are distinct restrictions on its use which become more onerous as one ascends in the scale of dairies, and we have seen that there is reason to believe that the whole complicated daily ritual of the dairy may be designed to neutralise the dangers attendant on the conversion of the milk into substances which may be used by the outside world.
Throughout this book I have spoken of sacred buffaloes to distinguish them from those which take no part in the dairy ritual, but it is a question whether the sanctity does not attach much more closely to the objects connected with the buffaloes than to the buffaloes themselves.
I think it is clear that at the present time none of the Toda buffaloes are so sacred that their milk in the form of ghi may not be used. Some writers have supposed that no profit is made from the sacred buffaloes of the ti, but at present this is certainly not so, and the ghi made from the milk of the sacred buffaloes is sold with the rest and may be used by all.
In earlier days, when the Todas led simpler lives than at present, when the bazaars of Ootacamund and Coonoor were not in existence to act as incentives to the acquirement of gain, it is possible that the Todas did not sell the ghi made from the milk of their more sacred buffaloes, and, as I have already suggested, it is even possible that at one time they were content to allow these animals to suckle their calves and made no use of their milk. Even at the present time a sacred buffalo will not be milked unless it is provided with the appropriate dairy and dairyman. The buffaloes of a ti which has no palol, or of a wursuli which has no wursol, are not allowed to be milked though they may be looked after by other men. With this exception, however, I believe that, at the present time, every buffalo, even of the most sacred herds, is a source of profit by the sale of the ghi which is made from its milk.
The various offerings of buffaloes made in connexion with ceremonial are also not allowed to interfere with the economic value of the animals. In the irnörtiti ceremony of the village, the offered buffalo simply passes from one division of a clan to another, and when a buffalo is said to be devoted to the gods, it does not mean that the owner profits a whit the less on account of the oblation, but only that he may not kill it at a funeral, and must allow it to die a natural death.
Even the slaughter of animals at the funeral ceremonies appears to be managed so as to interfere as little as possible with the profits obtained from the sale of the milk. I think there is little doubt that it is an established custom to kill old and barren buffaloes on these occasions. An animal is not sent to the next world till its owner has got the utmost out of it in this.
Only on one point is it clear that the Todas make no direct gain from their buffaloes. When once a buffalo is dead, the Todas seek no further profit, and the carcases become the property of the Kotas. But even here there is an indirect gain, for the bodies of the buffaloes form a large part of the equivalent received by the Kotas for the many services they render to the Todas.
OTHER ANIMALS
The Todas have so highly developed the cult of one animal that they show few traces of belief in the sanctity of others. I will put together here the whole of the scanty evidence which I possess concerning their relations with animals in general.
The Tiger.—The Todas have a legend that at one time the tiger used to watch over the buffaloes for them during the day and hand over his charge in the evening. One day the tiger was very hungry and its hunger made it angry. When it brought the buffaloes back to the village it saw a cat catching a rat. Then the tiger asked the cat for some of the flesh, but the cat said, “There is no fool like you; why don’t you eat some of the buffaloes you look after?” At that time the tiger usually slept at the village, but on this evening it went into the wood and at midnight came slowly back and took one of the buffaloes out of the pen, and since then it has always done this.
According to another legend (see p. 185), buffaloes have been killed by tigers ever since the arsaiir of the Kwòdrdoni ti failed to come to the general gathering which assembled to bid farewell to Ön when he went to rule over Amnòdr.
Jervis [180] states that the natives of the hills salaam to the tiger. He does not say definitely that it is the Todas who do this, but it is probable that he is referring to them. He also states that the women of the village throw themselves on their knees before a tiger which has been killed, and touch his bristles with their foreheads. I do not know whether these practices are still followed.
As we have seen (p. 417), there is a belief that a man who fails in the performance of certain sacred duties may be killed by a tiger, but the Todas do not appear to fear this animal except on behalf of their buffaloes, and I could only learn of one case in which a Toda had been killed, and as his name was not known it must have occurred very long ago, or may have been altogether mythical.
The Jackal.—I was told by my interpreter that he had seen the Todas saluting a jackal, but I did not hear of any beliefs associated with the practice.
The Sambhar.—The most interesting point in connexion with this animal is the fact that the Todas are undoubtedly permitted to eat its flesh. Kutadri, who was most scrupulous in his obedience to the customs of his people, had no reluctance in eating sambhar flesh, and when he had fallen ill soon after, he never thought of ascribing his illness to what was probably its real cause, which shows clearly that there could have been no idea that he had done anything forbidden or unorthodox.
The fact that the Todas may eat the flesh of the sambhar while taking that of no other animal, except ceremonially, might well be looked upon as an indication that there may at one time have been totemic restrictions on food. In their earlier homes, before they reached the Nilgiri Hills, it is probable that the sambhar was an unknown animal, and could not therefore have been a totem. Consequently, when they came to the Nilgiris, they would have found there an animal on the eating of the flesh of which there were no restrictions, and the absence of restriction would, on this hypothesis, have continued to the present day. The eating of sambhar flesh would be the proverbial exception that proves the rule.
It seems to me possible, however, that there is a different reason for the absence of any prohibition. The Todas have no weapons with which they could kill a sambhar, and if this animal is ever killed by Kotas or Kurumbas, the mere fact that it had been killed by these people would probably be a sufficient reason why the Todas should not eat its flesh.
It is possible that it is only since the advent of Europeans to the Nilgiris, and the extensive slaughter of sambhar which followed it, that the Todas have thought of eating the flesh of this animal, and as no prohibition against the eating of its flesh has been handed down to them, they have no reluctance in satisfying in this way the liking for animal food which the erkumptthpimi ceremony keeps in existence, if it does not actually stimulate it.
The Cat.—This animal, which is called koti or kwoti, is domesticated by the Todas. The cat is mentioned in the legend of the tiger recorded in this section, and the earliest writers on the Todas speak of them as keeping these animals. I have seen them on the walls of the dairies, and believe that they are allowed to go wherever they please. The only occasion on which they come into ceremonial is at the erkumptthpimi sacrifice, where the spleen is specially put aside to be given to the cat, and is on this account called kwotinerûf.
The dog occurs in the story of Kwoten and several other animals are mentioned in the prayers and incantations, chiefly as sources of danger to the buffaloes. In the incantation for the relief of headache given on p. 265, the names of many animals are uttered, probably with the intention that their heads may acquire the pain which is being charmed away from the head of the sufferer.
TREES AND PLANTS
The most sacred tree of the Todas is undoubtedly the tudr (Fig. 58). This name is given by the Todas to two species, Meliosma pungens and M. wightii, the two trees resembling one another closely.
The bark is largely used in the dairy ceremonial, and especially in the ordination ceremonies of the palol and other dairymen drawn from the Teivaliol and Melgarsol. Its use is especially connected with the people of these sections of the Toda community, but the rest of the Tartharol undergo a ceremony at the second funeral in which tudr is used, and this was said to have the purpose that every Toda should be purified with tudr before he enters on the future life.
A log and leaves of tudr are also used in the ceremony of erkumptthpimi, and here it is used by both Teivaliol and Tartharol alike.
The leaves of tudr used in any of these ceremonies must be perfect, and the bark must be knocked off the tree by means of a stone, this being one of the Toda practices which show the persistence of stone implements in ceremonial. The identity of this sacred tree is important, for it may furnish a clue to the home of the Todas. So sacred a tree would almost certainly have been already known to the Todas when they reached the Nilgiris, though it is, of course, possible that it might have been chosen on account of its resemblance to some tree sacred in their past history. The tree has, however, a wide distribution in India.
Pope has suggested that tudr is connected with tulasi, Ocymum sanctum or holy basil. This is a small flowering plant, and it is improbable that there is any connexion between the two plants except a resemblance in name.
Another tree which appears to be especially sacred is the kiaz tree (Litsœa Wightiana). Whenever a tree is used to mark the spot where the mani is laid during purificatory and other ceremonies, the tree must be of this kind. The wood of this tree is used when making fire for most sacred purposes.
The leaves of trees and shrubs are used in various branches of the dairy ritual. Those in most frequent use are various kinds called generically by the Todas muli, three of which belong to the genus Rubus. The young shoots of the same plants are used in the ordination ceremonies.
Grasses are also used in Toda ceremonial, and one of these, a slender grass called kakar (Eragrostica nigra) is used on several occasions, those of especial importance being the ordination of the Teivali palikartmokh and the sweeping of the threshold of the dairy by a girl at the migration ceremony. The same grass is also used in one of the methods adopted to promote speedy delivery in childbirth.
Of the various kinds of grain used by the Todas, that called patm or samai (Panicum miliare) seems to be in most frequent use in connexion with ceremonial, but it cannot be said to be sacred in any way. Barley (kodj) seems to have a peculiar place in Toda belief. The tòratthadi or cooking-vessel of the dairy may not be used for this grain, although any other kind may be boiled in it. On the other hand, three grains of barley are put into the mouth and three into the hair of a boy at the naming ceremony. In explanation I can only offer the surmise that barley is not cooked in the dairy vessel because its use by the Todas is an innovation, and that similarly the use of barley in the naming ceremony is also an innovation borrowed from the Badagas or some other tribe.
THE SUN, LIGHT, AND FIRE
There is no doubt that the sun is an object of reverence to the Todas. It is the duty of every man when first he leaves his hut in the morning to salute the sun by raising his hand to his face in the kaimukhti salutation. The sun is also saluted by the palol as he comes out of his dairy to milk the buffaloes. All my informants were unanimous in saying that the salutation of the palol was both to the buffaloes and to the sun. The doors of the great majority of the dairies faced more or less in an easterly direction, so that the dairyman, on coming out of his dairy in the morning, would see the sun, and when the dairy had a different orientation, as at Mòdr, the palol had to turn so that he would perform the salutation looking eastward. At the afternoon ceremonial the salutation was performed in the same direction as in the morning, so that, so far as the salutation is performed to the sun, it would appear that it is to the place of the sun-rise rather than to the sun itself.
The sun plays a part in the ceremony which takes place when a woman goes to the seclusion-hut after childbirth, but there was some reason to think that this was due to the belief in the noxious influence of the mysterious body, Keirt, which is near the sun, and not to the influence of the sun itself. When performing the ceremony on leaving the seclusion-hut the woman faces the sun, and this may be an act of reverence, since now Keirt is no longer feared. It seemed quite clear that the moon is not saluted in the same way as the sun with the kaimukhti salutation. No salutation is paid at all to the new moon when it is first seen, but after a day or two, usually on the third day, it is the custom to bow down the head, so that the forehead rests on the corner of the putkuli lying on the ground. The salutation is that called nersatiti shown in Fig. 44. I only heard of one custom indicating reverence to the full moon. When the Todas throw away water on the day of the full moon, they do not throw it towards the moon, but away from it. Thus, if the moon is opposite the door of the hut, the people will go round to the back in order to throw the water there. Light is undoubtedly an object of reverence to the Todas. Captain Harkness states that when the household lamp is lighted in the evening, obeisance is paid to it by bringing the right hand to the face, and this sign of reverence is still shown. In the dairy ceremonial the lamp and the light it gives are also undoubtedly reverenced, and lighting the lamp is, as we have seen, an act of a ceremonial character.
In some cases the lamps used in the dairies are certainly very ancient and are believed to have come from Amnòdr, but it is clear that they are not reverenced merely on this account, for a lamp of modern origin would, when once consecrated, be treated with as much reverence as those which had come down from antiquity.
I did not learn that any sign of reverence is paid to fire, but the fire of the dairy may undoubtedly be said to have a sacred character. Whenever a new dairy is visited or an old dairy is reconsecrated in connexion with the pepkaricha ceremony, fire is made afresh by friction. Once made, it was, so far as I could learn, kept continuously alight; if on any occasion the fire should go out, it would have to be made again by friction. In the ti dairy there are two fireplaces, one in which fire burns continuously, while the other is lighted by brands transferred to it from the other, and the lamp is lighted by a brand taken from this sacred fire. Here it would almost appear as if the former fire had a profane character, so that it would be regarded as desecration to light the sacred lamp directly from it.
The fire of the tòratthwaskal is used to cook food which has come from outside, and the use of an intermediate fire to light the lamp is in keeping with the general law of the procedure of the ti dairy, according to which the sacred objects are prevented from all possible contamination from the outer world by employing vessels or other objects as intermediaries.
Fire has also to be made by friction in other ceremonies, and especially at those called teutütusthchi and erkumptthpimi and at the funerals of males. At the first ceremony the fire is made by the palol, and at the second by the dairyman conducting the ceremony. At the azaramkedr of a man the fire is made by a man of the same clan as the deceased, and this is probably also the case at the first funeral ceremony. I did not definitely ask whether fire by friction is ever made by a woman, but I am fairly confident that this would never happen.
I only heard of one case in which men were prohibited from making fire. The Kidmadol and Karshol, who suffer under several disabilities, are not allowed to make fire by friction, and this is due to a quarrel with their parent-clan many years ago.
Whenever fire is made for a sacred purpose [181] the fire-sticks must be of the wood which the Todas call kiaz or keadj, except in the tesherst ceremony, in which the wood of muli is used.
There are also definite regulations as to the kind of wood which is to be burnt in the fires of all ceremonial occasions. In various ceremonies I have recorded the Toda names of the woods prescribed, and if more were known about their identity, it is possible that some light might be thrown on the original home of the Todas, in the same way as has been suggested in the case of the sacred tudr tree.
STONES
The Todas have many stones which may be held to have some degree of sanctity; certainly many have their place in the religious ceremonial. All these stones have names, either general or individual, but two stones with the same name need not necessarily have the same function.
At the ti there are stones marking the spots where the dairy vessels are taken up and put down during the migration ceremonies, but the most interesting stones at these dairies are those called neurzülnkars. At several dairies these stones are anointed, and their appearance indicates that they have undergone the process for very long periods of time; at other places they are so weathered and worn away that they must obviously be of great antiquity. At some dairies of the Nòdrs ti these stones take the place of the head of the kaltmokh in the ceremonies accompanying migration, but at other places they are said to have different uses.
At an ordinary village the stones usually belong to one of the following classes:—
(a) Stones to mark off boundaries or places, such as the majvatvaikars, marking the path or spot used by the women in fetching buttermilk from the dairy.
(b) Stones used in the ceremonies in which offerings are made, the irnörtkars and the pilinörtkars.
(c) Funeral stones, at which the buffaloes are killed. These are, of course, only found at funeral villages, but there are certain other stones, such as the imudrikars, which may be found in any village. Such a stone may mark the spot where the body is laid, or may even, as in the case of the imudrikars of Kars, form a mound on which the body is laid.
(d) Stones in or near the tu or buffalo pen, such as the mutchudkars and pudothkars. I do not know the origin or use of these, but in some villages there are stones in the pen marking the places where the mu or dairy vessels are buried, and it is possible that the above stones are in some way connected with the buried dairy-vessels.
(e) The lifting stone or tukitthkars. This is usually a large round stone which sometimes resembles in appearance stones of a ceremonial character. [182]
(f) Commemorative stones. The teidrtolkars of Nòdrs (see Fig. 13), and certain stones with the same name lying between Nòdrs and Teidr, had their origin in events connected with the death of a man belonging to the village of Teidr who was once wursol at Nòdrs. When he was told to milk one of the buffaloes, he replied, “If I milk it, the milk will not fill this place,” pointing to a small depression on his thumb. Still the people told him to milk, and when he did so the milking-vessel was completely filled. Then the palikartmokh was very angry, and, taking the wand which the wursol was carrying, he struck him so that he flew in the air and fell down midway between Nòdrs and Teidr. When the people came to the place they found that the man was dead, and they tried to take up his body and carry it to the funeral place. But the body would not move and so they held the funeral on the spot and made a tu. At the entrance of the tu they placed two women carrying pounders [183] in place of the posts or tüli, and these women were changed into stones and their pounders became the tasth of the entrance of the pen. The stones which are now found on the spot are the remains of the pen and the teidrtolkars of Nòdrs marks the spot where the wursol milked the buffalo.
In the village of Tovalkan there is a mound shown in Fig. 59 which is much like the imudrikars of Kars, but it is of modern origin, having been made to mark the spot where Keirevan (26) fell out of a tree and was killed.
(g) Stones connected with special features of the dairy ceremonial. I only know of one stone of this kind at a village, the pârsatthkars of Nidrsi, on which the palikartmokh puts milk every morning and evening.
Stones are often used for more than one purpose; thus, the irnörtkars of Umgas (see Fig. 72) is also a boundary stone, and the menkars of Nòdrs (see Fig. 12) used for the game called narthpimi, and the teidrtolkars at the same village are also funeral stones at which buffaloes are killed.
I have given a brief list of the chief stones which may be called sacred owing to their coming in one way or another into Toda ceremonial, but I should like to make it clear that no great idea of sanctity attaches to these stones, and in no case are they shown any definite signs of veneration or worship. They, and many of the other objects described in this chapter, are not sacred in the same sense in which the etudmad or the mani are sacred.
XIX. THE TODA RELIGION
The last seventeen chapters have been almost entirely devoted to the religious institutions and ceremonies of the Todas. In the earlier chapters I have described the ritual of the dairy and have discussed some of the problems of general interest which this ritual suggests. In later chapters I have described the ceremonies which are associated with the chief incidents of life: birth, growth, and death. In these and in the chapter dealing with sacrifice I have described many details of Toda ceremonial which clearly establish its religious character, and Chapter X is especially devoted to the formulæ which bring the ceremonial into definite relation with the Toda gods. In Chapter XI I have described practices and beliefs all of which stand in some relation to religion, though most of them must be regarded as belonging to a different category. In the last two chapters I have collected a number of special features of the Toda religion, the existence of sacred days and the part played by numbers, places and material objects in the various religious observances, and I have discussed how far the attitude of the Todas towards these objects can be described as one of worship.
There remains the general nexus which binds all these beliefs and practices into a whole so that they constitute the Toda religion. I have given in Chapter IX the stories of the Toda gods, giving them in this place because they were necessary for the proper understanding of the dairy formulæ, and I can now discuss more fully than was then possible the essential nature of these deities.
THE GODS
The Toda gods are definitely anthropomorphic beings, who are believed to have lived in this world before man existed. Both man and buffalo were created by the gods, and the Todas seem to picture a time when gods, men, and buffaloes lived together on the Nilgiri Hills, and the gods ruled the men. At this time the gods seem to have lived much the same kind of life as the Todas themselves. Ön was palol to the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti, his son Püv was palikartmokh at Kuudr, and other gods are believed to have filled dairy offices. From the earliest times, however, the gods were connected with the hills—i.e., they were believed to dwell on the summits of the hills of the Nilgiri plateau. At first they seem to have mixed at times in human society and at other times to have retired to their hill-tops. The earliest of the gods was Pithi, who was born in a cave, and the Todas and many of their buffaloes were created by his son Ön and his wife. Later death came to the gods in the person of Püv, the son of Ön and Ön followed Püv to the world of the dead, called Amnòdr, of which he has since been the ruler. He left behind him as predominant among the deities Teikirzi, a goddess, who ruled over the Todas. It is to her that the origin of most of the Toda institutions is ascribed, and there is some reason to think that she was predominant among the gods even before Ön went to Amnòdr.
The Todas seem to believe that Teikirzi was at one time a person living among them, giving laws and regulating the affairs of the people. At the present time she is believed to be all-pervading; and, though she has her special hill, she does not dwell there only, as in the case of all but one of the other Toda deities.
There seem to have been many other gods contemporaneous with Ön and Teikirzi, and certain of these are believed to have been related to these deities and especially to Teikirzi. The gods are believed to be very numerous: the Todas speak of the 1,600 gods, the 1,800 gods, but it would seem that these expressions are used in the sense of “an infinite number.” The gods are believed to have held their councils, meeting on some special hill, to which each god came from his own hill-top. The hill of Pòlkab, near Kanòdrs, and the village of Miuni are both renowned as meeting places of the gods.
There is a very definite association between the Toda gods and the hills of the Nilgiri plateau. Nearly every one of the gods has his hill where he dwells, and often when speaking of the gods the Todas seem to identify the god with the hill. There are two river gods, Teipakh and Pakhwar, associated with the two chief streams of the district, but there is some reason to believe that even these gods have their hills where they sometimes live, while at other times they inhabit or are identified with their streams. In the case of Teipakh, the god and the natural object seem to be very closely identified, and Kuzkarv, growing up in the river Teipakh, is said to be sitting in the lap of his maternal uncle. Again, one god is associated with a bubbling pool, but he also has his hill-top and is believed only to visit the pool on certain occasions. There can be little doubt that most of the Toda gods are hill-deities and that the association of the gods with hills is so strong that even the gods of streams and pools may be assigned their hills in general belief.
There is one important feature which is said to be common to all the hills inhabited by deities. They all have on their summits the stone circles which the Todas call pun. My informants were very definite about this and fully understood that these stone circles corresponded to the cairns and barrows opened by Breeks and others.
I was not able to examine into the question for myself and ascertain whether the circles called pun were actually present on the god-inhabited hills, but I have no reason to doubt that this was usually the case. Most writers on the Todas have been inclined to suppose that the cairns and barrows, with their contents, were in no way connected with the Todas, and they have based this opinion largely on the indifference of the Todas to these monuments. The people who are so jealous of their dairies that they will not allow anyone to enter or even view their contents, will allow any stranger to open the cairns and take their contents, and will even assist in the demolition. When I asked the Todas what they thought of the rifling of the pun they showed just the same indifference. They did not seem to think the matter any concern of theirs, and yet they believe in a definite association between the presence of a pun and the abode of a deity.
There seem to be three chief possibilities. One, that the cairns are Toda remains and that the association of the stone circles above them with the presence of a god is the last surviving relic of the fact. The second is that when the Todas came to the Nilgiri hills they found mysterious stone circles on certain hills, which marked out these hills as possessing features out of the common, and that this gave them a sanctity which led to the idea that they were inhabited by gods. A third possibility is that the same peculiarities which led the original builders of the circles to choose certain hills also led the Todas to choose them as the abodes of their deities, and that it was only later that they came to recognise the association between the circle and the presence of a god.
Whichever possibility may give the true explanation, one would have thought that the Todas would have objected to the disturbance and excavation of the cairns. There is little doubt that they were ignorant of the fact that objects were buried beneath the stone circles, but they are quite intelligent enough to know that there is a connexion between the stones and the objects beneath them when once these have been found.
I have very little doubt that the true explanation of the indifference of the Todas towards these monuments is that they have no definite traditional injunction against interfering with the circles. The Todas are the slaves of their traditions and of the laws and regulations which have been handed down to them by their ancestors. Till the Europeans came to the hills, it had never occurred to anyone to meddle with these stones or explore the soil beneath and around them. In consequence there was no reason why injunctions against interference should be handed down, and when the European arrived with his spade and pickaxe the Todas found nothing in their traditional laws telling them that it was wrong to interfere with these places, and they exhibited the indifference which led the explorers to suppose that there was no connexion of any kind between the Todas and the monuments. [184]
Although the Toda deities seem to be in general a development of hill-spirits, there can be little doubt that some of the gods are deified men. In the case of Kwoten, the account of his life is so circumstantial as to leave little doubt that he was a real man who was deified after a mysterious disappearance, believed to have been due to intercourse with a female deity, and around whose life there have clustered certain miraculous incidents. Similarly, his servant Erten, and his relatives Teikuteidi and Elnâkhum are probably deified men.
Another possible instance of a deified man is Kwoto or Meilitars. The account of his life is again so circumstantial that it seems most likely that he was an exceptional man who was deified while various incidents in his life acquired a miraculous setting. It is perhaps in favour of the comparatively recent origin of these gods that objects belonging to them, or which come into their lives in some way, are still preserved, and perhaps a still more cogent argument in favour of the recent deification of Kwoten is the fact that the prohibition against marriage between the clans of Pan and Kanòdrs, believed to be due to the murder of Parden by Kwoten, still persists.
Of these deified mortals one became associated with a definite hill while the other was not assigned any special hill, but it was believed that all places should form his province.
There is little doubt that these mortals were deified as heroes and not as ancestors, and there is little to indicate that ancestor-worship has played any part in the evolution of the Toda religion. When a person dedicated a buffalo on account of some fault committed, it seemed that the action might be spoken of indifferently as dedication to the gods or to the ancestors of the dedicator. Thus, when Teitnir gave a buffalo after the death of his wife, some said it was given to the gods, while others said it was given to Teitnir’s grandfathers, and when I tried to inquire more definitely into this point the two things were said to be the same. The ideas of the Todas seemed to me, however, to be so indefinite and vague on this point that I am inclined to attach little importance to this one piece of evidence.
Against the identification of gods with ancestors is the fact that the dead go to another world, and are believed to return to this world after a long interval as ordinary mortals, while most of the gods belong to this world and are believed to have belonged to this world before death came to either gods or men.
There is little to support the idea that the gods are personifications of the forces of nature. There is no evidence whatever that any of the gods are personifications of the sun, of other heavenly bodies, of thunder, lightning, or other elemental forces.
We have already seen that there is evidence that light is reverenced, and that this reverence extends to the sun, and it is probable that definite worship of the sun may at one time have formed a prominent part of the religion of the Todas. But there is not the slightest evidence which would lead to the identification of any one of the Toda deities with the sun.
There is no evidence of phallic worship among the Todas. One of the ti villages in the Kundahs is known to the European inhabitants of the Nilgiris as “Ling mand,” but the supposed Ling stone at this place is evidently a neurzülnkars. [185]
In the last chapter we have seen that it has been supposed that divinity attaches to some of the sacred objects of the Todas, and especially to the dairy and the mani or bell. I cannot say definitely that the dairy and the bell are not regarded as gods, but I do not believe that they are so, and, as I have endeavoured to show in the last chapter, I think it probable that the sanctity of the bell has arisen by a gradual process of transference of sanctity from the buffalo to the object worn by it, and I think it not unlikely that this transference may have reached its full development in comparatively recent times.
If my view be accepted, it would still leave open the religious status of the buffalo, and especially of the bell-buffalo, and here, scanty as the evidence is, it seems to me probable that the buffalo was never regarded as a god in the same sense in which this word is used for the anthropomorphic beings of the hill-tops. In the oldest legends, in which the buffaloes spoke like men, it is clear that they were in subjection to the gods, and were in no way regarded as themselves divine.
Some writers on the Todas have supposed that the palol is regarded as a god, but at the present time it is certain that he is in no way divine. He is treated with respect, but nothing of the nature of worship or adoration is paid to him. His position among the Todas is exactly that of a priest upon whom it is incumbent to maintain a very high degree of ceremonial purity. That his isolation is not a sign of divinity is, I think, shown by the results of infringement of his isolation. If the palol is touched by an ordinary man he loses his office and at once ceases to be a sacred personage, but the person who touches incurs no penalty. The sacrilege, according to Toda ideas, would attach not to him, but to the palol who, in spite of being touched, should persist in performing the duties of his office.
Whether the palol may ever have been more sacred in the past I cannot say. An indication that he may at one time have been regarded as divine is to be found in the special clauses of the Kiudr prayer which are uttered on the occasion of the migration of the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti. Here the kwarzam of the palol is eupalol, which stands for teupalol, or “god palol,” but in the next kwarzam the same prefix is given to his garment, the tuni, and I have little doubt that these kwarzam simply refer to the sanctity which attaches to the palol and his garment as part of the sacred institution of the ti. There is no doubt, however, that, according to tradition, the gods held the office of palol and that the palol of the Nòdrs ti is the direct successor of the god Ön, but to whatever extent Ön may have passed on his divine character to his immediate successors, there is little doubt that at present the palol has lost any divinity which may at one time have been ascribed to him.
It is very difficult to ascertain how far at the present time, according to Toda belief, the gods intervene in human affairs. Each clan is believed to have its nòdrodchi, or ruling deity, but I could not learn what he is supposed to do. In general the nòdrodchi of a clan is a god dwelling on a hill near the chief village of the clan, and two clans living near one another may have the same ruler. Thus Teipakh is connected with both Piedr and Kusharf, Atioto with both Kwòdrdoni and Pedrkars, while Etepi, who is the nòdrodchi of Keradr, and Kuzkarv, the nòdrodchi of Keadr, are almost certainly one and the same deity. In the two latter cases a Tarthar clan has the same god as a clan of the Teivaliol.
Little can be said about the nature of these connexions between gods and clans, but it is possible that when a clan or a member of a clan is said to incur the anger of the gods it is the nòdrodchi who is chiefly offended and inflicts punishment in the form of death or disease to man or buffalo. The Todas certainly believe that misfortunes are due to the anger of the gods. It is clear that the various offerings described in Chapter XIII are piacular and propitiatory. They are designed to atone for wrong done and to avert any future evil consequences of the offence which has been committed.
The power of the gods is believed to show itself in various ways. In several cases dairies have been disused because the dairymen have died in office, and this was said to have happened because the gods of those places were severe. It was apparently believed that they had visited infringements of the laws regulating dairy ritual with death.
The various misfortunes which befell different members of the community as the result of my visit were all ascribed to the anger of the gods. Again, the untoward incidents of the funeral of Sinerani (see p. 391) were ascribed to the anger of the gods because there had been an infringement of funeral custom. These and other cases show clearly that the gods are held to be the source of punishment for sins committed by the Todas, and that they may be appeased by offerings.
Each of the ti dairies has connected with it many deities whose names are especially mentioned in the prayers, and it is probable that for infringements of their ritual these gods are the avenging deities.
The attitude towards the gods shown by the formulæ used in the dairy ceremonial has already been considered. Though there is no direct evidence in these formulæ that there is actual supplication to the deities, it is almost certain that this supplication is implied. The formulæ used in other Toda ceremonies have the same general form as those used in the dairy ritual; and here, again, though there is no direct appeal to deities in the words of the formula, such appeal is almost certainly implied. The formulæ of the various ceremonies of the Todas are almost certainly of the nature of prayers in which the gods are asked to give blessings and avert evils. Apart from the formulæ of the definite ritual, there seems to be no doubt that the Todas offer supplications to their gods for help and protection.
In the formulæ used in Toda sorcery appeal to the gods is even more definite than in the prayers of the dairy ritual. In them the names of four most important gods are mentioned, and it seems quite clear that the sorcerer believes that he is effecting his purpose through the power of the gods.
Another definite way in which the gods of the Todas are believed to intervene in human affairs is in divination. During the frenzy into which the teuol or diviners fall they are believed to be inspired by the gods. The diviners are chiefly consulted in the case of misfortune, and they are believed to reveal the reasons for the divine displeasure which has been the cause of the misfortune, and to communicate the ways in which the gods may be appeased. The diviners are believed to be directly inspired by the gods, and their name, teuol, or “god men,” shows how definitely this belief is present in the Toda mind. In this case each diviner is believed to be inspired by a special deity, though sometimes more than one deity may reveal himself by the same man.
In the process of divination men are possessed by gods; and another example of possession by the gods may be mentioned here, as I have not found a suitable place for it elsewhere. If any of the gods should sit on the back of a buffalo, the animal will go to the hill called Kûrâtvan, near Neduvattam, and this is said to have happened to two buffaloes in recent times. A buffalo which goes to this hill is allowed to find its own way back, and, provided the buffalo goes only to etudmad, its course will not be interfered with. One of the two buffaloes above-mentioned travelled back by way of Taradr, a place called Panmtu, Nòdrs, Miuni, and then went to its own village.
In the chapter on divination I have pointed out that many of the deities who inspire the diviners are not true Toda gods, and this suggests that the practice of divination may have been borrowed from surrounding peoples, in which case caution would be needed in drawing conclusions from the beliefs associated with the practice. I believe, however, that the information given to me on this point is based on recent utterances of the teuol themselves when in a state of frenzy. Each teuol was asked by whom he was inspired, and I think it not unlikely that the answers were influenced by the recent associations of the Todas.
At the present time none of the gods are ever seen by mortals. As we have already found, the hills where they are supposed to dwell are, in some cases, regarded with reverence; but I obtained no evidence that the Todas avoid the summits even of those hills where the most important deities are supposed to be, though unfortunately I omitted to put this to the test by asking any of the more scrupulous Todas to accompany me to these places. The god-inhabited hills, however, are, in most cases, the sites of cairns and barrows, and the whole experience of those who have excavated these sites seems to show that the Todas exhibit no special reluctance to visit these dwelling-places of the gods.
I think that there can be little doubt that most of the individual gods of the Todas are becoming very unreal beings to those who talk of them. The stories of the earlier gods are now being forgotten, and the ideas of the Todas about them are very vague. On the other hand, certain gods of obviously more recent origin seem to be replacing, to some extent, the older gods. The lives of Kwoten and Meilitars can be related by many in great detail, but though they seem to inspire more interest among the Todas I cannot say that I observed anything to show that they receive any special worship or reverence. Meilitars is especially mentioned in the Kanòdrs prayer, but this would only put him on a level with many objects of no great amount of sanctity. The attitude of the Todas towards these two beings seemed to me to be rather that of people towards heroes than towards gods, though the mythology has raised them to the level of the gods.
Nevertheless, the idea of “god” is highly developed among the Todas and I am inclined to believe that the most satisfactory explanation of the Toda deities is that the people came to the Nilgiri Hills with a body of highly developed gods; that round these gods have clustered various legends connected with the Toda institutions; that these old gods have gradually through long ages lost their reality; that certain heroes have been raised to the ranks of the gods and that the lives of these heroes, founded to some extent on actual fact, have more interest to the Todas and are remembered and passed on while the legends of the older gods are gradually becoming vaguer in the progress towards complete obliviscence; that the gods as a whole, however, are still regarded as the authors of punishment and that there is a tendency to make an abstraction of the power of the gods.
The Todas, then, show us a stage of religious belief in which gods once believed to be real, living among men and intervening actively in their affairs, have become shadowy beings, apparently less real, invisible and intervening in the affairs of men in a mysterious manner and chiefly in the case of infraction of the laws which they are still believed to have given.
The present state of the Toda religion seems to be one in which ritual has persisted while the beliefs at the bottom of the ritual have largely disappeared. The Todas are an example of a people whose lives are altogether dominated by custom and tradition, and on the religious side this domination has taken a form in which ritual has become all-important, while the religious ideas which underlie the ritual have become blurred and unreal or have disappeared altogether. It seems to me that the Todas have had a religion of a comparatively high order for people living in such simple circumstances. During a long period of isolation there has come about an over-development of the ritual aspect of this religion. Year after year, and century after century, the priests have handed on the details of the ceremonial from one to another. The performance of the prescribed rites in their due order has become the all-essential of the religion and the ideas connected with it have suffered. This is shown most clearly in the prayers, in which we have seen that the prayer proper has gradually come to take a relatively subordinate position, and is even in danger of disappearing altogether, while the importance of the kwarzam by which the sacred objects of the dairy are mentioned has been magnified. The dairy utterances, which were probably at one time definite prayers calling on the gods for help and protection, are now on their way to become barren and meaningless formulæ.
Just as the prayer of the Todas seems to have almost degenerated into the utterance of barren formulæ, so is there reason to believe that the attitude of worship which is undoubtedly present in the Toda mind is becoming transferred from the gods themselves to the material objects used in the service of the gods. I acknowledge that I am here on less sure ground than in the case of the dairy formulæ, but the general impression left on my mind by the study of the beliefs and sacred institutions of the Todas is that the religious attitude of worship is being transferred from the gods themselves to the objects round which centres the ritual of the dairy. If I am right in these surmises, we find the Todas to possess a religion in process of degeneration. I do not suppose that this degeneration has been in progress only during the short time that the Todas have been exposed to the injurious contact of the outer world. The study of the Toda religion makes it seem to me most probable that the Todas came to the Nilgiri Hills with a religion of a higher order than they possess at present, with a developed system of gods who were believed to direct and govern the affairs of men, and that by a long and slow process these gods have become unreal, the supplications of the people for their guidance and assistance have become mechanical, and worship has been transferred from gods, not to stocks and stones, but to bells and dairy vessels.
At the present time it would seem that even the ritual of the Toda religion is often carried out less carefully than of old. Among the former occupants of dairy offices of whom I made inquiries, I found some who gave accounts so full of inaccuracies and omissions that it seemed unlikely that they could have performed the duties of their offices in a satisfactory manner, and when I had the opportunity of observing parts of the dairy ritual it seemed to me that the ceremonial acts were performed by some of the dairymen in a very perfunctory and slovenly fashion. We have already seen that some of the features of Toda ritual have entirely disappeared, and it seems not unlikely that the same fate may overtake the whole at no great distance of time.
In the case of both custom and ritual, the Todas are now often content if they keep the letter of the law, and several examples of the evasion of ceremonial laws have been recorded. We have seen that several of the laws concerning the madnol are certainly not kept in the spirit, and only by a stretch of imagination, in the letter. A woman evades the law that she may not leave the village on the madnol by leaving it before daybreak and returning after daybreak till her work is done. A man takes money out on the day before the madnol and, burying it elsewhere, is able to carry out business which the spirit of the law forbids. In ceremonies, ritual duties which involve discomfort or restraint are assigned to young boys, to whom the restraint is no restraint. A man goes near the palol whom properly he should not approach, but since he does not speak nor is spoken to, he is regarded as ceremonially absent.
Objects of value which should be burnt for the use of the dead are sent to the next world ceremonially by swinging them over the fire, and are then removed. The emblems of womanhood are taken out of the hut when the wursol goes there to sleep, but the women themselves remain. Probably the behaviour of the kaltmokh in the sleeping hut during the ceremony after migration (p. 142) is a sign that he should not be there, and is evading an uncomfortable and perhaps dangerous custom.
The Todas seem to show us how the over-development of the ritual aspect of religion may lead to atrophy of those ideas and beliefs through which the religion has been built up and then how, in its turn, the ritual may suffer and acts which are performed mechanically, with no living ideas behind them, may come to be performed carelessly and incompletely, while religious observances which involve trouble or discomfort may be evaded or completely neglected. The Todas, in fact, show us, in little, the general traits characteristic of the degeneration of religion.
To people living in the simple surroundings and with the simple life of the Todas we might well look for material to help us to understand the evolution of religion, but, if I am right, we must look for this in vain. If the religion of the Todas is a product of degeneration, it is hopeless to seek among the customs of this people for evidence of the mode of growth of religious ideas and practices. Thus, it is natural that we find among the Todas no clear trace of totemism, or of those ideas connected with animals which are probably allied to totemism. There are several reasons why the Todas should not furnish any clear evidence of this frequent starting-point of religion. In the first place, they are people to whom one animal has become so predominantly sacred that it might be expected that any other relations with animals of a sacred character would have disappeared; the cult of animals in general would have been swamped in the cult of the buffalo. Secondly, if I am right in the supposition I have advanced in this chapter, it is probable that the Todas came to the Nilgiri Hills with the cult of the buffalo or other milk-giving animal already to some extent developed, and if at this time they had customs and beliefs connected with other animals, these would naturally soon disappear if these animals were absent in the new country. At the same time, it is perhaps not without significance that the Todas are allowed to eat the flesh of the sambhar. In their former home, in the low country, it is almost certain that this animal would not have been a totem, and therefore it would be natural that on their reaching the Nilgiris they might be permitted to eat it. [186]
It is doubtful how far the Todas have an idea of a supreme god. At the present time they speak of and constantly appeal to Swami, and they will say that Swami is above all the gods, but I have very little doubt that this is a recent idea. Swami was chiefly spoken of and reverenced by the younger men, and it is quite clear that the name should not properly occur in the formulæ of any Toda ritual. Nevertheless, the possibility cannot be excluded that the idea is old. It is probable that at one time there existed direct appeal to gods in the Toda prayer, and this direct appeal may have been to some supreme being who was addressed as Swami.
Apart from this question of the meaning of Swami, two deities stand out from the remainder of the Toda gods. One of these is Meilitars, whose cunning was able to deceive the gods, and who was able to perform miracles which were regarded as beyond the powers of the other gods. His story seems to show one way in which a god might rise above his fellows, and might become a supreme god, but this has certainly not happened in his case. There is not the slightest evidence to show that Meilitars is in any way worshipped as a supreme god. There is a much stronger case for the supremacy of the goddess Teikirzi. Teikirzi is said to be the foundress of many of the Toda institutions; the final explanation of all things in the Toda mind is that “it is the will of Teikirzi.” She is said to be all-pervading, and is regarded as the ruler of this world; she is mentioned in many of the sacred formulæ, and of the occasional kwarzam uttered by the Todas on various occasions by far the most frequent are those of Teikirzi Tirshti.
Teikirzi is undoubtedly the most important Toda deity, and yet she is not so pre-eminent that she can be said to be in any way a supreme god. Though she is the ruler of this world, it is Ön who rules the world of the dead.
INFLUENCE OF OTHER RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS
The Todas show undoubted signs of the influence of Hinduism on their religion. It would be quite easy for a visitor to the Todas to talk to some of the younger and more sophisticated men and to go away believing that the Todas differed little from the surrounding tribes in their religious beliefs. In my first conversation with the Todas on religious matters I was told that they worshipped the following six gods:—Nanjandisparan, whose temple is at Nanjankudi in Mysore; Petkon or Betakarasami, whose temple is at Gudalur; Punilibagewan, whose temple is called Punilikudi and is near Cheirambadi; Mari, a female deity, with a temple called Marikudi near Pokapparam; Magòli, another female deity, with a temple near Kodanad on the Nilgiris, and Karmudrangan, [187] whose temple is near Mettapollayam.
Four or five of these gods are probably Hindu deities, while Magòli may be a deity of the Kurumbas or Irulas. At the present time there is no doubt that their temples are visited by the Todas and offerings made to them. The most frequent motive for these offerings appears to be the desire for children. The Todas now pray to these gods, most commonly for this purpose to Nanjandisparan, Magòli or Karmudrangan, and if a child is born it is taken when one year old to the temple, its head is shaved, and an offering, usually in the form of an image of the child, given to the priest. Rice is also given, sufficient, it is said, to feed 101 men, and the proceedings are said to cost the Todas from 40 to 100 rupees. They have a rule that, however much money they take away with them from their villages, all must be spent and none brought back.
If the Todas wish to obtain more buffaloes they offer silver images of these animals to the temples.
I do not know how long these Hindu gods have been worshipped by the Todas, but my informants were emphatic that Nanjandisparan and Petkon had been worshipped by the Todas for very long, and that annual offerings of small sums were made to them by every Toda family.
This worship and appeal to Hindu deities appears to me to have gone on side by side with the proper religion of the Todas, but to have influenced it little. It shows how people of low culture make use of the gods of other races as well as of their own, and in the same way I believe that the Todas reverence the gods of Badagas, Kurumbas, or any other of the tribes with which they have dealings, and if asked point-blank if the gods of these people are their gods they will assent.
It is probable that Hinduism is now having more influence on the Todas than ever before, and, as I have already pointed out, I believe that the reverence to Swami and the frequent utterance of his name is a sign of the increasing influence of Hinduism, perhaps combined with that of Christianity.
Christianity has so far had no appreciable influence. The Church Missionary Zenana Society has for some years employed two catechists to work among the Todas, and one of them, Samuel, who by the kindness of the Society was allowed to act as my interpreter for a large part of my stay, ought to have been successful if earnestness and honesty are of any avail, but his efforts, carried on for ten years, had borne very little fruit.
In the whole of the mythology and ceremonial there are few features which suggest the probability of Christian influence, and the chief of these is the incident in the legend of the origin of mankind where woman is created from a rib taken from the right side of a man. It is very unlikely that this is a recent accretion to the legend, and, if it is due to Christian influence, I think it must have arisen long ago. We know that, three centuries ago, priests visited the Todas and preached to them, and it is stated (see p. 720) that one chose the Hebrew story of the creation for his lesson, and it may be that the incident, striking the fancy of the people, was incorporated into their own tradition of the origin of man. The resemblance between the Toda madnol and the Sabbath may also excite the suspicion that the former institution is founded on ideas borrowed from Christians or Jews. I think we may be confident that, if this has been the case, the borrowing took place very long ago. I hope to show in the last chapter that it is probable the Todas came from Malabar, and it is possible that their migration to the hills took place after the settlement of Christians or Jews in that district. If Christianity has affected the religious beliefs or practices of the general body of the Todas, I think it is certain that this influence has not been recent.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
A word may be added, at the end of this chapter, on the relation between the magic and the religion of the Todas. I have already pointed out reasons for believing that the Toda religion is one in process of degeneration, and we must not therefore expect to find among this people material for the study of the evolution of religion from magic or for the method of divergence of the two from some original stem which was neither magic nor religion.
The chief interest of the Todas from this point of view is that they show how side by side with a relatively high form of religion there may exist a body of beliefs crystallised in magical formulæ which bear a very close resemblance to the formulæ of the religious ritual. Their aim and their general nature leave no doubt that the formulæ given in the later part of Chap. XII are magical in nature, and yet they show more distinct evidence of appeal to deities than is to be found in the definitely religious formulæ of the dairy. These magical formulæ of the Todas seem to show us a stage of magic in which religion has been called to its aid. The sorcerer does not endeavour to effect his purpose merely by the belief in the efficiency of like producing like, or other ideas which dominate the lower forms of magic, but has called to his aid the power of the gods and uses a form of words almost identical with that used in the religious ritual. Magic and religion are here closely allied, but it is possible that this alliance is but one of the products of the degeneration to which I believe the Toda religion is subject. It is possible that we have here evidence that during the process of degeneration of religion, religion and magic may approach one another—an approach which recalls their common origin from those low beliefs and ideas of the savage to which the name of neither magic nor religion should perhaps be properly applied.