It is possible that the kaltmokh is chosen as the person to be made

responsible merely because he is the most convenient person to act as

the recipient of any evil consequences. It is, however, probable that

on this day the kaltmokh does something which he does not do on

ordinary days, and thus commits an offence which has to be expiated. On

the day of migration the kaltmokh does, as a matter of fact, see the

sacred vessels of the inner room which are ordinarily hidden from his

gaze behind the screen of the dairy. He sees the mani in its leafy

covering, and he may even see the bell itself before it is covered. He

also touches some of the vessels of the outer room which he does not

ordinarily touch, and it may be that the cursing and other features of

the ceremony are intended to obviate the possible evil consequences of

these acts. At the ancient and sacred dairies of Anto and Òdrtho the

ceremony is still carried out in its entirety, but at other dairies

many of the chief features of the ceremony have disappeared and all

that remains is the anointing of the neurzülnkars, which take the place

of the head of the kaltmokh.

When the kaltmokh comes into the sleeping hut on the first night of the

ceremony, my informants laid great stress on the fact that the other

occupants of the hut must take no notice of the boy, who creeps in

after the others have taken their places on the beds, and he must go

out in the morning before they show signs of waking. It is probable

that the boy had originally to sit all the night in the open air at the

appointed spot, and though he is now allowed to come into the hut, no

notice is taken of him because theoretically he is not there. It is

quite in accordance with Toda ideas that this should be done and other

instances of similar procedure will be given.

Another noteworthy feature of the ceremony is the act of giving the

kaltmokh a larger portion of food than can possibly be consumed at one

meal. This feature occurs in other Toda ceremonies, and especially in

connexion with the ordination of the palol, to be described in the next

chapter. I know nothing of the significance of this procedure.

At some time during the day following the arrival at the new ti mad,

the dairy is well cleansed with dried buffalo-dung. Soon after the

migration—on the following Wednesday at the Nòdrs ti and on Sunday at

the Kars and the Pan ti—a special ceremony called ponup is performed,

in which salt is given to certain sacred buffaloes, but this will be

described, together with the other salt-giving ceremonies, in Chapter

VIII.

The Melgars man who accompanies the procession of the Nòdrs ti stays at

Anto till the following Wednesday; at other places he only stays till

the day after the procession. The Toda way of putting this is that at

Anto he stays erdpunrs—i.e., “two punrs.” One punrs is a day and its

next day, so that erdpunrs is equal to four days. At other places the

Melgars man stays only one punrs—i.e., he leaves the ti mad on the day

following the migration.

The foregoing account applies to the Nòdrs ti. The general procedure is

the same at the migration of other herds, but the ceremonial is, in

general, less elaborate. At no other ti is there anything corresponding

to the ceremonies in which the kaltmokh plays so important a part, and

at no other ti is it absolutely necessary that a mòrol should take part

in the procession, though, as a matter of fact, he usually also leads

the way at the migrations of the Pan ti.

At the Kars ti the buffaloes pass the greater part of the year at

Makars. They usually go to Neradr, where they stay about a month, and

then go to Kòn for the dry season, returning to Makars in April.

Sometimes they again stop at Neradr on their way from Kòn to Makars. It

is probable that when the sacred dairy of Enòdr was still in use the

ceremonial was more elaborate than it is at present. In the legend of

Kwoto (see Chap. IX) an account is given of a ceremonial which occurred

in former times during the migration from Kòn to Enòdr, and it is

possible that this persisted until Enòdr was given up as a ti mad.

The herds of the Pan ti usually migrate with those of the Kars ti. They

stand during the greater part of the year at Kudòdr, near Makars, and

go to Neradr and Kòn as the dry season approaches.

In the case of the Pan ti, it seems that the bells travel on the necks

of buffaloes; the mani called Kòsi on the neck of a buffalo called

Kòsi, Pongg on a buffalo called Enmars, and Keituzan on one called

Kòjiu. In this procession a mòrol goes first, followed by the tars

palol, the wars palol, and the two kaltmokh in order.

At the present time there are no migrations of the buffaloes of the

Kwòdrdoni ti or of the Nidrsi ti, and I have no information about the

past. At Pursas, the present dairy of the Kwòdrdoni ti, there is a

stone called neurzülnkars. I was told that nothing was done to it in

connexion with the migrations of the buffaloes, but that it was rubbed

with clarified butter and milk whenever the irnörtiti ceremony (see

Chap. XIII) was performed at the ti.

CHAPTER VII

ORDINATION CEREMONIES

Before a dairyman enters upon office he has to undergo certain initial

rites, which may fitly be spoken of as “ordination ceremonies.” These

ceremonies vary greatly in their elaborateness, according to the dairy

in which the candidate is to serve.

In the case of the ordinary dairyman, or palikartmokh, the proceedings

are simple and may be accomplished in a few minutes, while for the

highest grade of the priesthood they are extremely elaborate and

prolonged over more than a week.

The essential feature of all the ordination ceremonies is a process of

purification by drinking and washing with the water of a stream or

spring used for sacred purposes only (palinipa or kwoinir). In every

case the water is drunk out of certain leaves, and the body is rubbed

with water mixed with the juice of young shoots or bark.

A general name for ordination is pelkkodichiti or pelkkatthtiti, “lamp

he lights.” This name is derived from the fact that the first act in

connexion with the dairy work which a new dairyman has to perform is to

light the lamp of the dairy. The former of the two names given above

was used especially in the case of the ordinary dairy and the latter in

the case of the ti, but I am doubtful whether there is any strict

limitation of the terms in these senses.

Another general name used for the ceremony of ordination is niròditi,

which in a more limited sense is applied to the drinking and

purification at the dairy stream or spring which is the essential

feature of the ceremony. This term was very often used for the ceremony

of ordination to the office of palol.

THE PALIKARTMOKH

The ceremony of ordination of the palikartmokh is called pelkkodichiti

and very often muliniròditi, the latter being derived from the muli

leaves used in the ceremony. The ordination may take place on Sunday,

Wednesday, or Saturday. On the day before the ceremony the candidate

goes to the dairy, takes his food there, and sleeps at night in the

outer room. His food is prepared and given to him either by the

outgoing palikartmokh or by some other man holding this office.

On the morning of the ceremony the candidate washes his hands in the

pali nipa and goes to the front of the dairy, having a piece of the

ordinary mantle round his waist. The assisting palikartmokh will have

placed a small piece of the dark cloth called tuni on the threshold of

the dairy, this small piece being called petuni. The candidate bows

down (nersatiti), as in Fig. 20, at the threshold to the petuni, which

he then raises to his forehead and puts in the string of his kuvn on

the left side.

The candidate then plucks seven leaves of the kind called muliers—i.e.,

leaves of a plant called muli (Rubus ellipticus). This plant is also

often called pelkkodsthmul, after the ceremony in which it is used. He

also plucks a handful of young shoots or nan of the same plant, and

takes the leaves and shoots to the dairy stream. At the stream he

pounds the shoots with water on a stone, takes up some water from the

stream with the pounded shoots, drops this water into one of the leaves

three times, raises the leaf to his forehead, drinks (see Fig. 34),

throws the leaf over his head and puts the shoots down on one side.

When he squeezes the water from the shoots into the leaf-cup he holds

the former in his right hand and the latter in his left, but when about

to raise the leaf-cup to his forehead and drink he transfers it to his

right hand. The candidate then takes a fresh piece of the pounded

shoots and repeats with a second leaf, and so on till the seven leaves

are finished, throwing the leaf over his head in each case after

drinking.

He then takes all the pounded shoots which he has placed on one side,

dips them in water, rubs them over his face and body three times, and

puts them in his back hair, whence they are allowed to drop anywhere.

In the only case in which I saw this ceremony I noticed that they

remained in the hair till the end of the day.

The candidate then goes to the dairy, bows down at the threshold as in

Fig. 20, and enters. If there are two rooms, he bows down in the same

way at the threshold of the inner room. If there is a mani, he salutes

it (kaimukhti) with hand to forehead. He next bows down to the patatmar

and to the ertatmar, and finally touches a vessel of the ertatmar,

usually the majpariv, and a vessel of the patatmar, the patat, and by

doing this becomes a full palikartmokh. He proceeds to light the fire

and the lamp and goes to milk the buffaloes.

There are a few small points in which the ordination of a Teivali

dairyman differs from that of the Tartharol. The Teivaliol use three

pieces of the grass called kakar, with which the candidate sweeps the

threshold of the dairy before bowing down and entering, the grass being

left on the threshold. Among the Teivaliol also the place of the petuni

may be taken by the special kind of cloth called twadrinar, which is

manufactured by the Todas, and in the case in which I saw the ceremony,

the candidate wore this instead of petuni. The Tartharol must use

petuni.

In the only case in which I saw this ceremony the ordination was to a

Teivali dairy and the candidate was completely naked except for the

kuvn. The Tarthar tarpalikartmokh wears part of an ordinary mantle as a

loincloth during his ordination. The ceremony is the same for the

kudrpalikartmokh as for the tarvalikartmokh, except that the former is

quite unclothed except for the kuvn and that he alone has a mani to

salute.

THE WURSOL

The ceremony begins either on Tuesday or Friday and lasts two days. On

the first day the candidate goes early in the morning to the ordinary

dairy of the village at which he is to be wursol; at Kars he goes to

the kudrpali. He receives food from the palikartmokh and eats it

sitting on the seat (kwottün) outside the dairy. He stays near the

dairy till the afternoon. When the palikartmokh has finished his

afternoon work and has distributed butter and buttermilk, one of the

men of the village comes to the candidate and says, “Niròd!” The

candidate throws off his cloak and is given either a full tuni or a

piece of this garment called petuni. The palikartmokh then stands in

front of the door of his dairy, and the candidate stands opposite to

him and asks three times “Tunivatkina?”—“Shall I put on the tuni?” The

palikartmokh replies each time “Vat!”—“Put on!” Then the candidate

raises the garment to his forehead and if he has been given a complete

tuni he puts it on; if only a petuni he puts it in the string of his

kuvn. This string is ordinarily called pennar, but is now called kerk,

and this part of the ceremony is called kerkatiti. The fact that this

name is given seems to indicate that properly the complete garment

should not be given till a later stage of the proceedings.

The candidate then finds seven leaves called muliers and seven shoots

or nan of the same plant and goes through exactly the same ceremony at

the stream as in the ordination of palikartmokh, putting the shoots in

his back hair at the end. This part of the ceremony is called

muliniròditi, and its object is to make the candidate a palikartmokh as

a step towards becoming wursol. He is taken through the lower degree on

his way to the higher.

After muliniròditi the candidate goes to the wall of the dairy and

stands outside it. The palikartmokh brings a firebrand from the dairy

and lights with it a fire of muli wood, at which the candidate warms

himself. The firebrand must be one of the three following kinds—kid,

pasòr or kiaz. After warming himself, the candidate goes to fetch bark

of the tudr tree, which must not be cut, but knocked off with a stone.

He also brings seven perfect tudr leaves, and goes again to the dairy

stream. He pounds the bark on a stone and dips it in water, squeezes

the water into one of the tudr leaves, drinks, throws over his head and

puts the bark on one side exactly in the same way as before, but using

tudr bark and leaves instead of the shoots and leaves of muli. After

doing this seven times he dips the pounded bark in water, sprinkles his

head and face three times, puts the bark in his hair, and, going a

little way off, shakes his head.

The candidate then goes again to find bark and leaves of tudr, and

repeats the whole ceremony and continues to repeat it till he has done

it seven times—i.e., he drinks out of the tudr leaves seven times

seven. After this he goes to the wood near the stream (at Kars, called

Tarskars) and the palikartmokh comes to him there with the ertatpun

filled with buttermilk, and with four leaves of the kind called

kakuders. Two leaves are given to the candidate and two kept by the

dairyman, and each folds the leaves in the usual way to make a cup

(ersteiti). The dairyman then puts the ertatpun between his thighs and,

holding it there, depresses it so that he can pour buttermilk into his

leaf-cup; from this he pours into the leaf-cup of the candidate who

then drinks, and this is repeated till the latter is satisfied. The

palikartmokh brings food and fire from the dairy and both stay in the

wood for the night, being allowed to have companions. The place where

they sleep is called tavarpali.

In the morning the candidate again goes for tudr bark and leaves, and

carries out the whole ceremony seven times as on the previous evening.

He then goes to the tavarpali and waits there till the palikartmokh has

finished his morning work, when the candidate again receives buttermilk

and food. Then both go out together to look after the buffaloes.

When they return in the afternoon the candidate goes to the dairy

stream and bathes from head to foot. This bathing is called

tudraspipini (tudr I have washed), its object being to wash off the

tudr bark previously used. After this he takes a piece of the cloth

called twadrinar and, using it as a girdle in addition to that he

already wears, he goes to the wall of the dairy while the palikartmokh

digs up a vessel called mu which is buried in the buffalo pen. (At Kars

the mu which is used is that of the tarvali.) The palikartmokh then

puts the mu on the ground and stands by it. The candidate asks three

times, “Muvatkina?” “Shall I touch the mu?” and the palikartmokh

replies each time “Muvat!” The candidate then touches the mu, and by

doing so becomes a full wursol. The mu is reburied by the palikartmokh.

All the ceremonies so far have taken place at or near the ordinary

dairy, either tarvali or kudrpali, or at the stream belonging to one or

other of these dairies. The candidate now for the first time goes to

the dairy in which he is to be wursol (the wursuli) and prostrates

himself at the threshold. He next enters and prostrates himself to the

patatmar and then to the ertatmar. He takes up and puts in its place

one of the vessels of the ertatmar and then one of the vessels of the

patatmar. He salutes the mani (kaimukhti), lights the fire and the lamp

and prays, using the prayer of the village. He then cleans the vessels

and goes to milk, doing mani terzantirikiti with the first milk as

usual.

I was especially told that if the candidate for the office of wursol

wishes to scratch his head during his ordination ceremonies he must do

so with a stick, but this is probably a feature of all ordination

rites.

In the case of the wursol, it seemed that there is a difference in the

ceremonial according to whether the dairy is occupied or not when the

new dairyman enters upon office. The foregoing account applies to the

case in which the dairy is already occupied and the new dairyman

replaces another, so that there is no break in the continuity of the

dairy proceedings. If the dairy should be unoccupied, I was told that

the candidate would have to sleep for two nights in the wood, and there

would almost certainly be additional purifications, but I did not learn

the exact nature of the proceedings in this case.

Though I was only told of this difference of procedure in the case of

the wursol, it is not unlikely that there is a corresponding difference

of procedure in the case of other dairies when the dairy has been

unoccupied. There will certainly be a ceremony of purification of the

dairy, such as takes place when the buffaloes migrate to a new village,

and probably the dairy vessels will also have to be purified.

THE KUGVALIKARTMOKH OF TARADR AND THE POHKARTPOL OF KANÒDRS

The ordination ceremonies of these two dairymen appear to be almost

identical. So far as I could ascertain, the feature which the

kugvalikartmokh of Taradr and the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs have in common

is that they serve institutions to which a high degree of sanctity is

attached. The ritual of both dairies bears some resemblance to that of

the ti and, as we have already seen, the regulations for the conduct of

the pohkartpol are, in some respects, even more stringent than those of

the palol.

The kugvalikartmokh is ordained either on Wednesday or Sunday, the

pohkartpol on Tuesday. On the night preceding the ordination the

candidate sleeps in the wood. Seven leaves are used of the following

kinds: pelkkodsthmul, [45] puthimul, änmul, takmul, kadakmul, tòrimul,

and pathanmul. One leaf of each kind is taken and the leaves pounded

together and used in the same way as the shoots of muli or the bark of

the tudr tree, water being dropped from them into leaves of puthimul.

The pounded leaves are then placed in the back hair as usual. This is

followed by the ceremony of drinking water three times out of a leaf

containing water and some buffalo-dung. The bark of the tudr tree is

then rubbed all over the body, though no tudr leaves are used for

drinking. The candidate attains his full office by touching a mu,

prostrates himself at his dairy, enters and begins his work as in the

dairies of a lower grade.

THE KALTMOKH

The ordination of the kaltmokh begins either on Sunday, Wednesday or

Thursday. In the case of a kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti, the first part of

the ceremony takes place at the village of Nòdrs, while in some cases

it seems that the candidate may go to the same village of Òdr which is

visited by the palol during his ordination. I have no information about

the place of ordination in the case of the other ti dairies.

A boy who is to become kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti goes to Nòdrs either on

Sunday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and, going to the ordinary dairy of

that place (tarvali), he is given water by the palikartmokh in the

vessel called pòlmachok. The boy washes his hands with this water and

puts on a tuni which the palikartmokh gives him, after saying the same

formula as in the ordination of wursol. He then does muliniròditi and

so reaches the grade of palikartmokh. This and the following ceremony

are done at a special stream at Nòdrs called niròdigudr. The

purification ceremony is then performed with tudr bark and leaves till

the candidate has drunk seven times seven. Food and buttermilk are

given by the palikartmokh, and then the boy together with the

palikartmokh and the wursol of Nòdrs pass the night in the wood near

that place.

The next morning the candidate goes to the ordination stream and washes

himself from head to foot. This is called tudraspipini, its object

being the same as in the ordination of the wursol. The boy next goes to

the front of the tarvali, where the palikartmokh gives him a special

string made of twadrinar, which he puts round his waist as kerk, and

then warms himself at a fire of muli wood. The palikartmokh brings a

mu, which the candidate touches with the same formalities as in the

ordination of wursol, and by so doing reaches the grade called

perkursol, which is of the same rank as that of wursol. The perkursol

then takes the mu into the tarvali, prostrating himself at the

threshold before entering. He prostrates himself to the patatmar and to

the ertatmar, puts the mu on the patatmar and comes out. He then goes

to the poh, or conical dairy of Nòdrs, prostrates himself at the

threshold, enters, and prostrates himself before patatmar, ertatmar

and, finally, before the mani. Up to the point of saluting the bell in

this way he keeps on the tuni but at this stage he throws it down and

comes out of the dairy naked (except for the kuvn), puts on the

ordinary cloak and goes to the dairy at which the ti buffaloes are

standing.

When he reaches the ti mad, the candidate goes to the palol, whom he

salutes with the words “îr kar ûdâ,” this salutation being called

pîrwadrikpini. He goes to the sleeping hut, prostrates himself before

the horns which are kept in this building, and then goes to the front

of the dairy. He is now perkursol, and in order that he shall become

full kaltmokh or tunitusthkaltmokh, the palol gives him a piece of tuni

(petuni). The boy asks three times, “Tunitusthvaskina?”—“Shall I go to

wash the tuni?”—to which the palol answers each time “Tusthva!”—“Wash,

go!” The boy takes the petuni to the stream for ordinary use (not the

kwoinir) and bathes from head to foot. He puts to himself three times

the question, “tunitoikina?” and laying the piece of tuni on a stone,

he pours water on it three times and returns with the petuni in his

hand to the palol who will be sitting on his pohvelkars in front of the

dairy. The palol asks three times, “Tunitusthpacha?”—“Have you returned

from washing the tuni?”—and each time the boy replies,

“tunitusthpuspini”—“I have come from washing the tuni.” Then both palol

and boy go to the front of the kadr in which the calves are kept and

the palol puts into the gate three bars (tasth), which shut the opening

of the enclosure. The boy asks three times, “Tasthvatkina?”—“Shall I

touch the tasth?”—and each time the palol replies “Tasthvat!” The boy,

who hitherto has been perkursol, now touches the tasth, and by so doing

attains the full rank of kaltmokh, and at once goes and pours

buttermilk (kaizhvatiti) for the palol.

The latter parts of the ordination ceremonies of the kaltmokh, from the

point at which he receives petuni from the palol to the touching of the

tasth, are always performed whenever the kaltmokh returns to the ti

after a journey in which it has been necessary to degrade himself to

the rank of perkursol (see p. 106). The initial stages of becoming a

kaltmokh are known in general as niròdibudnudr.

THE ORDINATION OF THE PALOL

In accordance with the fact that the palol belongs to the highest and

most sacred grade of the dairy-priesthood, we find that the ceremonies

preceding his entrance upon office are far more elaborate and prolonged

than for the minor grades.

In order that a Teivali man may become a candidate for the office of

palol he must first have gone through a preliminary qualifying ceremony

called tesherst. When the office of palol becomes vacant, the people of

the clan to which the ti belongs are restricted in their choice to

those men who have been through this ceremony. When one of these

qualified men has been selected, he then goes through the proper

ordination ceremonies, known as niròditi.

In the case of a palol of the Nòdrs ti, the niròditi ceremonies are

performed partly at Nòdrs, partly at Òdr, one of the most sacred

villages of the Nòdrs clan, and finally at the ti mad where he is to

hold office.

THE TESHERST CEREMONY

This qualifying ceremony for the office of palol is always performed by

a number of men at the same time. The number taking part must be three,

five, seven or nine. There seemed to be no doubt that it was not

permissible for four, six or eight men to perform the ceremony

together. One or two Todas told me that an even number of men might do

the ceremony, but all the more trustworthy witnesses were agreed that

there must be an uneven number, and on all the occasions of which I

could obtain records of actual ceremonies, an uneven number of men had

done tesherst together. The ceremony may not be performed while the

funeral ceremonies of any Teivali person are uncompleted.

At the time of my visit there were only nine or ten men who had been

through the tesherst ceremony, including those who were holding or had

held the office of palol. It was proposed that a number of the younger

men should perform the ceremony about this time, but it had to be

delayed till the second funeral ceremonies of two Teivali women had

been held.

The tesherst ceremony always begins on a Monday after the new moon. It

takes place at certain villages where people are living, and in all the

cases of which I obtained records it had been done at Kudrnakhum,

belonging to the Nòdrsol, or at Pushtar, belonging to the Taradrol.

People must be living at the village at the time the ceremony is

performed.

The candidates go to the village on Monday evening, accompanied by two

or three Nòdrs men. All go to a stream by a wood and the ceremony

begins after sunset, when all the candidates throw off their cloaks and

stand in a row. A man of the Nòdrs clan has a tuni in his hand and each

candidate asks three times, “Tunivatkina?”—“Shall I touch the

tuni?”—and each time the Nòdrs man replies, “Tunivat!” The first man in

the row touches the tuni and then the others in order. The Nòdrs man

then gives the tuni to the first man who touched it, and he tears it

into as many pieces as there are candidates, giving a piece to each

man, who puts it in the string of his kuvn. All then go in search of

the leaves of muli and each plucks seven leaves and seven shoots. They

go to the stream, one by one, and each drinks and rubs himself with the

shoots seven times, as in the ordination ceremony, and puts the shoots

in his back hair.

While they are doing this, the Nòdrs man will have made fire by

friction, using the wood of muli, and the men warm themselves at the

fire. Each man then goes in search of seven tudr leaves and tudr bark

and carries out the usual purification ceremony once only, drinking out

of each of the seven leaves, after which the men take food prepared by

another of the Nòdrs men, and all pass the night in the wood. Next

morning the men fetch tudr bark and leaves and repeat the drinking and

rubbing ceremony of the previous evening, but on this occasion each man

says “Teshniròdinem,” as he throws the leaf over his head after

drinking. All then bathe completely in the stream.

While they are doing this, the Nòdrs men have been cooking a large

amount of food, more than the candidates can readily eat, and an old

woman of the Tartharol who is to take part in the ceremony has bathed

and dressed in her best clothes and put on all the ornaments she can

procure: gold earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings. When the men

have bathed, they wait till the message comes that the food is ready,

and then each man takes off his piece of tuni and his pennar and his

kuvn, so that he is completely naked. The Nòdrs man portions out the

food and puts it on tudr leaves, the portion for each man being more

than he can possibly eat at one sitting, and the portions of food are

given to the old woman, who sits down with her back to the men. Each

man goes up behind the back of the old woman, and she gives him his

portion of food by putting her hand behind her back so that she does

not look at him, and in doing so she says three times

“Teshtòrtudenk?”—“Tesh food have I not given?” The men take the food,

go into the thickest part of the wood and eat it. None of the food

prepared on this occasion may be eaten by the Nòdrs men or by the old

woman, but though the amount is excessive, the whole of it must be

eaten by the candidates during the day. After each man has eaten to the

full he may put on his cloak. The Nòdrs men and the old woman go back

to their villages and they must hold no communication of any kind with

the candidates after the food has been given. The men remain in the

wood all day, and when it is getting dark they go to the nearest

village at which any of them live, taking care that no one sees them on

the way.

One of the most remarkable features of this ceremony is the part taken

by the old woman. She must be one of the Tartharol; she must be past

the age of child-bearing, and she must never have had intercourse with

one of her own clan. In the last particular the word of the woman is

trusted, for it was said that she would never deceive in such a matter.

Every woman believed that if she did not speak the truth she would die,

and all those concerned in the ceremony would either die or have

serious illness. I was told that it was by no means easy to find a

woman who fulfilled this requirement, and in each of the cases of which

I have records the same woman officiated—viz. Naspilthi of Taradr (21).

Other remarkable features of this ceremony are that the men should be

given more food than they are readily able to eat, as in the ceremony

connected with the kaltmokh after the migration (p. 139), and that they

receive this food in a condition of complete nudity, a condition which

only occurs in one other dairy ceremonial.

The tesherst ceremony is one in which candidates for the office of

palol go through certain of the rites which ordinarily form part of the

process of ordination, with the addition of special ceremonies, in

which a superabundant portion of food is given by a woman who fulfils

certain peculiar conditions.

When the office of palol becomes vacant, the clan to which the ti

belongs chooses from among those who have been through the tesherst

ceremony, and the chosen man has then to undergo the ordination

ceremonies proper, or niròditi.

THE NIRODITI CEREMONY

The ceremony begins on a Saturday evening, after the new moon, when the

chosen candidate goes to a village of the clan to which his future ti

belongs and sleeps there in the ordinary hut.

On the following morning he goes before daybreak to the front of the

dairy of the village, naked except for his kuvn, and a man of the

village stands at the door of the dairy holding a tuni in his hand, and

says three times, “Tunivatkia!”—“Touch the tuni!” The candidate

answers, “Tunivatkin,” and takes the tuni. If the garment is a complete

one, he puts it on; if only a piece, he puts it in his pennar and

taking seven tudr leaves and tudr bark he goes to the stream of the

dairy and performs the usual drinking and rubbing ceremony, and after

putting the tudr bark in his hair, goes a little way off and shakes his

head so that the bark falls out. He repeats the ceremony twice, so that

it is performed three times altogether—i.e., he drinks from the tudr

leaves three times seven. This ceremony is called teshnir, and is done

in view of the inhabitants of the village. The candidate stays for the

rest of the day at the village. If there is a wursol there, the food of

the candidate is prepared by this dairyman [46]; if no wursol is

present, it is prepared by the palikartmokh. The food is grain boiled

in milk, and is only eaten in the evening. The candidate sleeps that

night in a wood near the village, but not the same wood as that by the

stream where teshnir had been done. Either the wursol or the

palikartmokh must pass the night in the wood with the candidate, and

other men of the village may also be their companions. Until the

candidate lies down to sleep he must remain naked (except for the

kuvn), but when sleeping he may cover himself with his ordinary cloak.

Next morning (Monday) the candidate gets up at sunrise, lays aside his

cloak, and goes to bathe completely in the stream, saying three times,

“Tudraspinem,” [47]—“Tudr I have washed,” thus washing off the tudr of

the previous day. He then returns to the place where he had slept, puts

on his ordinary cloak with the right arm out, and goes to the front of

the dairy. He is given food by the wursol, or, in his absence, by the

palikartmokh, and eats it outside the dairy, after which he washes. He

then goes to the ordinary stream of the village (ars nipa) and takes up

water with his hand, and by so doing he becomes perol—i.e., he loses

any sanctity he has acquired by the ceremony of the previous day.

The candidate then goes direct to the village of Òdr and stays near

that village till the evening, when he makes his way to the front of

the dairy of that place. He stands about ten yards from the dairy and

throws off his cloak. A man of the clan to which his future ti belongs

now gives him a complete tuni of the kind worn in the village dairy (a

mad tuni, not a ti tuni), saying three times, “Tunivatkia,” to which is

replied “Tunivatkin.” The man who gives the tuni now remains as

assistant and companion till the candidate reaches his future dairy.

The candidate puts the tuni round his loins, goes to the stream of the

dairy, and performs the drinking and rubbing ceremony with muli leaves

and shoots as in the ordination of palikartmokh. The assistant makes

fire by friction and lights a fire of muli wood, at which the candidate

warms himself.

The drinking ceremony with tudr is then carried out in the same way as

at teshnir, and then the wursol of Òdr brings buttermilk in an ertatpun

and gives it in cups of kakud leaves to both the candidate and his

assistant. They also receive food from the wursol, while any other men

present go to the ordinary hut for their meal. That night is passed at

a special spot under a tree not far from the dairy at Òdr, the wursol

and assistant being the companions of the candidate. On that night the

candidate may not touch his ordinary cloak and has to be content with

the scanty covering of the tuni. [48]

On the next day (Tuesday), the ceremony with tudr leaves and bark is

repeated three times as on the previous days, and after the wursol has

finished his dairy work he gives buttermilk and food to both the

candidate and his assistant. On the afternoon of this day the tudr

ceremony is performed again, but on this occasion seven times, so that

the candidate drinks from the tudr leaves seven times seven. In the

evening buttermilk and food are again given by the wursol and the three

men pass the night in the wood.

On the next day (Wednesday) the candidate fetches bark of the tree from

which the material called twadrinar is made and makes for his temporary

use a rough kuvn. When it is ready, he bathes in the dairy stream,

takes off the old pennar and kuvn and puts on the newly made garment,

together with the tuni, and goes with the wursol to the dairy where the

buffaloes of his ti are standing. When they approach the ti mad the

wursol goes away and leaves the candidate to go to the dairy alone,

where he sits on the outskirts (pül) of the ti mad. When the kaltmokh

sees the candidate approaching, he collects the buffaloes at the

milking place (pepkarmus) and catches hold of the tails of certain

buffaloes which are to be taken in charge by the new palol, saying to

himself three times for each buffalo, “Tover vatkina?”—“Tail shall I

hold?”—and replying to himself each time, “Vat!” At the Nòdrs ti if the

candidate is to be palol of the tiir, the kaltmokh holds the tails of

three buffaloes, one of each kind; if he is to be palol of the warsir,

two buffaloes only take part (see p. 112). After this the kaltmokh

prepares food in the pül of the dairy and gives it to the palol

designate. While the kaltmokh is attending to the new palol he must

become a perkursol—i.e., he degrades himself to this rank before

undertaking these duties. During the night the candidate together with

the kaltmokh and the other palol already in office (if there are two,

as at the Nòdrs ti) sleep in the hut of the ti mad.

The next day (Thursday) the new palol goes to the stream and performs

the tudr ceremony three times in the morning and nine times in the

afternoon; i.e., he drinks from the tudr leaves three and nine times

seven. On this day the kaltmokh milks the punir, takes the milk to the

pül, churns there and gives buttermilk, butter and other food to the

new palol. On that night all sleep in the karenpoh or calf-house.

The proceedings of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the same as those

of Thursday, except that the new palol may now drink the milk of the

punir like the full palol.

On Monday morning the new palol enters on his office. In the morning he

bathes and then takes off the temporary pennar and kuvn he has been

wearing and replaces them by others made in the same way. A Badaga (the

tikelfmav) then brings one of the two cloaks of the palol, that called

pòdrshtuni, and lays it down at the outskirts of the dairy. It is taken

up by the kaltmokh and given to the new palol, who spreads it out on

the place where the buffaloes are milked. He then takes pounded tudr

bark, says the kwarzam of the gods, of the ti and of the buffaloes (see

Chap. X) and throws the pounded bark on the garment. He turns the

garment over so as to expose the other surface and purifies this in the

same way. He then asks himself, “Pòdrshtuni tutkina?”—“Shall I tie the

pòdrshtuni?”—and throwing off the mad tuni he has been wearing

hitherto, he puts on the pòdrshtuni. The kaltmokh returns the mad tuni

to the Nòdrs people, who come on this day and stand on the outskirts of

the place.

The new palol then purifies his dairy by sprinkling it with water and

tudr bark in the same way as is done when going to a new dairy (see p.

136). He next takes the uppun, puts into it water and tudr bark, and

turning towards the Nòdrs people with the vessel to his forehead, says

three times to them, “Poh pûkhkina?”—“Shall I enter the dairy?” All the

Nòdrs people cry “Pûkh!” and the new palol enters his dairy with the

full rights of his position.

At some period before entering into office as full palol the candidate

touches a tasth or bar of the entrance into the tu. This ceremony is

similar to that performed by the kaltmokh, and as in this case it

seemed to be the special indication of entrance on full office, but

unfortunately my notes do not make it clear exactly when this touching

of the tasth is done nor with what ceremonial it is accomplished.

For a month from this day there will be what is called pon, nothing

being either sold or given from the dairy. At the end of the month, on

a Monday, a tuni of the kind called kubuntuni is brought by the

tikelfmav, and is put on in the usual way. (During the previous month

the pòdrshtuni will have been used both as a cloak and as a loincloth,

and will have been taken into the sleeping hut.) The palol is visited

by the dairymen of his rank from the other ti dairies, and there will

be many visitors from all the Todas, who come and sit in the pül of the

dairy and feast. The new palol also receives greetings on this day from

the Todas for the first time since his entry upon office. He greets the

Tartharol first, saying “Bañ” in the usual way, and then the Teivaliol,

saying “Pekein,” and each reply in the customary manner.

The ordination ceremonies of the palol are thus very prolonged. There

is a preliminary qualifying ceremony in which the would-be candidates

receive pieces of tuni, perform both the muli and the tudr purificatory

ceremonies, each once only, and on the following day go through the

very peculiar ceremonial in which they are given superabundant food by

an old woman while in a condition of complete nudity.

The proper ordination ceremonies begin on a Sunday, when the candidate

receives tuni, performs the purificatory ceremony with tudr three times

seven, and sleeps in a wood. On Monday he washes off the tudr, becomes

a perol, and goes to the village of Òdr, where he again receives tuni,

goes through the muliniròditi ceremony which makes him a palikartmokh,

and then performs the tudr ceremony three times seven and sleeps in the

open, covered only with the tuni. On Tuesday he performs the tudr

purification three times seven in the morning and seven times seven in

the evening and again sleeps in the open. On Wednesday he bathes and

assumes a special kuvn and goes to his future dairy, where the kaltmokh

performs the tail-holding ceremony and the candidate sleeps in the hut.

On the four next days the tudr ceremony is performed three times seven

in the mornings and nine times seven in the afternoons, and the

calf-house is used as a sleeping-place. On the following Monday the

palol enters upon office, assuming the pòdrshtuni, touching a tasth,

and entering his dairy.

The foregoing description of the ordination of the palol applies

primarily to the Nòdrs ti, but in its main details it holds good for

other places.

I am doubtful as to the part taken by the village of Òdr, and am not

clear whether part of the ordination ceremony is performed at this

place by every palol or only by those of the Nòdrs ti. It is possible

that it is only the latter who visit the village, but I do not know of

any corresponding village visited by the candidates for the post of

palol at other ti dairies. My impression is that every candidate for

the office of palol visits this village.

The only definite modification of the ceremonies attendant on entrance

into office of which I know occurs at the Kars ti. Here the palol is

first ordained to the parsir—i.e., he becomes the palol of this herd of

buffaloes and tends them only. At the end of a month he becomes palol

of the pürsir, and the ceremony of entrance upon this office was spoken

of as pelkkatthtiti to the pürspoh. In this case the ceremony of

ordination to the parspoh is called niròditi, and that of removal to

another dairy pelkkatthtiti.

On the afternoon of the appointed day the palol churns the milk of the

morning in the parspoh and then shuts the door of this dairy, which he

never re-enters as long as he is in office. He could only do so if he

should cease to be palol and be re-ordained to the same ti.

A new pòdrshtuni is brought by a Badaga and is assumed by the palol

after purification in the usual manner. At the same time he puts on a

new kagurs, [49] which has been purified by the kaltmokh, who has also

cut a new kwoinörtpet on the hill of Kulinkars which the palol then

purifies with tudr bark in the usual manner, saying the names of the

four deities, Anto, Nòtirzi, Kulinkars, and Kuzkarv.

The palol then digs up earth from the footprints of one of the pürsir,

saying the whole prayer of the ti as he does so. He drives the buffalo

slightly to one side by touching it with the wand, and takes earth from

the exact place where the foot of the buffalo had been resting and puts

the earth into a cup which he has made of tudr leaves. He adds pounded

tudr bark and goes to the spring (kwoinir) of the dairy, where he mixes

water with the earth and bark. He then goes to the stone called

pepkusthkars, where he has previously laid a complete set of new dairy

vessels and implements of the inner room, together with the lamp and

the bell (Ner) of the pürspoh. The bell is laid on the stone, the other

things by its side.

Wearing the pòdrshtuni and holding the kwoinörtpet under his left arm,

the palol sprinkles the contents of the leaf-cup over the dairy vessels

and other objects, beginning with the bell, and as he does so he prays,

using the whole prayer of the dairy. He then ties all the vessels and

other contents of the dairy on a staff called pepkati in exactly the

same manner as when taking them from one ti mad to another. The bell is

tied up in a leafy covering of kiaz and everything is done as in the

migration from one place to another, and the staff with its burden is

then borne by the palol from the pepkusthkars to the stone called

perskars, by the side of which the dairy vessels are laid, while the

mani is uncovered and laid on the stone. The staff is then placed at

the back of the dairy.

Having untied the dairy vessels and arranged them by the stone, the

palol pounds fresh tudr bark, and with the kwoinörtpet under his left

arm goes with the karitòrzum to the sacred spring, into which he throws

the bark, takes water, and returns. Taking more pounded bark, he puts

it in the idrkwoi and pours water into this vessel from the karitòrzum.

He takes the idrkwoi with its contents to the front of the dairy, and

with his right hand sprinkles the water over the outside of the dairy

and then into its interior till the vessel is emptied. The dairy

vessels are not again purified, but are taken into the dairy with the

same procedure as that described in the last chapter. The vessels of

the outer room, which have been purified by the kaltmokh, are then

taken to their places. Fire is made by friction; one fireplace is

lighted and fire transferred to the other, and from this the lamp is

lighted, and the palol, who is now palol of the pürsir, goes out to

look after and milk his new charges. On this evening no food is taken,

nor does the palol drink buttermilk as usual, and the kaltmokh does not

blow the horn in the evening. On the following day, which is the

occasion of a feast for all Todas, the usual routine is followed.

The most interesting feature of this ceremony at the Kars ti is that

the vessels of the inner room are taken by the palol from the

pepkusthkars to the perskars, a distance said to be about fifty yards,

in exactly the same manner as that in which they are carried from one

dairy to another during the migrations when the distance may be many

miles.

The essential feature of the various ordination ceremonies is

purification by drinking water from certain leaves and rubbing the body

with the juice of certain plants or the bark of a tree mixed with water

from a dairy stream or spring. The ordinary dairyman uses the leaves

and shoots of muli; the dairymen of the Taradr kugvali and the Kanòdrs

poh use seven kinds of leaves and rub themselves with tudr bark, while

the three grades of dairyman open only to Teivali or Melgars people not

only rub with the juice of tudr bark, but use tudr leaves for the

purificatory drinking.

The palikartmokh drinks and rubs himself seven times only, the wursol

and kaltmokh seven times seven, while at various stages in his

ordination the palol uses tudr bark three times seven, seven times

seven, and nine times seven.

The final stage of ordination or induction is marked by touching some

sacred object of the dairy. The ordinary dairyman touches one or more

of the sacred vessels of the dairy; the wursol, kugvalikartmokh, and

the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs touch the mu, a dairy vessel buried in the

buffalo pen, which is dug up for the ordination ceremony. The kaltmokh

and the palol touch a tasth, the former touching a bar of the calf

enclosure and the latter one in the opening of the pen used for adult

buffaloes.

According to one account, the Teivali palikartmokh also touches a mu on

entrance into office, but it is very doubtful if this is correct.

Nothing was said about it at the ordination at which I was present, and

I saw nothing to indicate that this vessel was being used, but it is

possible that the mu had been dug up earlier in the day and put inside

the dairy.

Another interesting feature of the ordination ceremonies is that a

dairyman of a higher grade may be taken through the lower stages on his

way to the higher office. Thus both wursol and palol perform the

purificatory ceremony with muli, which is the chief feature of the

ordination of the palikartmokh. There did not seem to be any stage in

the ordination of the palol when he could be said to be a wursol,

though the ceremonies of Monday evening and Tuesday are very much like

those of the wursol, the chief difference being in the exact number of

times that the tudr purification is performed.

CHAPTER VIII

SPECIAL DAIRY CEREMONIES

I have so far dealt with the organisation and ritual of the dairy, with

the ceremonies accompanying the movements of the buffaloes from one

place to another, and with the ceremonies attendant on the entrance of

the dairymen into office. There remain ceremonies which accompany

certain events in the course of the dairy ritual or in the lives of the

buffaloes. One of these, the pepkaricha ceremony, is performed whenever

any evil befalls a certain dairy vessel which is buried in the buffalo

pen. Another ceremony celebrates the birth of a calf, and a group of

ceremonies are connected with the act of giving salt to the buffaloes.

THE PEPKARICHA CEREMONY

In the account of the daily work of the dairy, it will be remembered

that whenever the dairyman goes out to milk for the first time he puts

some buttermilk into his milking vessel. This is done in every dairy,

and the buttermilk so added is called pep. The milk of every day has

mixed with it some of the buttermilk from the milking of the day

before, and in this way continuity is kept up in the dairy operations.

Under certain conditions this continuity is broken and new pep has to

be made, and the process of doing so is the ceremony called pepkaricha,

pepkarichti, or pepkarichanudr—i.e., “pep he purifies,” or, “if pep is

purified.”

In some cases new pep has to be made for the whole clan (madol); in

other cases it has only to be made for one of the dairies of the clan.

The ceremony is performed for the whole clan whenever anything goes

wrong with a certain dairy vessel called mu, which is buried in the

buffalo pen at the chief village of the clan. We have seen that this

vessel is used in the ordination to certain dairy offices, and it is

also inspected as a matter of routine about once a year. If it is

broken or has been stolen or tampered with in any way, it becomes

necessary to make new pep for the whole clan.

Among the Tartharol, new pep has also to be made after the funeral of a

male on account of the defilement of the mani involved in its exposure

to the ordinary people at the funeral ceremonies.

The conditions which necessitate the making of new pep for a single

dairy are, (1) if a Tamil or other “foreigner” has entered the dairy,

(2) if an ordinary Toda (perol) has gone into the dairy at night, (3)

if the dairyman has used tobacco. In these cases the people of the

village at which the offence has been committed procure a new mu, and,

after purifying it, go to some other dairy of the clan, where they

procure some buttermilk to act as pep and take it to their own dairy.

It is only when new pep has to be made for the whole clan that the

prolonged ceremony of pepkarichti has to be carried out. This ceremony

differs in its details for each clan, and is more complicated in some

cases than in others. As an example, I will give the proceedings for

the Kuudr clan.

When it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole group of

dairies belonging to the clan it is necessary to take the buffaloes to

one special dairy. The Kuudr people go to the dairy of Kwirg near

Sholur. On the day of going to Kwirg, a feast is held at which the food

called ashkkartpimi is eaten.

Whenever new pep is made it is necessary to have a new palikartmokh,

and the man who is to undertake the duties goes to Kwirg with the

milking buffaloes of the pasthir and is accompanied by a number of

Kuudr men. The men take with them a new and complete set of dairy

vessels, and reach Kwirg in the early morning of a Sunday after the new

moon. The buffaloes are at once penned in the tu. The first business is

the ordination of the new palikartmokh, which is carried out as usual.

When at the stream for the purification ceremony, the palikartmokh has

with him a new mu, which he fills with water at the stream. He takes

this vessel to the tu in which the buffaloes are penned, and knocks one

of the buffaloes on the back with his wand (pet), so that it moves to

one side. Then with the wand he digs some earth from the spot where the

hoof of the buffalo had been resting, and mixes this earth with tudr

bark. He places part of the mixed earth and bark in the mu and puts the

rest on one side; this part of the ceremony is called mukatchkudrspini,

or purification of the mu, literally “mu purification I have purified.”

The palikartmokh then brings all the other dairy vessels and

implements, beginning with the patat, and purifies them by throwing on

them mixed earth and tudr bark, sprinkling them with water from the mu

three times, saying “Oñ” each time. The things of the patatmar are

purified first and then the things of the ertatmar, and the purified

objects are placed in the dairy. Fire is made by friction and the

palikartmokh goes out to milk. Buttermilk is not put into the

milking-vessel as usual, and the lamp is not lighted. The milk is

poured into the patat, and the palikartmokh then prepares food, which

he gives to the people who have come with him, but he himself fasts.

All the men then go away except one or two, who are to remain as

companions of the dairyman. In the evening the palikartmokh takes off

some of the cream, [50] which has risen to the top of the milk, and

puts it into the lamp which he lights, and then prays, using the

kwarzam of Kwirg [51] and the kwarzam of the pep only.

If the milk has coagulated it is now churned, and then the buffaloes

are milked as usual, but if the milk has not coagulated, it is left

till next morning. In the evening the dairyman takes food as usual.

On the following day, it seems that the milk has always become solid

and is churned. Immediately after churning and without taking food, the

dairyman puts together the dairy things according to the usual method

followed when going from one village to another, and goes with his

buffaloes to the village of Kiudr. The dairy vessels are carried in the

usual manner, the new buttermilk called puthpep being in the patat and

the butter in the mu.

The people living at Kiudr leave the village, and the man who has been

filling the office of palikartmokh there throws away all the old dairy

things and takes the mani to the stones by the side of that dairy

called neurzülnkars (see p. 129). After leaving the bells there for a

little time, the dairyman takes them to the pali nipa, and then his

office ceases and he becomes perol.

The new palikartmokh, who has come from Kwirg, purifies the dairy and

his new dairy vessels and the mani in exactly the same way as when

reaching a new dairy, and then places the bells, vessels, and other

objects in the dairy. During the next month, till the following new

moon, the dairyman and his companions stay alone at Kiudr doing the

ordinary business of the dairy. During this time they may be visited by

men of the Kuudr clan, but neither by women nor by men of other clans.

At the end of the month, on the Sunday after the new moon, the

palikartmokh drives the buffaloes (now called ponir, festival

buffaloes) to Kuudr, taking with him the puthpep and the dairy vessels.

When the people at Kuudr see the dairyman coming with the ponir, they

leave the village and all go to Kiudr, which the buffaloes have just

left. There they hold a feast to which many people of other clans, both

men and women, are invited.

When the palikartmokh reaches Kuudr, he purifies the dairy as he had

done at Kiudr and puts the vessels in their places.

Certain men of the clan then come, each with a new mu, and these

vessels are laid by the side of the stones called keinkars and

tashtikars in the wall of the pen. At Kuudr fifteen new mu should be

brought by the fifteen heads of families of the Kuudr clan. The

palikartmokh then purifies each mu with tudr bark in the usual way and

places the vessels on the patatmar of the dairy, after which he gives

food to those who have provided the vessels.

The palikartmokh with his companion or companions then stay at Kuudr

for a month, when, again on a Sunday after the new moon, all the

Kuudrol assemble at Kuudr and hold a feast. On that day a new

palikartmokh is appointed for each dairy of the Kuudr clan. Each man

goes through the usual ordination ceremony and then receives one of the

new mu containing some of the new pep, which he takes to his dairy.

Each new dairyman also provides new dairy vessels, and, when he reaches

his dairy, purifies the mu and the new dairy things in the way already

described. He puts the vessels into the dairy and then goes to milk,

taking some of the new pep in his milking-vessel, and thereafter

matters go on as usual. Each new dairyman fasts while going to his

dairy with the new pep, although the rest of the people are feasting.

Those who remain at Kuudr bury the mu in which the pep was brought from

Kwirg. It is buried by the side of the pen, under a tree called

teikhkwadiki.

The ceremony of making new pep is carried out on the same lines in all

dairies, but usually it is less complicated and fewer villages have to

be visited than in the case of the Kuudrol. It seems that there is a

tendency in some clans to perform the ceremony less rigidly than of

old. Thus, the Kars people used to go to Keshker for new pep, but now

they perform the ceremony at Kars itself, so that the migration to a

new place with its attendant ceremonial is avoided.

There are certain differences in the procedure in the case of Teivali

and Tarthar clans. One, the necessity for new pep after the funeral of

a male, has been already mentioned.

Another difference is that there is a buried mu for each kind of dairy,

so that a clan which has two or three kinds of dairy will have two or

three mu buried in the pen. If it is the mu belonging to the wursuli

which is broken or tampered with, the ceremony is performed by the

wursol, who takes earth from the footprints of one of the wursulir. If

the mu of the kudrpali is injured, the kudrpalikartmokh performs the

ceremony, taking earth from the footprints of one of the other kinds of

sacred buffaloes. Thus at Kars he takes it from the prints of the

martir.

At Kanòdrs new pep has to be made at a place called Kautarmad, which I

could not identify. It is a long way from Kanòdrs, but the people have

to go there because the god Kwoto used to make pep there. There is one

feature peculiar to the ceremony for this clan. Earth has to be taken

from a certain spot from which it was taken by Kwoto, and this earth is

mixed with that taken from the footprints of the buffalo.

Another special feature of the Kanòdrs dairy is connected with the

buried mu and is probably the result of the fact that this dairy is now

only occupied occasionally. When the pohkartpol leaves the dairy on

vacating office, he takes up the buried mu, pours into it a small

quantity of pep, and reburies the vessel, covering it on the top with a

stone. When he resumes office, he takes up the mu and purifies it with

the two kinds of earth used in the full ceremony, and puts the pep

which has been buried into his milking-vessel when he goes out to milk

for the first time. As in other Tarthar clans, the full ceremony of

pepkaricha is only carried out when the mu is broken or stolen, and

after the funeral of a male.

A characteristic feature of Toda dairy procedure is the coagulation of

the milk before it is churned. This coagulation occurs in a few hours

without the addition of rennet or other special coagulating agent, the

milk drawn in the morning being nearly always solid at the time of the

afternoon churning. This rapid coagulation of the milk is almost

certainly assisted By the added buttermilk or pep, the curdling being

probably an acid coagulation set up or hastened by the addition of the

sour buttermilk. If this were the case, it might be expected that

habitual failure of the milk to coagulate might be regarded as a reason

for making new pep, and I therefore inquired carefully into this point.

It was quite clear, however, that delay in the coagulation was not

looked upon as a reason for the ceremony. If there was habitual delay,

it was customary to consult the diviners, and they always gave one of

two reasons for the delay: either that it was due to the action of a

sorcerer, or that the dairyman had committed one of the offences

against the dairy of which a list is given on p. 295.

If delay were said to be due to the first cause, the sorcerer would be

invited to the village, entertained with food, and induced to remove

his spell; if to the second cause, the dairyman would have to perform

the irnörtiti or similar ceremony; but there was never any question of

making new pep, the necessity for this ceremony being entirely

dependent on the condition of the buried dairy vessel.

THE IRPALVUSTHI CEREMONY

The ceremony of irpalvusthi (buffalo milk he milks) is performed about

the fifteenth day after the birth of a calf. It only takes place when

one of the sacred buffaloes has calved, and is not performed in

ordinary villages for putiir, nor at the ti for punir. It is performed

after the birth of both male and female calves. The ceremony is carried

out in the same fashion at the wursuli, the kudrpali and the tarvali,

but has different features at the kugvali of Taradr and at the ti.

There are special days for the ceremony. At the tarvali, it must be

performed on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday; at the kudrpali and

wursuli, on Sunday or Wednesday; at the kugvali on Saturday. The

ceremony is performed at the ti, but I omitted to obtain any account of

the proceedings at this grade of dairy.

When this ceremony is held at the village of Kuudr, a man from Òdr

belonging to the Nodrsol must attend, and similarly a man from Kuudr

must be present when the ceremony is performed at Kuudr, this

regulation being the result of certain events in the histories of the

buffaloes of these places (see p. 647).

At each of the three kinds of dairy which follow the same procedure,

the chief part is taken by the dairyman. At the wursuli, the wursol

officiates, and at the kudrpali and tarvali, the palikartmokh.

The first appropriate occasion after the fifteenth day from the birth

of the calf is appointed and the dairy is purified with dried

buffalo-dung. Contrary to the general rule, the lamp is lighted on the

morning of this day. All the buffaloes are milked as usual; one or two

pun of milk being poured into the patat and all the rest into the

ertat.

The dairyman then puts some milk into the milking-vessel, and, carrying

his wand, he leads the fifteen-day-old calf to its mother to be

suckled. While the calf is being suckled, the dairyman strikes the

mother on the right side of the back three times with the wand, saying

“Oñ” each time. He then puts the wand on the top of the milking-vessel

and, holding both in his left hand, milks the buffalo once or twice

with the other hand, so that the milk splashes on the wand as it falls

into the vessel. The vessel and wand are then laid at the back of the

dairy, which the dairyman enters to prepare food, boiling grain or rice

with milk in a special vessel (ertat) kept for the purpose. While the

food is being cooked the dairyman takes some of the grass called kakar

and the plant called kabudri, and sweeps the interior of the dairy with

them, beginning at the patatmar. While doing this and during his other

operations on this day, he must not turn his back to the contents of

the dairy. After having swept the dairy, he lays the kakar and kabudri

by the wall of the building, again takes the milking-vessel and wand

from the back of the dairy, and, having called the people of the

village, he salutes by raising the vessel and wand to his forehead and

prays, all present praying with him. I am not certain whether it is the

prayer of the village or a special prayer which is used on this

occasion. After praying, the dairyman lays the wand on the top of the

patat and pours the milk which he obtained from the buffalo into the

patat over the wand. He puts the latter in its appointed place and then

goes to the ertatmar, where he prepares a large number of leaves on

which he portions out the food (tòrkisthiti) which he has prepared, and

all the people present take this food outside the dairy. On the

following day, the buffalo which has calved is milked with the rest.

When this ceremony is performed at the wursuli dairy, it is the only

occasion on which the wursol prepares food; at all other times, the

food of this dairyman is prepared by the palikartmokh. On this occasion

the wursol not only cooks food for himself but for all those present.

Another distinctive feature of this ceremony is that it is the only

occasion on which the milk of the wursulir is ever drunk.

The day of irpalvusthi is the only day on which the dairymen of the

three kinds of dairy, with the exception of the wursol of certain

dairies, do their work kabkaditi, i.e., do not turn their backs to the

contents of the dairy.

At the kugvali of Taradr, the ceremony is more elaborate. It begins in

the afternoon, when the dairy is purified with dried buffalo-dung.

Three large pieces of the wood called kid are brought, and the dairyman

ties the small piece of cloth called petuni to the milking-vessel and

to a special wand called irpalvusthpet. [52] He also ties petuni in the

form of rings round the ring and little fingers of his right hand and

round the ring finger of his left hand. He then goes out with the

milking-vessel and wand, and after saluting by raising them to his

forehead, he goes to the place where the buffaloes are milked and prays

there.

The kugvalikartmokh then takes the calf to its mother and milks as at

the other dairies, but in this case he milks the buffalo completely,

and if, by doing so, he has not filled his milking-vessel, he fills it

with the milk of putiir. He pours this milk into the majpariv, which

has been carefully cleaned, and puts the three pieces of kid wood in

the fireplace. He puts into the milk three measures (ak) of rice, but

adds neither salt nor jaggery. When the food is ready, he portions it

out on leaves and gives to those present, who must on this occasion be

limited to the people of the village. This ceremony occurs on Saturday

evening.

On the following day, the ceremony is repeated, being called on this

occasion îrpatadûthti, i.e., “buffalo milk he uses publicly.” When

preparing food on this day the kugvalikartmokh puts into the milk

eleven ak of rice [53] and adds both salt and jaggery. The number of

pieces of wood used is not limited to three, but any quantity may be

burnt. When the food is ready, he goes out of the dairy and finds

assembled a large number of people, including guests from other

villages and clans. Among them a Melgars man must be included or there

could be no ceremony. When the dairyman sees the people, he says “Ol

pudra?” “People, have you come?” They answer “Pudspimi,” “We have

come.” The dairyman then brings the stirring-stick (put), and, taking

up some of the food on the stick, says “Tütr erkina?” “At the fire

shall I throw?” and the people answer “Tütr eri!” “At the fire, throw!”

The dairyman then throws the food on the stick into the fire, and

portions out the rest of the food among the people, who eat it outside

the dairy.

From the birth of the calf until this ceremony, the buffalo is not

milked and the calf is kept, when not with its mother, in the small

enclosure called kush. After the ceremony, the buffalo is milked like

the rest of the herd, and the calf joins the others in the ordinary

calf-house, or kwotars.

GIVING SALT TO BUFFALOES

Salt is given to the buffaloes five times a year, both at the ti mad

and the ordinary village. At the ti the salt is given with buttermilk,

and the ceremony is known as mòrup. At the ordinary village buttermilk

is not given, and there is no general name for the ceremony, though

there are special names for three of the five occasions on which salt

is given. These special names are also used at the ti. The first

occasion is kòrup, or ‘new grass salt,’ which takes place in the month

Nalani (February-March). The second is marup or ‘again salt,’ a month

later in Ani. The next two occasions have no special names, but in the

ordinary village are known as arsup, ‘house salt,’ given in the months

Ovani and Kirdivi (June-July and September-October). The last occasion

is in the month Emioti (November-December), and is known as paniup,

meaning ‘frost salt.’ In the case of kòrup and paniup, it seemed that

salt was given shortly before the time at which the young grass and

frost respectively were expected.

At the ti the ceremony is performed on the Sunday or Tuesday following

the new moon. At the Nòdrs ti it should be done for the tiir on Sunday

and for the warsir on Tuesday, but this now only happens when the

buffaloes are at Òdrtho and Kudreiil, where the dairies of the two

kinds of buffaloes are at some distance apart. At Mòdr and Anto and

other dairies, the ceremony is performed for both kinds of buffalo on a

Sunday. At the Pan ti the day for the ceremony is Tuesday, and at the

Kars ti, Sunday.

On the day before the ceremony each palol [54] digs a round hole called

the upunkudi at a prescribed spot, or more commonly enlarges the hole

remaining from a previous ceremony. On the following day each palol

carries out the usual morning churning and milking, but before drinking

buttermilk the dairy is cleansed with buffalo-dung. The palol then

pours into the vessel called alug two kudi of buttermilk and takes the

vessel and some salt to the upunkudi. He throws bark of the tudr tree

three times into the hole, three times into the buttermilk and on the

salt, and going to the spring he throws the bark three times into the

water, saying “Oñ” each time. The palol then fills the alug with water

from the spring, mixing it with the buttermilk already in the vessel.

He adds salt, saying “Oñ” three times, and the whole is poured into the

upunkudi. A special buffalo is then brought to the upunkudi; at the

Nòdrs ti the ti palol first leads up the buffalo belonging to the unir

which is called Enmars and the wars palol takes the buffalo of the

perithir called Òrsum, this act of sending a special buffalo first

being called îrpârsatiti. After this all the buffaloes are taken to

drink in groups of five or six. When the hole has been emptied, it is

refilled with salt and water, but this time no buttermilk is added.

When all the buffaloes have drunk, each palol pulls some of the grass

called kargh and throws it into the hole three times and returns to his

dairy to take buttermilk from the kaltmokh as usual.

At the ordinary village the salt-giving ceremony is performed about a

week after it has been done at the ti. Any day may be chosen except the

madnol, palinol, or arpatznol. [55] Thus at Kuudr the ceremony may be

performed on any day except Tuesday and Friday; at Kars, on any day

except Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On the three occasions with special names, kòrup, marup, and paniup,

guests come from other villages, but at the arsup this does not happen.

As in the case of the irpalvusthi ceremony, a man from Kuudr must be

present at the salt-giving ceremony of Òdr and a man from Òdr must be

present at Kuudr.

The ceremony is performed by the palikartmokh after the people of the

village have made the hole or upunkudi. [56] The palikartmokh takes

from the dairy the vessel corresponding to the alug of the ti, viz.,

the tat, but does not take buttermilk. Tudr bark is used in the same

way as at the ti.

At a Teivali village, the pasthir drink first. At a Tarthar village at

which there is a wursol, the wursulir drink first, the act of sending

certain buffaloes first being called irparsatiti as at the ti. After

the buffaloes have drunk, kargh grass is thrown into the hole, first by

the dairyman and then by all the others present, but it is only thrown

once by each person, who says “Oñ” as he throws.

The object of this ceremony is said to be that the buffaloes shall give

a plentiful supply of milk.

THE PONUP CEREMONY

At the ti dairy salt is given to the buffaloes on certain other

occasions and with a far more elaborate ritual. The ceremony is then

called ponup, or ‘festival salt,’ and takes place soon after the

migration from one dairy to another. At the Nòdrs ti the salt is given

on the Wednesday following the Sunday on which the migration has

occurred, and at the Kars ti and the Pan ti, on Sunday, a week later

than the procession.

On the night before the ceremony the palol shuts up the buffaloes in

the special pen called the pon tu.

On the morning of the appointed day, when the churning is finished, but

before the buffaloes have been milked, each palol brings six sprigs of

the shrub called puthimul, each sprig having on it five or six leaves.

Three of these sprigs are put on one side, and the other three are used

as follows:—Rice has been previously prepared and placed either on the

leaf called kakuders or on that called katers. The palol makes a hole

in this food in which he puts butter, and, taking the first sprig of

puthimul, he plucks from it one leaf and, using it as a spoon, takes up

some of the food and puts it on the fire in the fireplace called

tòratthwaskal, saying the name of the chief teu or god of the ti. He

then takes some of the butter, and holds it over the fire till it

drops, when he utters the name of the same god. He repeats this with a

second leaf of the puthimul, saying the name of the second most

important god of the ti, and so on with the other leaves. I obtained

the fullest account of ponup from Koboners, who had been palol of the

Kars ti, and here food and butter were put on the fire six times,

saying the names of Anto, Nòtirzi, Kuzkarv, Kulinkars, Onkomn, and

Karmanteu.

The kaltmokh then brings water taken from the ordinary stream in the

vessel called mòrkudriki, and gives it to the palol, who sits in the

outer room facing towards the inner room, and throws some of the rice

in front of him once, some behind him once, and the rest outside the

dairy. He puts some salt on the fire, and taking the water brought by

the kaltmokh, he sprinkles it before and behind him as he had done with

the food.

Then follows kaizhvatiti, i.e., the kaltmokh pours out buttermilk for

the palol. This is the only occasion on which this act takes place

before the buffaloes have been milked, the ceremony of drinking

buttermilk on every other occasion taking place when the morning’s work

is over. The palol gives food to the kaltmokh, and here, again, there

is a feature peculiar to this day, for the kaltmokh eats his food

sitting in the place in the hut where the palol usually sits.

The buffaloes are then milked, after which the palol fetches three

sticks of the kind ordinarily called kwadrikurs, but at the ti, kakul.

Each is used for a special purpose and has a corresponding name, one

being called irpasthkakul, the second kwarkul, and the third parkul.

The palol takes buffalo-dung in both hands and the irpasthkakul in the

right hand, and separates certain buffaloes from the rest by knocking

their backs three times with the dung and stick. At the Kars ti two

buffaloes are separated in this way; at the Nòdrs ti five buffaloes are

set apart, one of each kind, three by the ti palol, and two by the wars

palol. These buffaloes are known as ponir. The dairy is then purified

with the dung and water. The irpasthkakul is laid on one side, and the

palol puts salt in the basket called ponmukeri, and takes it with the

water-vessel called karpun to the place where salt is to be given,

taking also the remaining sprigs of puthimul and a bundle of fern.

At the place for the ceremony there is a stone called ponkars (when

there are two palol there will be two stones), and at the stone the

palol makes a vessel of clay and water so as to resemble a

milking-vessel. This clay vessel is called teukwoi (teu, god, and kwoi,

milking-vessel).

The palol then takes two perfect tudr leaves, and fastens them together

with the petioles of other leaves, so that they form a cup which is

called püvup. Salt is placed in this leaf vessel, which is laid down by

the side of the teukwoi. One such vessel is made for each buffalo, two

at the Kars ti and five at the Nòdrs ti.

The palol then takes the stick called kwarkul, and with it makes a hole

in the middle of each teukwoi, saying (at the Kars ti) “antok teukwoi

ûrîj, paln!” (“To Anto in teukwoi make hole, O palol!”). He then makes

other holes round the sides of the clay vessel, saying the names of the

other gods in the same manner. (At the Kars ti those which have already

been given. At the Nòdrs ti the names of five gods are mentioned—Anto,

Kulinkars, Nòtirzi, Kuladrvan, and Kuzkarv.) Two pieces of tudr bark

and a sprig of puthimul are then placed in each hole, saying for the

first, “Antok teukwoi et, paln!” (“To Anto in teukwoi put, O palol!”),

and this is repeated with the name of a different god for each hole.

Next the palol takes the stick called parkul, which has a sharpened

end, and makes small holes called upunkudi as in the mòrup ceremony. At

the Kars ti only two upunkudi are made; at the Nòdrs ti one palol makes

three and the other two holes. Tudr bark is thrown three times into the

holes and into the water of the spring. Water is taken from the spring

in the karpun, salt is put into the water three times and the salt and

water are poured into the holes, and the buffaloes previously set apart

are led to the holes and drink three times, one buffalo from each hole.

The leaf vessels previously made (püvup) are then given to the

buffaloes, and are eaten by them. Care is taken to give the leaf

vessels in such a way that the end of the leaf corresponding to the

petiole enters the mouth of the buffalo first.

The palol takes Anto’s leaf from the teukwoi and puts it in the karpun

with water, then faces towards the place where Anto lives (Anto’s hill)

and pours in that direction, saying “Antok,” “to Anto.” This is

repeated with the other leaves, the palol in each case turning and

pouring towards the place where the god lives.

Then follows the ceremony called tafkeirpudrti, i.e., “fern pool he

strokes.” The palol takes the bundle of fern which he has brought with

him and goes to the stream, which is blocked up, so that the water

accumulates and forms a pool. He waits till the pool is so deep that

the water would come half-way up his thighs, when he steps in with the

bundle of fern in his right hand and strokes the bundle over the water,

saying the kwarzam, or prayer names of certain gods and buffaloes (at

the Nòdrs ti the palol says, “Anto idith, Kûlinkârs idith, Nòtîrzi

idith, Kûlâdrvan idith, Kuzkârv idith, Mûv idith, Mòrs idith, Pan

idith, Kûdreij tîdj idith”: see Chapter X). The palol then buries the

fern at the bottom of the pool, so that there is no chance that it may

come up again, and throws the grass called kargh into each upunkudi

once only.

The palol then goes to the buffaloes and knocks one of the ordinary

kind called punir to one side with a bush called pîrskwadriktûr and

pours a little water on its back. This is called punîr ûvk nîr atiti,

i.e., “he pours water on the back of the punir.”

Finally the palol goes to a stream near the upunkudi and washes there

from the hands to the elbows. This final washing is called peiaspiti.

Pei is the Tamil word for ‘demon,’ and the word suggested that there

was an idea of warding off the influence of some kind of evil spirit,

but it seemed that peiaspiti was merely the ti form of kaiaspiti, “he

washes the hands.”

The following day is called ûpkârvnol. On this day small Badaga

children go to the ti mad and the palol gives them clarified butter on

a leaf. On this day also any one who has been a palol (patol) may go to

the ti mad and receive food unless the funeral ceremonies for one of

his clan should still be uncompleted.

The ceremonies of ponup were said to be designed to invite the gods to

be present by means of the clay vessels. The tudr bark and leaves were

said to be used in order to purify these vessels after their defilement

by human hands in the process of making.

CHAPTER IX

THE TODA GODS

The ceremonies which have been described in the last five chapters make

up a large part of the ritual of the Toda religion, but there is one

important feature of this ritual which has so far been left on one

side, or only cursorily mentioned, because its full consideration only

becomes possible after an account has been given of the Toda gods.

In describing the ritual of the dairy and the various ceremonies

connected with the buffaloes, it has been mentioned that at certain

times the prayer of the dairy or the prayer of the village is used. In

these prayers there are references to various incidents in the lives of

the gods, and many of the clauses would be unintelligible without a

knowledge of these lives. It therefore becomes necessary to consider

this branch of Toda mythology before dealing with the prayers in

detail.

The typical Toda god is a being who is distinctly anthropomorphic and

is called a teu. In the legends he lives much the same kind of life as

the mortal Toda, having his dairies and his buffaloes. The sacred

dairies and the sacred buffaloes of the Todas are still regarded as

being in some measure the property of the gods, and the dairymen are

looked upon as their priests. The gods hold councils and consult with

one another just as do the Todas, and they are believed to be swayed by

the same motives and to think in the same way as the Todas themselves.

At the present time most of the gods are believed to inhabit the

summits of the hills, but they are not seen by mortals. Before the

Todas were created, the gods lived on the Nilgiri Hills alone, and then

it is believed that there followed a period during which gods and men

inhabited the hills together. The gods ruled the men, ordained how they

should live and originated the various customs of the people. The Todas

can now give no definite account of their beliefs about the transition

from this state of things to that which now exists.

Each clan of the Todas has a deity especially connected with it. This

deity is called the nòdrodchi of the clan, and is believed to have been

the ruler of the clan when gods and men lived together. I am doubtful

whether there is at the present time any belief that the nòdrodchi

exerts an influence over the clan with which he is connected.

There was no department of Toda lore which gave me greater difficulty

than the study of the beliefs about the gods. There was no doubt that

two gods stood out pre-eminent among the rest. One was a male deity

whose name was Ön, and the other a female deity, Teikirzi. A simple

question which I had the greatest difficulty in settling was the

relation of these deities to one another. According to one account they

were brother and sister; according to another, father and daughter. It

seemed quite certain they were not husband and wife, and most probable

that they were brother and sister. Others of the gods were believed to

be related to one another, but on such points as this I found it almost

impossible to obtain trustworthy information. It may have been

reticence which made the difficulty, but I do not think so, and am

inclined to think that the Todas have now only vague ideas about the

histories of their more ancient gods, and have nothing like the

definite traditions which they possess about deities of obviously more

recent origin.

Sometimes there were discrepancies between different accounts which I

could not clear up, and in such cases I give the account which seems to

me to be the most trustworthy.

PITHI

This god is the earliest of whom any tradition is preserved. His name

is Pithi or Püthi, and he is often called Pithioteu. He was born near

the sacred dairy of Anto in a cave which had the same shape as the

ordinary Toda hut. According to one account, Pithi created Todas and

buffaloes, but there seemed to be little doubt that this is not the

correct tradition, which assigns the act of creation to his son Ön.

There is a suggestive resemblance between the name of this god and the

Sanscrit word for earth, Prithivi, which is in common use in Southern

India.

ÖN

Ön was the son of Pithi. He created the buffaloes and the Todas and

became the ruler of Amnòdr, the world of the dead, where he now lives.

One day Ön went with his wife Pinârkûrs to Mêdrpem (the top of the

Kundahs). There he put up an iron bar which stretched from one end of

the pem to the other. Ön stood at one end of the bar and brought forth

buffaloes from the earth, 1,600 in number. Then Pinarkurs tried to

produce buffaloes and she stood at the other end of the bar and

produced 1,800 buffaloes.

Behind Ön’s buffaloes there came out of the earth a man, holding the

tail of the last buffalo, and this was the first Toda. Ön took one of

the man’s ribs (parikatelv or magalelv) from the right side of his body

and made a woman, who was the first Toda woman. The Todas then

increased in number very rapidly so that at the end of the first week

there were about a hundred. [57]

The descendants of the buffaloes created by Ön became sacred buffaloes,

while the descendants of those created by his wife are the ordinary

buffaloes.

Ön had a son called Püv. One day when Püv was acting as palikartmokh at

Kuudr, he was churning in the dairy with a ring on the little finger of

his right hand. When the dairyman goes to fetch water he should always

take the churning stick out of the patat or vessel in which the milk is

churned. On this occasion Püv left it in the patat and went out to

fetch water. As he was going a black bird called karpüls tried to check

him, saying “tîs, tîs, tîs,” meaning “Don’t go to the water,” but Püv

paid no attention and went on. When he was taking the water the ring

dropped from his little finger into the spring. Püv saw the ring in the

water, but could not reach it, and so he got into the spring. The water

was not deep, and yet as soon as he stepped into the spring it

completely covered him and he was drowned. When Ön found that his son

was lost he cried very bitterly and covered himself with his cloak

(tuni). (Ön is said to have been a palol at this time.) When Ön covered

himself he looked downwards and saw, as through a veil, his son in

Amnòdr playing with the ring, putting it on and off his finger. [58]

When Ön saw that his son was in Amnòdr he did not like to leave him

there alone and decided to go away to the same place. So he called

together all the people and the buffaloes and the trees to come and bid

him farewell. All the people came except a man of Kwòdrdoni named

Arsankutan. He and his family did not come. All the buffaloes came

except the arsaiir, the buffaloes of the Kwòdrdoni ti. Some trees also

failed to come. Ön blessed all the people, buffaloes and trees present,

but said that because Arsankutan had not come he and his people should

die by sorcery at the hands of the Kurumbas, and that because the

arsaiir had not come they should be killed by tigers, and that the

trees which had not come should bear bitter fruit. Since that time the

Todas have feared the Kurumbas, and buffaloes have been killed by

tigers. All the Todas and all the buffaloes appear to have suffered for

the evil deeds of Arsankutan and the arsaiir.

Then Ön went away to Amnòdr, taking the buffaloes and the palol of the

Nòdrs ti with him, and since that time Ön has ruled over Amnòdr, which

is sometimes called Önnòdr after him.

TEIKIRZI

This goddess is perhaps the most important of the Toda deities. She is

said to have been the sister, and probably the elder sister, of Ön. I

could learn very little about the story of her life, but nearly all the

customs of the Todas were referred to her, and it seemed clear that

when Ön left this world Teikirzi became the ruler or nòdrodchi of the

Todas. Whenever I tried to obtain from the Todas an explanation of any

ceremony or custom I nearly always received the reply, which was

regarded as final, that it had been so ordained by Teikirzi.

It seems doubtful whether Teikirzi dwells in any special hill like

other Toda deities, though there is a hill near Nòdrs especially

connected with her. I was told that she lives everywhere in this world,

and in answer to a question it was said even that her influence extends

to London, where she dwells as she dwells everywhere else.

She is regarded as the ruler or nòdrodchi of all the Todas, and this

world is often spoken of as Eikirzinòdr. At the same time Teikirzi is

especially connected with Nòdrs, and she is the special nòdrodchi of

this clan.

Five customs, or sets of customs, are ascribed especially to Teikirzi.

These are:—

(i) Madol pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave madol (clans).”

Teikirzi is also said to have divided the Todas into their two chief

divisions.

(ii) Ir pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave buffaloes.”

Below Nòdrs, near a swamp called Keikudr, there is a small stream which

at the present time Todas will not cross at a certain spot, and

Teikirzi stood in this stream. According to one account she beat the

water with a wand, saying “Ir padri ma” (“May buffaloes spring”), and

buffaloes sprang out of the stream; but it seemed to be more generally

accepted that she only divided the buffaloes on this spot by touching

each animal on the back with a wand and saying the name of the clan to

which it was to belong. The first portion went to Nòdrs, the second to

Kuudr, the third to Kars, and the fourth to Taradr. Up to this point

she used a wand of kid wood (kidkurs). For the next clan, that of

Keadr, the kidkurs was put away and she used a wand of tavat wood, and

several other kinds of wand were used. Teikirzi was also said to have

ordained at the same time that wursulir should be milked by Teivaliol

and to have settled the general regulations concerning the different

kinds of buffalo.

(iii) Püliol pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave püliol.”

Teikirzi is said to have ordained that certain people should be the

püliol of a man, and that püliol should not marry one another (see

Chap. XXI).

(iv) Ir patz id vai, “Buffalo catch who said.” Teikirzi ordained that

buffaloes should be caught at the funeral ceremonies (see Chap. XV).

(v) Kwarzam pep ostht ad vai, “Who told the kwarzam and gave pep.”

Teikirzi gave to each village its kwarzam, or sacred name, and settled

the method of making new pep.

The name of Teikirzi occurs frequently in other legends. One story not

mentioned elsewhere is the following:—

When Teikirzi was living at Nòdrs the people of Mysore came to fight

her, but as they approached, the woods made a great noise. When the

Mysore people heard the noise they stopped, and then Teikirzi cursed

them and said, “Let them become stones,” and they were turned into

stones, which are still to be seen below Nòdrs.

TEIPAKH, OR TIRSHTI

I know very little about the life-history of this deity, but he is very

widely mentioned in the prayers and incantations of the Todas, and is

one of their most important gods. He was the brother of Teikirzi, and

differs from most other Toda deities in being a river god, Teipakh

being the Toda name of the Paikara river.

Teipakh is the nòdrodchi of the Piedr and Kusharf clans.

Although there was considerable agreement that Teipakh and Tirshti were

one and the same god, there was some doubt about it, and, according to

one account, Tirshti was only another name for Teikirzi.

ANTO

I am very doubtful about the name and identity of this god. There

seemed to be little doubt that he had the same name as the chief dairy

of the Nòdrs ti and was the chief deity connected with this dairy.

According to one account he was the son of Ön, but it is possible that

the two deities were identical, Anto being Önteu. His name was

sometimes pronounced Anteu or perhaps more correctly Änto or Änteu.

I have only a few incidents from the life of Anto. He once rolled a

huge stone with the hair of his head from Nelkòdr in the Wainad to the

top of a hill called Katthvai near the dairy of Anto. The god now lives

near this dairy, resting his head on a spot called Ködrs, and

stretching his legs on a spot called Tudrs. These places are about two

furlongs apart so that Anto is evidently a god of a large size.

Anto is said to have made buffaloes, and the buffalo which founded the

ti mad of Makars (see p. 116) was one of his creation. The fact that

Anto created buffaloes increases the probability of his identity with

Ön, but this is far from conclusive for there were undoubtedly several

independent creations of these animals.

KULINKARS

This deity is the nòdrodchi of the Kars clan. His original name appears

to have been Kulin, and this was changed to Kulinkars. He is also

called Teikhars. He inhabits a hill near Makurti Peak, which is so

steep and rocky that “no man has ever climbed it.”

The following story is told of Kulinkars or Teikhars:—He once knocked

on the ground and so made two buffaloes. He then told the monsoon

(kwadr) to drive the buffaloes to the place to which they were to go,

saying, “you must push them on.” As the buffaloes were being driven on

by the monsoon, a tiger went after them. When they reached a certain

hill, the hill divided into two and the buffaloes went between the two

parts, but still the tiger followed them. Then the buffaloes came to

Kwaradr and went into the pen, and the tiger also went into the pen.

When the buffaloes saw that the tiger had come into the pen, they

kicked it and it died. Then one of the buffaloes said to the other,

“You stay here in the pen; I am going to Tarsòdr.” Then the monsoon

drove on this buffalo to Tarsòdr, which is one of the dairies of the

Pan ti. The descendants of the buffalo which stayed in the pen are the

pasthir of Kwaradr and the descendants of the other are among the

buffaloes of the Pan ti.

Kulinkars was connected with the erkumptthpimi ceremony (see Chap.

XIII) and was the mokhthodvaiol or paramour of Nòtirzi. His relation to

Nòtirzi is said to have been the origin of the mokhthoditi custom (see

Chap. XXII), but I was not able to obtain any detailed account of this

part of the history of the god.

Kulinkars has a son called Teikhidap, who lives on Makurti Peak, and

the proper Toda name for this hill is Teikhidap.

NÒTIRZI

I have no details of the history of this female deity. She is the

nòdrodchi of the two important clans of Melgars and Kuudr, and lives on

the hill now known as Snowdon, the Toda name of the hill being the same

as that of the goddess. This hill is especially sacred, and any Toda

who visits it has to salute with hand to forehead (kaimukhti) in all

directions. Like her mokhthodvaiol, Kulinkars, Nòtirzi is connected

with the erkumptthpimi ceremony. She is said to have had a son called

Tikuteithi or Teukuteithi. It is possible that this is the same as

Teikuteidi, who appears in the story of Kwoten (see p. 193), but they

are more probably two different deities.

A stone which is said to have been thrown by this goddess from her hill

is shown close to the village of Pòln, under the tree known to English

visitors to the Nilgiris as the ‘umbrella tree.’

KORATEU OR KUZKARV

Korateu was the son of Teikirzi. One day when Teikirzi was going from

one village to another she went into a cave called Teivelkursh, by the

side of a stream called Kathipa, near Kakhudri, and there gave birth to

a son, who was called Azo-mazo. The afterbirth dropped into the stream

and was carried down to Teipakh (the Paikara river). It travelled down

the river as far as a place called Marsnavai, where there were growing

two plants called tib and purs in which it became entangled. The

afterbirth then slowly arose and became a boy, and the boy was Korateu.

When Azo-mazo became a man he went to live at Pernòdr in the Kundahs,

but Korateu lived in the river till he was eight years old. The river

Teipakh was the brother of Teikirzi. As he sat in the lap of his uncle

Korateu used often to play at making the buffalo horns called tebkuter

(Fig. 35). [59] When he was eight years old he founded a ti and created

a male and a female buffalo, making both out of earth. He also built a

dairy and a buffalo pen and made the garment called tuni. As soon as

the buffaloes had a calf, he went to fetch a churning-stick from

Kaiers, beyond Makurti Peak, and took it to Nerva, near Mòdr, where his

buffaloes were standing. He then went to Kurkòdr, a bamboo grove near

Meipadi in the Wainad, and made a kwoi or milking vessel. He next made

the persin and the mani and all the other things of a ti and became

palol of the buffaloes at Òdrtho. There was a buffalo here of the kind

called kughir, with the horns growing downwards. Korateu cut off these

horns and gave them to the kaltmokh at Òdrtho and they are now the

horns of the Nòdrs ti. Korateu then made a law that the people of Piedr

should fill the office of palol and that the kaltmokh should be taken

from the Melgarsol. He appointed a palol and a kaltmokh from these

clans, handed over the charge of the ti to them, and went away to the

hill Korateu, where he lived in an iron cave which he called a poh. He

used to bathe in a pool near the hill.

At this time Korateu was not recognised as a teu, and when the gods

held council he was not summoned as a member. This made him very angry.

Near Korateu there was a wood in which there stood a tree of the kind

called mòrs (Michelia nilagirica) which was about 80 feet high. Korateu

ordered that honey bees (peshtein) should come to the tree, and after a

time there were about 300 nests, which made the tree bend down with

their weight. One day about twenty men came to collect honey, Todas,

Irulas, and Kurumbas. The Todas made a fire under the tree, while the

Irulas and Kurumbas climbed and collected honey from the nests. When

they had collected the honey from all except three or four nests, the

tree became so light that it sprang back and killed the Irulas and

Kurumbas, and the Todas went home.

At this time Korateu was unmarried and he carried a stick of iron. One

day a Kurumba woman came to the mòrs tree in search of honey. Korateu

knocked her on the head with the iron stick and at once she became

pregnant. That evening she gave birth to a daughter, who was very

beautiful, and Korateu decided to marry the child and sent away the

mother that night. (According to another version, the child was so

beautiful that the mother was frightened and went away to her own

village, and Korateu fed the child with milk and fruit and honey, and

when she grew up he married her.)

Soon after the death of the Irulas and Kurumbas a sambhar calf came to

Korateu, who caught it, tamed it, and kept it for a month. Then certain

Todas went to Korateu and asked him for a place. Korateu gave them a

place and said that it should be called Keradr. The people of Keradr

then asked for buffaloes. So Korateu gave them the sambhar calf and

said that it should become buffaloes for them, and he ordered that the

buffaloes should be called miniapir, and that the calves should be

called mâvelkar—i.e., calf from a sambhar. This was the origin of

Keradr and of its wursulir, which are still called miniapir, and they

are the only buffaloes of the Todas which were made from sambhar.

After these things had happened the gods recognised that Korateu was a

teu, and calling him asked him who he was. He answered that he was the

son of Teikirzi, and the manmokh or sister’s son of Teipakh. He was

then admitted as one of the gods and now lives on the hill Korateu, but

still sometimes sits in the lap of Teipakh. He is the nòdrodchi of the

Keradr and Keadr clans, and the chief villages of these clans are near

his hill. He is called Kuzkarv when mentioned in prayer.

Another god, called Etepi, is said to be the same god as Korateu. It

appeared, however, that Korateu lived on one hill and Etepi on another,

and I could not ascertain the true relation of the deities to one

another.

Azo-mazo is mentioned in the prayer of the Kars ti as two deities, Azo

and Mazo.

PUZI AND KURINDO

I am very doubtful as to the identity of Puzi. According to some

accounts Puzi or Purzi was merely another name for Teikirzi; according

to other accounts Puzi was a male deity and the husband of Teikirzi. In

the following story Puzi is a female deity, inhabiting a hill near

Nòdrs. She gave birth to a son called Kurindo. As soon as Kurindo was

born he became fire. Puzi did not approve of this, as it seemed to show

that the boy was too powerful, so she took a leaf of the kind called

kwagal, pounded it and mixed it with water and sprinkled it on the

fire. The fire then turned back again into a boy who was bent to one

side.

Puzi said, “I will put you on a hill opposite to me.” So she put him on

the hill called Mopuvthut, near the village of Naters, and in order to

make the hill higher she put three baskets of earth on the top, so that

her son might be seen by everybody.

When Kurindo was on his hill he thought to himself, “My mother has

treated me badly; she sprinkled me with water and quenched my power,

and she has made me bent to one side; I do not like to be opposite to

her.” So he went away to a hill near Kanòdrs. This was before the time

of Kwoten and before the Kamasòdrolam had run away (see p. 195). While

Kurindo was living on this hill a strange tribe came to the hills, so

Kurindo again moved and went away to the hill of Arsnur on the Mysore

side, where he still lives.

There is a hill called Puthi on which a fire is lighted at certain

times (see p. 291) and the god inhabiting this hill was, according to

one account, the husband of Teikirzi. It is possible that Puthi and

Puzi are the same, but I think it more probable that they are two

separate gods, each having his own hill, Puthi being the husband of

Teikirzi, and Puzi being the deity of this legend.

The following legends differ from the preceding in that they appear

almost certainly to record the lives of deified men. The first legend

deals with three men of different clans, but the sons of three sisters.

The second deals with the life of Kwoto, and professes to be the

history of a being of miraculous birth who came to be accepted by the

gods, not only as one of their number, but as superior to themselves.

These two legends were known far more thoroughly and universally than

any of the preceding. It seems most probable that they are records of

men who really lived, and that the life of each has become a nucleus

round which have grown various miraculous and portentous incidents.

KWOTEN, TEIKUTEIDI, AND ELNÂKHUM

There were once three men, the children of three sisters. The eldest

was Kwoten, who belonged to Pan, the second was Teikuteidi, who

belonged to Taradr, and the youngest was Elnâkhum of Nòdrs. (According

to one account the father of Kwoten was Purten, and his mother was

Tiköni of Keradr. They lived at Pan and Kiursi, and Kwoten was born at

Pan. Purten died when Kwoten was thirty years old and Tiköni died six

years later.)

Kwoten had a wife called Kwoterpani. She did not like her husband, but

preferred a man of Kanòdrs called Parden. One day Kwoten took his wife

to a place called Timukhtar (near the spot where Sandy Nullah toll-bar

now stands). He gave her only the loin-cloth called tadrp to wear,

hoping that she would be cold and uncomfortable and would sleep with

him, but she refused. Kwoten then took her to Kûdrîdjpül near Mulòrs,

where there was a large wood. In this wood there was a tree of the kind

called külmän, into which Kwoten climbed and made a bed. Below him,

about three feet above the ground, he made a small bed for his wife,

and under the tree, close to his wife’s bed, he tied a big male

buffalo. He did this because he thought a tiger might come to take the

buffalo during the night when his wife would be frightened and would

climb up the tree to his bed. During the night a tiger came and took

away the buffalo, but even this did not induce the woman to go to her

husband. Next morning Kwoten took his wife to Pòlâdri, which belonged

to the Panol. This village was near Miuni, and there Kwoten became a

palikartmokh. One day Kwoten was in the dairy and his wife in the hut

when Parden came from Kanòdrs. Kwoten’s wife knew that her husband was

in the dairy, and endeavoured to prevent Parden from going into the hut

by giving him buttermilk. Kwoten found that Parden had come, and

sharpened a big knife to kill him, and when he came out of the dairy,

Parden ran away towards Kanòdrs and Kwoten followed with the knife.

Kwoten’s sister had married a Kars man and was living with him at

Nasmiòdr, and at this time Kwoten’s mother was staying at this place.

As Parden ran away, pursued by Kwoten, they had to pass Nasmiòdr, and

Kwoten’s mother saw them, and said, “How is it that my son does not

catch Parden?” Then she cursed Parden, saying “On sati udairnùdr,

Kârkaḍith mul uḍith pâtmâ”—viz., “If I have reverence to the village,

may he be checked by the tree with thorns in the Kark wood.” When

Parden reached a stone now called Pardenkars, Kwoten caught him up and

tried to kill him, but the knife struck the stone instead and split it

into two pieces. Then Parden ran on to the wood called Kark, where he

was caught by a tree with thorns (brambles) so that Kwoten was able to

kill him.

When the news of the death of Parden reached Kanòdrs all the people

were very much afraid, and all ran away except one old man and his

wife. As the people were going, they sent a message to the Kotas at

Tizgudr. Two Kotas took a grain pounder (wask) and went to Pòladri.

When Kwoten was told that the Kotas were coming he went and hid

himself. The Kotas came and stood near the village and were told that

Kwoten had gone away. Then they told Kwoten’s wife, who at this time

was pregnant by Parden, to come out of the hut. She came out and went

to the Kotas, who asked her where Kwoten was. She said she did not

know, whereupon the Kotas were vexed, and pierced her belly with the

pounder, so that she died. Her funeral took place at Tadendari, and

that of Parden at Arâdr.

The people of Kanòdrs ran away to a place called Penasmalpet, near

Malmathapenpet, and are known as the Kamasòdrolam. They have never been

seen since, but the Todas have heard from various wandering tribes that

they still exist and that they live on a hill from which they can see

Kanòdrs, and that when the Kamasòdrolam see a fire at Kanòdrs they

shave their heads and make a special kind of food called ashkkarthpimi.

When the Kanòdrs people ran away there remained behind one old man

called Muturojen and his wife Muturach, [60] who were living in a

village near Kanòdrs called Mîtâhârzi. When the people left, the old

man went to the Kanòdrs dairy to churn the milk left there by those who

had run away, and he stayed there, sleeping in the kwotars or calves’

hut, as the dairyman should do at Kanòdrs. His wife used to come every

day as far as a place called Pîtipem, where she rubbed a place with

buffalo-dung and sat down.

While sitting there one day an eagle (kashk) sat on her head, and she

became pregnant, and went back to the village and gave birth to a son.

When Kwoten heard of this he wished to kill the child and set out to do

so. The old woman’s daughter, who had married a Kars man, sent her

husband to warn her parents that Kwoten was coming to kill them. The

Kars man met Kwoten and ran away from him towards Kanòdrs, followed by

Kwoten’s dog. When he came to a hill above the village he called out

that Kwoten was coming. When the old man heard him, he cursed Kwoten

and those with him; the latter became stones and Kwoten himself

(according to the story as told by the Kanòdrs people) was stung by

honey bees and died. The people of Kanòdrs are descended from the son

born to the old woman. If this old woman was not a Toda, as her name

and that of her village suggest, this would seem to point to a

tradition that the people of Kanòdrs are descended from an ancestor of

a different race from the other Todas (see p. 640).

Owing to the behaviour of Kwoten to the Kanòdrs people there has ever

since been karaivichi (trouble) between the people of Pan and Kanòdrs.

They do not intermarry and no Kanòdrs man may go to one of the chief

villages (etudmad) of the Pan people nor may a Pan man go to an etudmad

of Kanòdrs.

According to the above account Kwoten died after being cursed by the

old man, but this is only a feature of the story as told by the Kanòdrs

people, and in the account given by others Kwoten had many other

adventures and finished his life in this world in a very different

manner. He married a second wife, who, like the first, objected to her

husband and preferred a man of Keradr, whose name was Keradrkutan.

Kwoten lived with this wife at Kazhuradr, near Isharadr. At that time

women wore the garment called än, which is dark grey like the tuni of

the palol, and is now only used as a funeral garment.

Keradrkutan used frequently to come to Kazhuradr, and this vexed

Kwoten, who told his wife to have nothing to do with the man. She

encouraged Keradrkutan, however, and this vexed Kwoten so much that he

took off her än and brought a thorny bush called peshteinmul and beat

her all over with the bush, so that she became covered with blood.

Kwoten at this time wore the garment called tuni, which he then took

off, dipped it in water, and rubbed it all over his wife so that she

became the colour of tuni, and then he gave her back her än and went to

his dairy. While he was in the dairy Keradrkutan came stealthily to the

village. When the woman saw Keradrkutan she cried very bitterly and

said, “Kwoten has beaten me very severely so that I shall die; come and

see me.” When Keradrkutan went into the hut, the woman died.

Before this time, when Kwoten was one day beating his wife, she abused

him, saying, “Talrs ti oditha vai, Kòlrs kûv oditha vai; en

puspad”—“You have no ti, you have no Kotas: why do you beat me?” This

was to reproach Kwoten because the Pan people had no ti buffaloes and

had no Kotas to make things for them. So Kwoten went and complained to

his brother Teikuteidi. Teikuteidi was very sorry, and in order to

remove the reproach he persuaded Elnâkhum of Nòdrs to give certain

buffaloes of the kind called unir from the Nòdrs ti. Elnâkhum gave a

two-year-old calf (pòl) and a one-year-old calf (kar), and also two

bells (mani) to put on their necks. The two bells were called Tarskingg

and Takhingg. The calves were then standing at Kuladrtho and were taken

by Kwoten to the tars poh of Pan. He tied the two bells to one of the

calves called Kazhi. These bells ought properly to have been tied to

the buffalo called Enmars which remained behind at Kuladrtho. Then

Enmars went to Anto and complained as follows:—

“kî mêdr, kî kevi, ninkûtth pòrâni” [61]

“inferior neck, inferior ear, to your council I will not come”

i.e., “I will not come to your presence with naked neck and ear.” Anto

told him not to grieve because he had lost the mani, and that instead

Melgarsol teirpülk mudâ mâ nî pud Antosh pep ûn

Melgars man pül of Anto to in front go may you come at Anto pep drink

i.e., “When you go to Anto, a Melgars man shall go in front of you to

the pül of Anto; when you come to Anto you shall drink pep.” To this

day, when the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti go in procession to Anto a

Melgars man goes in front and the buffalo called Enmars drinks pep at

Anto. At the same time Anto prophesied to Enmars that a misfortune

would befall Teikuteidi, saying

“wûrâdr nols Teikuteidi tan ennâth piriedkin,

“whole year day himself without numbering I will divide,

at vokh!”

go away!”

When Teikuteidi heard of this prophecy he was much grieved, and was

very careful to do all the following ceremonies:—erkumptthiti, upatiti,

punkudrtiti, tatmadthkudrtiti, petkudrtiti, mukudrtiti, adikudrtiti,

parivkudrtiti, tatòtiti, muòtiti, ponkastiti and irpalvusthi—viz.,

sacrifice of calf, salt-giving, purification of pun, tat and madth,

pet, mu, adi, and pariv, etc. [62] He performed all these ceremonies to

escape the prophesied evil, for if he had succeeded in doing them all

for the whole twelve months the prophecy would not have been fulfilled.

On the very last day he forgot the prophecy and did not perform the

ceremonies, but went to a place called Kirspem, where he sat under the

shade of pülmän. There is a flower which blossoms on this tree in the

rainy season only, and then the bees come. When Teikuteidi was sitting

under the tree it was not the rainy season and he was very much

surprised to hear the humming of honey bees in the tree. The noise was

being made by a kazun [63] which had taken the form of a bee. He looked

up to see if there were any flowers to attract the bees and could not

see them, neither could he see any bees. Then he thought for a little

while and remembered Anto’s prophecy, so he did not remain under the

tree, but went away to Kirsgòrs to attend the funeral of a wursol of

Nòdrs (see p. 439). When the funeral was over Teikuteidi set out with

companions to go to Kerkars (a place near Paikara). On the way they

passed Kwongudrpem (near Kuudi). There he stopped and began to count

his companions; he counted them, but forgot to include himself, saying

that there were twenty when they started and now only nineteen, and he

thought for a long time who the lost person could be. When he was

looking in the direction of the funeral-place for the lost companion,

he saw a lame man named Keikarskutan, who had a purs and ab (bow and

arrow). Keikarskutan lay down and shot the arrow [64] and it came

towards Teikuteidi with a sound like a bird’s voice. Teikuteidi was

looking to see what sort of bird it was when the arrow pierced both his

eyes [65] and he died. When his companions found that he was dead, they

held the funeral at Kerâs, and at the place where he died they made a

mark with four stones like a cross, one for his head, one for his legs

and one for each hand.

Kwoten was responsible for various features of the organisation of the

Pan people. He divided them into two parts, the Panol and Kuirsiol, and

also divided the ti into two parts, the wars ti, which was to belong to

the Panol, and the tars ti to the Kuirsiol. He settled that the palol

of the ti should be chosen from the people of Keadr. When there is a

funeral in any clan a palol belonging to that clan must give up his

office; hence, in order that his ti should never be without a palol,

Kwoten separated the people of Keadr into two divisions, the Keadrol

and the Kwaradrol, so that a member of one division might be palol if a

member of the other division died. This was the origin of the division

of the Keadr people into the Keadrol and the Kwaradrol.

One day Kwoten went to the wars ti of Pan and took buttermilk and slept

there, and he did the same at the arsaiir ti of Kwòdrdoni, and since

that day the people of Pan have had the privilege of taking buttermilk

and sleeping at the places of each ti.

Kwoten also made two teiks (stones or wooden posts at which buffaloes

are killed at the funerals), the parsteiks for the Panol and the

kirshteiks for the Kuirsiol.

It is owing to the example of Kwoten that the Todas now take meals in

Kurumba villages. Before his time they had never done so, but Kwoten

one day went to a Kurumba village and took food, and since that time

all Todas have done so.

Kwoten was also the first Toda to go to a Kota village. He wanted one

day to go to Mitur in the Wainad, and as it was getting dark and he was

still on his way, he went to the Kota village of Kulgadi (Gudalur). He

sat on their tün, or bed, got new pots and food from them, and, taking

both to the stream called Marspa or Marsva, he cooked and ate the food

there, and then, returning to the village, slept on a Kota tün. Since

that time Todas have gone to that village, and have done as Kwoten did,

but they will not go to any other Kota village.

One day Kwoten went with Erten of Keadr, who was spoken of as his

servant, to Pòni, in the direction of Polkat (Calicut). At Pòni there

is a stream called Palpa, the commencement of which may be seen on the

Kundahs. Kwoten and Erten went to drink water out of the stream at a

place where a goddess (teu) named Terkosh had been bathing. When Kwoten

was about to drink from his hands, he found in the water a long golden

hair; he measured the length of the hair and found it was greater than

his height; he had a long stick in his hand called pirs, and found that

the hair was longer than this stick. Then he asked Erten about it.

Erten knew it was the hair of a teu, but thought it best not to tell

Kwoten, and tried to persuade him that it was of no importance, and

proposed that they should return home. Kwoten, however, insisted on

finding out from whom the hair came, so they went along the stream.

Kwoten went first and Erten had to follow him. As they went they met

the bird called karpüls going from the right side to the left, [66]

uttering its cry. Kwoten asked Erten why they met the bird, why it went

from right to left, and why it made a cry. Erten replied as follows:—

“Nòdr udoi kwudrpedrshai; Naraian sami kaipedrshai.”

“Country (God) if there is you will die; Naraian will kill you.”

In spite of this warning, Kwoten persisted in going on, and finally

they came to Terkosh, who said to Kwoten, “Do not come near me, I am a

teu.” Kwoten paid no heed to this, but said, “You are a beautiful

woman,” and went and lay with her. Then Terkosh went away to her hill

at Pòni, where she is now, and to this day the Kurumbas go there once a

year and offer plantains to her and light lamps in her honour.

Kwoten and Erten returned home. Kwoten went to Kepurs, a village now in

ruins, close to Nanjanad, and Erten went to a village called Kapthòri

belonging to the Keadrol. Kwoten had about five hundred buffaloes

grazing at Pazhmokh, near Kepurs. That night Kwoten slept on the idrtul

over which he had spread a sambhar skin. He had on his finger a thick

silver ring, which may still be seen at Naters and is used in the

funeral ceremonies of men of the Pan clan. When the people awoke next

morning they found that Kwoten had disappeared and that there only

remained, lying on the sambhar skin, the silver ring and some pug. [67]

Kwoten had been carried away by Terkosh and it was found that his five

hundred buffaloes had also disappeared.

When Erten got up next morning he went to Kepurs and called out to the

wursol of that place, “Wursolia, tar tûrshoḍthrska” [68]—“O wursol, is

the man up yet?” The wursol replied, “Pülmâv tars pògh udisvichi”—“On

the sambhar skin blood is lying.” Erten replied, “Aroth pun pârs Pâlmän

kwark putvai, nadrtivadr”—“Take sixty vessels of milk to the wood of

Palmän and pour out.” So the wursol took sixty pun of milk and poured

it out in the wood as Erten had ordered him.

Then since Kwoten had gone away, Erten did not want to live any more;

he took a large creeper called melkudri, and tied it round his neck and

tried to strangle himself, but when he pulled the creeper it broke into

several pieces. He was much disappointed, but took another kind of

creeper called kakkudri, but this broke in the same way. He then tried

teinkudri, which also broke. Finally he took kakhudri, [69] and with

this he succeeded in strangling himself. Then the wursol and all those

who had helped in pouring out the milk also strangled themselves with

kakhudri. Since this time it has been a custom among the Todas to

commit suicide by strangling.

Kwoten and Terkosh are now living on two hills near Pòni, which face

one another, and Erten has also become a teu and lives on a smaller

hill near those of Kwoten and Terkosh. Whenever a Toda sees Kwoten’s

hill for the first time, he lies down on his right side and sings twice

the following words: “Seizâr zon, Kwoten âr zon, Seizâr zon, Terkosh âr

zon.” I could not discover the meaning of these words, and fancy that

the Todas themselves do not know exactly what they mean. It is possible

that âr is the word meaning six.

The history and fate of Teikuteidi, the second brother of Kwoten, has

been given in the story of Kwoten. He belonged to Taradr, and according

to one account the kugvalir of that place were sent to him. Very little

is related about the third brother, Elnâkhum. He had 1,800 buffaloes,

but though he had so many, he was always going to other Todas and

saying “I have nothing to milk; lend me a buffalo to milk,” and all his

life he used to beg. It is owing to his example that the Todas have

begged ever since, and are not ashamed to do so even when they are

rich.

Elnâkhum is said to have built the long wall which still exists at the

village of Nòdrs.

The story of Kwoten reads very much like that of a man who really lived

and was deified after his death. The minute detail with which several

of the natural incidents of his life are known might be held to point

in this direction, but perhaps more important is the fact that his ring

can still be seen, and that his spear was, according to Breeks, in

existence not long ago. It looks as if Kwoten was a man who raised Pan

from a comparatively insignificant position among the Todas to be one

of their chief clans, and was the means of introducing several

innovations in Toda custom. It is probable that he was deified after

his death, and that some of the incidents of his life have acquired

miraculous characters.

KWOTO OR MEILITARS

There was once a man belonging to Melgars who married a woman of

Kanòdrs and took her to Melgars. When she became pregnant, the woman

was taken by her husband to Kanòdrs. On the way back to Melgars they

passed Ushadr, the place where the funeral ceremonies of Melgars men

took place. They were standing in front of the funeral hut at that

place when the man found a good twadri tree, [70] and, cutting three or

four sticks from it, brought them to his wife, who stripped the bark

from the sticks. While she was doing this, the pains of labour came on,

and soon after she gave birth to a gourd (kem). Both husband and wife

were very much ashamed, and they decided to say that a child had been

born and had died, and the man went round to all the villages to say

that this had happened and that the funeral would be held at Ushadr.

Accordingly they had the etvainolkedr (first funeral ceremony) at

Ushadr, the gourd being covered with putkuli (cloak), so that it was

taken to be the body of a child.

First the buffaloes were caught and killed, and then the supposed

corpse was taken to the burning-place, where a fire was made and the

gourd in its mantle was put on the fire. The fire first burnt the

cloak, and when it reached the gourd, this broke into two pieces. One

piece became a little baby, a boy, which took a piece of the burnt

cloak and went away in the air to Neikhârs, where there is a big tree,

under which it alighted. The other piece of the gourd was split into

many fragments by the heat of the fire, and some of the fragments were

driven with such force that they killed a kite which had come to the

funeral. (To this day the kite does not eat the buffaloes at funerals

at Ushadr, though it does so at other places.) The father and mother

followed the child to Neikhârs, where they found it sitting on the

tree. [71] The father and mother said to the child “Ena, itvâ”—“My son,

come here,” and the boy came down and went to them, and was taken away

by his parents to Melgars.

As the parents and child were on their way to Melgars they met the

buffaloes of the Kars ti going from Kòn to Enòdr. At that time the

buffaloes of Melgars and Kars used to go with the ti buffaloes as far

as a place called Irgûdrval, on the way between Kars and Enòdr. A Kars

man went with the buffaloes, and he wore on his right wrist a gold

bracelet (which is still kept at Kuzhu). At Irgûdrval there is a stone

called Pidûtkars, and it was the duty of the man with the bracelet to

sit on this stone and to make the Melgars buffaloes pass on the right

side, the Kars buffaloes on the left side, and the ti buffaloes in the

middle. When he had done this, the palol prayed at the stone, and then

the buffaloes of Melgars and Kars turned back and the ti buffaloes went

on to Enòdr. When the man and his wife saw the buffaloes coming, they

waited near Pidûtkars, and while they were waiting the baby laughed.

The father asked the boy, “Why do you laugh?” The boy answered, “I know

the kwarzam [72] of the ti buffaloes, perner persagun; I know the

kwarzam of the Melgars buffaloes, narsüln natüln nâkh; also I know the

kwarzam of the Kars buffaloes, inâtviḍshti inâtvan; that is why I

laughed.” After the buffaloes had gone on to Enòdr, the parents and

child went on their way to Melgars. After they had been at Melgars

fifteen days, they noticed that the child grew so rapidly that they

could see him getting bigger from day to day, and he was soon grown up.

He was called Kwoto.

One day Kwoto went into the buffalo pen and played there with the

buffalo-dung, so that he was covered with the dust of the dung. His

father rebuked him and was blowing on him to get rid of the dust when

the boy changed into a kite and flew away. The next day he resumed

human form, but from that time he only stayed in the village at times,

and at other times stayed in the woods. This went on for about eight

days, and then he refused to take food from the village and became a

companion of the gods.