When a man wishes to have a given woman as his sedvaitazmokh he goes to

the husband or husbands of the woman and asks for his or their consent.

As a sample of the kind of negotiations which ensue, I will give a

definite instance. A Tarthar man wished to become mokhthodvaiol to the

wife of two Teivali brothers. He went to them and asked for their

consent, which they gave, but said they should like to have the

agreement confirmed by a third party (nedrvol), and they settled on a

nedrvol to whom all went. The nedrvol asked each if he consented to the

arrangement, and it was decided that the Tarthar man should give a

putkuli worth three rupees annually to the woman’s husbands, and the

former became mokhthodvaiol to the woman on that day.

A few days later the two husbands and the mokhthodvaiol went to the

woman’s father and brothers (called collectively paiol), and the

mokhthodvaiol promised that he would give the woman either a keivali

(necklace) or a sin (gold earrings), each worth about thirty rupees. [A

poorer man might only give a pulthi (bracelet), worth about twelve

rupees]. He also promised that he would give a three-year-old buffalo

to the son of the woman, this being called mokh ir kwadrti, i.e., “son

buffalo he gives.” After making these promises, the mokhthodvaiol

performed the salutation of kalmelpudithti to all the paiol, i.e., he

bowed down before each, and placed his head beneath their feet.

As we have seen earlier, not only are the relatives of the

sedvaitazmokh called paiol, the term in use for the relatives of a real

wife, but the father of the woman is called mun and her mother mumi,

names which are also terms of blood-relationship.

When a man or woman dies, the mokhthodvaiol of the woman and the

sedvaitazmokh of the man have definitely assigned duties at the funeral

ceremonies. Each wears a ring on the ring finger of the left hand and

has to put various things with the left hand into the pocket of the

putkuli of the dead person. [212]

The mokhthoditi institution was first described by Ward in 1821, [213]

the man being called by Ward the coombhal (the kumbliol, cloak or

blanket man). This is the Badaga name, and it has usually been adopted

by those who have since referred to the institution.

The custom is said to have originated with the god Kulinkars, who was

the mokhthodvaiol of the goddess Nòtirzi, but I could obtain no details

of the way in which the custom is supposed to have arisen.

The ceremonial connected with the process of becoming a mokhthodvaiol

is very much like that of the real marriage. A garment is given or

promised and the salutation of kalmelpudithti is paid to the woman’s

relatives. The chief difference is that the gifts are more numerous and

expensive for the mokhthodvaiol than for the husband. Further, in some

cases the sedvaitazmokh of a Teivali man may live with him exactly in

the same way as a wife. Except for the prohibition against Teivali

women living at Tarthar villages, and the important difference in the

mode of descent of the children there seems to be little essential

difference in some cases between the mokhthoditi union and marriage. In

describing the institution, one of my informants laid great stress on

the disability of a man of one division to perform the pursütpimi

ceremony for a woman of the other division and treated this as the

essential point of difference. He seemed to regard this ceremonial

disability as primary and the other differences as the secondary

results, but I do not know how far this is the general Toda view.

SEXUAL MORALITY

From the foregoing account it appears that a woman may have one or more

recognised lovers as well as several husbands. From the account given

of the dairy ritual, it appears that she may also have sexual relations

with dairymen of various grades—that, for instance, the wursol, on the

nights when he sleeps in the hut, may be the lover of any Tarthar girl.

Further, there seems to be no doubt that there is little restriction of

any kind on sexual intercourse. I was assured by several Todas not only

that adultery was no motive for divorce, but that it was in no way

regarded as wrong. It seemed clear that there is no word for adultery

in the Toda language. My interpreter, Samuel, had translated the

Commandments shortly before my visit, and only discovered while working

with me that the expression he had used in translating the seventh

Commandment really bore a very different meaning.

When a word for a concept is absent in any language it by no means

follows that the concept has not been developed, but in this case I

have little doubt that there is no definite idea in the mind of the

Toda corresponding to that denoted by our word ‘adultery.’ Instead of

adultery being regarded as immoral, I rather suspected, [214] though I

could not satisfy myself on the point, that, according to the Toda

idea, immorality attaches rather to the man who grudges his wife to

another. One group of those who experience difficulty in getting to the

next world after death are the kashtvainol, or grudging people, and I

believe this term includes those who would in a more civilised

community be plaintiffs in the divorce court.

In nearly every known community, whether savage, barbarous or

civilised, there is found to exist a deeply rooted antipathy to sexual

intercourse between brother and sister. In savage communities where

kinship is of the classificatory kind, this antipathy extends not only

to the children of one mother, but to all those who are regarded as

brothers and sisters because they are members of the same clan or other

social unit. In some communities, such as those of Torres Straits, this

antipathy may extend to relatives as remote as those we call second and

third cousins, so long as descent through the male line from a common

ancestor and membership of the same clan lead people to regard one

another as brother and sister.

It is very doubtful whether this widespread, almost universal

abhorrence is shared by the Todas. I was told that members of the same

clan might have intercourse with one another, and in the preliminary

ceremony for the office of palol, a special part was taken by a woman

who possessed the qualification that she had never had intercourse with

a man of her own clan, and it was said it was far from easy to find

such a woman. When I collected this information, it seemed clear that

this meant that a woman who, before marriage had belonged to a given

clan, had never had intercourse with a man of that clan. But since a

woman joins the clan of her husband, and since, marriage taking place

at an early age, the woman belongs to her husband’s clan from this

early age, it has since occurred to me that an alternative explanation

of the restriction is possible, though it does not seem to me to be

likely. It is possible that what is meant is that the woman should

never have had intercourse with any of her husband’s clan except those

who are properly her husbands. If this explanation were the correct

one, the prohibition would seem to be directed against practices

resembling communal marriage, and would be interesting evidence in

favour of the existence of this type of marriage, since there are no

prohibitions against what does not exist nor has ever existed. As I

have said, however, I think it very unlikely that the prohibition is to

be interpreted in this way, but I regret very greatly that it did not

occur to me to inquire carefully into this point on the spot.

So far as I could tell, the laxity in sexual matters is equally great

before and after marriage. If a girl who has been married in infancy,

but has not yet joined her husband, should become pregnant, the husband

would be called upon to give the bow and arrow at the pursütpimi

ceremony and would be the father of the child, even if he were still a

young boy, or if it were known that he was not the father of the child.

I only heard of one case in recent times in which an unmarried girl had

become pregnant. In this case a man who was a matchuni of the woman was

called in to give the bow and arrow, but he did not regard himself as

married to the woman and did not live with her. That some stigma was

attached to the occurrence may possibly be shown by the fact that this

woman remained unmarried for some years, and then only married a man

who was certainly below the general standard of the Todas in

intelligence. The child, a daughter, of the woman died soon after

birth, so that I had no chance of ascertaining whether the irregularity

of her birth would have had any influence on her position in Toda

society. If, however, a child is born without the pursütpimi ceremony

having been performed, it is called padmokh and an indelible disgrace

attaches to it throughout life.

From any point of view, and certainly from the point of view of the

savage, the sexual morality of the Todas among themselves is very low.

It is an interesting subject of speculation how far this laxity is the

result of the practice of polyandry, for since low sexual morality

brings in its train various factors which tend to sterility, we may

have here, as Mr. Punnett has suggested elsewhere, [215] a reason why

polyandry is so rare a form of marriage. The practice of polyandry must

almost inevitably weaken the sentiment of possession on the part of the

man which does so much to maintain the more ordinary forms of marriage.

The low sexual morality of the Todas is not, however, limited in its

scope to the relations within the Toda community. Conflicting views are

held by those who know the Nilgiri Hills as to the relations of the

Todas with the other inhabitants, and especially with the train of

natives which the European immigration to the hills has brought in its

wake. The general opinion on the hills is that in this respect the

morality of the Todas is as low as it well could be, but it is a

question whether this opinion is not too much based on the behaviour of

the inhabitants of one or two villages near the European settlements,

and I think it is probable that the larger part of the Todas remain

more uncontaminated than is generally supposed.

That the Todas are perhaps not so black as they are painted is

suggested by two considerations. There is little evidence of the

existence of many half-breeds. I examined in one way or another over

500 Todas and must have seen nearly the whole of the 800 people who

form the Toda population. I saw few who suggested Tamil or Badaga

intermixture and only one boy whose appearance suggested European

parentage. A more careful examination than I gave might, however, have

revealed other suspicious cases, and perhaps in a race which practices

infanticide the absence or paucity of half-breeds may not carry much

weight.

The other consideration is of a different kind and tends to show not

only that the Todas are not so black as they are painted, but that they

are not so black as they paint themselves.

By means of the genealogical record I was able to work out the

relationship to one another of forty-three individuals suffering from

colour-blindness. Since this condition runs mainly in the female line,

it does not afford very cogent evidence of paternity; but a full

examination of my records seems to show that colour-blind men, or

rather males of colour-blind families, had colour-blind descendants

more often than perhaps might have been expected if the Todas are in

practice quite as promiscuous as their social regulations allow them to

be. The record of the affinity of the colour-blind suggests that in

spite of the theoretical promiscuity, the husbands are, in practice,

very often the fathers of their children.

A few histories of individuals may be given as examples of the various

marriage customs which have been described in this chapter. One of the

most married of Toda women is Puvizveli of Kusharf (65). She was

married in infancy to Singudr (55), of the same clan as Sinkòrs, the

mother of Puvizveli, and the two were probably the matchuni of one

another, though only in a distant way. Puvizveli was taken from Singudr

by Madsu and Koboners (58), who gave for her three buffaloes. From them

she was transferred to Kangudr of Piedr (62), it being arranged that he

should pay eleven buffaloes. Soon after joining Kangudr, Puvizveli

became ill, and since there is a prohibition of marriages between the

clans of Piedr and Kusharf, it was agreed that the pair should

separate, and the woman was taken by Tütners and Etamudri (58). The

eleven buffaloes had never been paid by Kangudr, so Tütners and his

brother gave their buffaloes directly to Madsu and Koboners, but only

four instead of eleven. All these transactions took place while

Puvizveli was still young, but by her new husbands she had a son who

died soon after birth. During her second pregnancy, she was taken by

Perpakh and Tebkudr (68), who gave six buffaloes. The transference took

place before the pursütpimi ceremony had been performed. Perpakh gave

the bow and arrow, and the daughter since born is regarded as the child

of Perpakh and Tebkudr. Puvizveli has also a Tarthar mokhthodvaiol.

Edjog of Kuudr (56) was married in infancy to Nargudr (62), the son of

her mother’s brothers, and therefore her matchuni in the nearest sense.

From him Kiudners (70) and his two brothers took her for five

buffaloes, Kiudners died before the buffaloes had been paid, and Edjog

was taken by Mavòdriners (65), who arranged to pay the five buffaloes

to Nargudr. He did not do so, but after having a son by Edjog, he sent

her back to the father, paying a kwadr of one buffalo. So far, Nargudr

had not received his five buffaloes, but he now obtained them from

Kaners and Kudrievan (63), who took the woman although she was the

granddaughter of their sister Narskuti. The marriage met with

disapproval among the Todas on this account, though there does not

appear to be any definite regulation against such a marriage; and at

the time of my visit Edjog, a young woman of about twenty-seven, was

still the wife of the two old men, aged about seventy and sixty-seven

respectively.

Kuriolv of Kuudr (52) first married Punaveli (65), by whom he had two

children. He then took to live with him Pilimurg (7), a Tarthar woman,

giving to Pepners (44), the husband of the woman, fifteen buffaloes.

Though Pilimurg is only legally his sedvaitazmokh, Kuriolv treats her

as a wife. She lives at one of the Kuudr villages, while Punaveli lives

at another. Pilimurg has had one son, Meilitars, since she has been

living with Kuriolv, and Kuriolv always speaks of the boy as his son,

though legally he is the son of Pepners, and his name will be found in

the genealogies among the children of this man.

Recently Kuriolv has also married Sintharap (68), sharing her with

Ònadj (57), of the same clan as Kuriolv, but belonging to a different

family. Sintharap has had three children, for the first of whom Kuriolv

performed the pursütpimi ceremony, and since no one has performed this

ceremony for the succeeding children, they are also regarded as the

children of Kuriolv. One of these children was Sinerani, whose funeral

ceremonies have been described.

Kuriolv’s son, Kulpakh (52), married Toridz (65), sharing her with

Kiladrvan (60), of the same clan as Kulpakh, but of a different family.

At the first pregnancy Kulpakh gave the bow and arrow, and was regarded

as the father of that child and of two succeeding children who were

born while Kulpakh was alive. After the birth of the third child

Kulpakh died, and Toridz has since continued to live with Kiladrvan and

has had two more children. Kuriolv, the father of the dead man,

succeeded in preventing Kiladrvan from performing the pursütpimi

ceremony before the birth of either of these children, and consequently

they are regarded as the children of the dead Kulpakh and belong to

Kuriolv’s division (pòlm) of the clan and not to that of Kiladrvan.

Here, by virtue of the pursütpimi ceremony, a dead man is the legal

father of two children who are known to be really the sons of his

fellow-husband.

In the preceding cases the people belong to the Teivaliol. Among the

Tartharol there are similar histories.

Pupidz of Kwòdrdoni (35) was married in infancy to two brothers,

Kalgeners and Kinagudr, belonging to the same clan as the mother of

Pupidz, so that she would probably have called them matchuni, though

they were not nearly related. From these boys Pupidz was taken by

Patser (26), who gave for her three buffaloes. From Patser she was

taken by Siriar (20) for five buffaloes. Some time later Pepob (44)

wished to marry Pupidz, but both she and Siriar were unwilling to be

separated. Pepob, however, persuaded the council to arrange that he

should have the woman for three buffaloes, and soon after five or six

men carried off the woman by force, entering Siriar’s hut at night. Two

of the men held Siriar while the others carried off his wife, who

became pregnant by Pepob, but Siriar, who had been trying to get back

his wife, succeeded when she was about at the sixth month. The

hand-burning ceremony had already been performed, but Siriar gave the

bow and arrow, and is therefore the legal father of the boy born

afterwards, although Pepob is known to have been the real father.

Siriar had to give Pepob eleven buffaloes, though he had only received

three, and had given five to the previous husband.

Nanbarvan of Kars (7) first married Pothenir (47), by whom he had one

son. Nanbarvan went to England with a party of Todas, and Pothenir then

married Kutadri, Nanbarvan’s first cousin. On his return from England,

Nanbarvan married Sindod (38), by whom he had a second son. Then he

fell ill, and in consequence sent Sindod away, and since that time he

has had no wife, though he claims that Iraveli, his brother’s wife, is

also his. There seems to be no doubt, however, that he does not live

with his brother in the same way as in most cases of polyandry, and is

a wanderer with no regular home of his own, but I could not discover

the cause of this.

A dispute about a marriage was in progress while I was on the Hills,

which I did not understand completely, but it appeared that Oselig

(24), who had been first married to Teigudr (4), was then taken by

Punog (14). Punog was said to have treated his wife badly, and to have

failed to perform his duties when there was a funeral in the family of

Nertiners, the brother of Oselig. He had not given the proper pödri,

nor had he taken part in the cloth-giving ceremony, so Oselig ran away

from him and took refuge with her brother. After a month Punog demanded

back his wife and also twelve buffaloes which he had left with

Nertiners for grazing purposes. Nertiners refused to send back his

wife, and returned only eight of the buffaloes. He also proceeded to

arrange that Oselig should marry Udrchovan (36), and Punog accused

Nertiners of having got up the whole quarrel in order that Oselig

should make this marriage. The matter was referred to the council, and

it was decided that Oselig should become the wife of Udrchovan, but I

did not hear for how many buffaloes, nor how the other disputes about

buffaloes and pödri were settled.

At this time Udrchovan had another wife, Pandut (45). She had been the

wife of Udrchovan and his brother Popners from infancy, and after

having three children, who died young, she had been sent away and

Udrchovan married Kavener (3), while his brother married Silkot (10).

Later Kavener was taken from Udrchovan by Kudrvas (11), and Udrchovan

remarried Pandut, who in the meantime had had two other husbands.

To the foregoing accounts, which I give as exceptional and not as

typical examples of the uncertainty of Toda married life, I add one

taken from the book published by Captain Harkness in 1832, p. 121. The

notes are added by myself.

THE HISTORY OF PINPURZ KUTAN

“I was not seven years old, when my father, taking a child’s garment,

in value about a quarter of a rupee, and selecting one of the best of

our herd, desired me to accompany him to the morrt [216] of Kinōri.

This Kinōri had, a month or two before, a daughter born to him. Soon

after we had arrived at the morrt, it being understood that Kinōri

gladly consented to the propositions which had been made by my father,

I was directed to bow myself down, and in the presence of the whole

family to ask his foot. This I did; and touching it with my forehead,

the buffalo and the garment were presented him, and I was considered to

be affianced to his daughter. We remained there for some days, during

which period it was agreed upon, what number of kine I was to receive

in dower, on my intended spouse coming of age, and we again set out to

return to our own morrt. I had no brothers, or they also would have

been affianced to my intended, as this was part of the agreement, in

case of my father having any more sons born to him. In this case

Kinōri’s daughter would have been wife to us in succession as we

arrived at manhood, and we should have formed one united family—the

supreme authority, however, still resting with me. The next year, my

father presented to my intended bride a garment, double in value to the

first which he had presented, and in each succeeding year, one

proportionately increasing in value. We also sacrificed a buffalo, and

presented a kutch [217] on every occasion of a death among any of the

relations of my intended’s family, and one also at their obsequies. In

case of any accident of the kind in our family, we expected the same to

be observed towards us, except the presenting of the kutch, from which

my bride’s father was exempted on account of the dower he had to give

with her, which would greatly exceed in amount any expense which I

could be to my father. My father died, and when I had attained man’s

estate, I was not pleased with my betrothed; and presenting her father

with three kine, the contract was by mutual consent dissolved. Had the

reverse been the case, and the bride or her father had declined to

allow of consummation, I could have claimed of the latter a fine equal

to fifty kine, and till this fine was paid the former could not marry

any other. Freed from my contract with my first bride, I sought to

affiance myself in a manner more to my own inclinations, and wishing to

be connected with the family of my present wife, Pilluvāni, who was

then only six years of age, I spoke to her father, and, obtaining his

consent, presented her with a garment in value, according to her age,

of about a rupee and a half, and a milch buffalo. I continued to

present her with a garment every succeeding year; and on the occurrence

of a death among any of the relations of her family, and at the

obsequies, I always sacrificed a buffalo, and presented the kutch.

Pilluvāni was afterwards betrothed to two others, Khakhood and Tūmbŭt.

When she had arrived at a certain age, and had for eight days been

living with one of her female friends in a dwelling separate from those

of the family, [218] intimation was sent to me, and I went to her

father’s morrt, that is, Kerjwan’s, her second father, the first one

being dead. I was feasted and bedded; and after a few days, Kerjwan,

laying on his hands, gave us his blessing, and I returned with my wife

to my own morrt, receiving with her in dower four buffalo kine; her

father also presented to her on this occasion a pair of ear-rings, a

pair of armlets, a necklace, a brazen salver, and five rupees.

“Now, according to our customs, Pilluvāni was to pass the first month

with me, the second with Khakhood, and the third with Tūmbŭt; and the

two latter, waiting in succession on the father-in-law, were to ask his

blessing and claim their privilege in right. I was to give her raiment

the first year, Khakhood the second, and Tūmbŭt the third. I had the

option of claiming the first three children, Khakhood the second three,

and Tūmbŭt the third three; when the option again revolved to me. It

was my place to go to her father two or three months prior to the birth

of a child, and, delivering to him a small piece of wood, which we call

a billu, [219] to claim the forthcoming infant, whether male or female,

and acknowledge before him and his relations that I would protect and

nourish it; and that, whatever might happen, I allowed this to be in

satisfaction of one of my claims. On this occasion, also, I was to

present him either five or ten rupees, and in return he was to allow me

to select, if I presented him five rupees, three; if ten rupees, six of

the best kine of his herd. If the child proved a boy he would have to

present me with a heifer, and another one also on the birth of each

son, but not on the birth of a daughter, as it is supposed that she

will soon be betrothed, and that a fortune will accrue to her in that

way.

“After the third birth the same observance and privilege would have

fallen to Khakhood and Tūmbŭt successively, or if I chose to give up

any of my rights the two latter would successively have had choice of

adoption, &c., &c. We all three should have been equally bound to

protect the whole of the children, to marry, and to give them in

marriage; but the superior authority would always have rested with me.

“The case of Pilluvāni and myself, however, was at variance with this

custom. We were very fond of one another and determined not to

separate. I offered to pay the usual fines, but the other party would

not accept of them. I had been unfortunate. A murrain had attacked my

herd; the greater part of Korrorr, [220] and which belonged to my

fathers, had been forsaken by the Marvs and Cūvs, [221] from the

oppression of some of their rulers, and from being a leading man among

my own people I was now reduced, but principally by the oppressions of

my wife’s relations, to comparative poverty.”

CHAPTER XXIII

SOCIAL ORGANISATION

In this chapter I propose to bring together a number of matters

connected with the social organisation; to consider the various

sections into which the clan is divided for social or ceremonial

purposes, the method of government, the laws concerning property and

inheritance, and the position of women.

We have already seen that the primary fact in the social organisation

of the Todas is the existence of two divisions, the Tartharol and the

Teivaliol, [222] and the last chapter has shown that these divisions

form endogamous groups, each of which is divided into a number of

exogamous septs or clans. In some respects the clan is a definite unit

in the social organisation with a certain amount of power in regulating

its own affairs, owning property and having in many cases social or

religious usages peculiar to itself.

THE CLAN

The clan system is territorial, and I could discover no trace of its

ever having been totemic. The clan owns a number of villages and takes

its name from the chief of these, the etudmad. The connexion of the

clan with the village is so generally recognised that in some cases in

which the etudmad of the clan has disappeared, or is rarely visited,

there is a tendency to name the clan after the chief village still in

use. Thus the people of Pirspurs have now become the Pämol and the

Kusharfol are often named after Umgas, a village in more frequent use

than Kusharf. In general the villages belonging to a clan are situated

in the same part of the hills, but a clan often possesses outlying

villages at a considerable distance from the chief group. Sometimes

these outlying villages are of comparatively recent origin, and in

other cases they have been established on account of grazing

necessities; thus several clans which have their chief seats near

Ootacamund have villages in the Kundahs or in the district near Makurti

Peak, which are visited in the dry season.

The members of a clan have many common rights and privileges which bind

them together, so that the clan-tie has a very real meaning. Property,

however, as we shall see shortly, is largely centred in the family or

the individual, and the Todas are in a state of social evolution in

which the common bond constituted by membership of the clan has been

largely replaced by the bond constituted by the family. They are in an

intermediate condition between the state of society in which the clan

is the social unit and that in which the family has taken this

position.

Nearly all who have previously written about the Todas have described

them as divided into five clans—viz., the Peiki, Pekkan, Kenna, Todi,

or Tothi, and Kuttan. These are the five divisions recognised by the

Badagas, and a Badaga knows each Toda as belonging to one of them. The

Todas are also perfectly acquainted with these divisions, and they

could always say, if asked, to which of them a given village or a given

man belonged. If a Toda is asked by a European to which clan or

division he belongs, he will probably give one of these names, but I do

not believe that they are in use among themselves, being reserved for

their intercourse with Badagas and other Indian castes and with

Europeans.

The Peiki of the Badaga classification are the Teivaliol; the Pekkan

correspond to the Melgarsol, the people of Kidmad and Karsh being also

usually included in this group. Kenna is the Badaga name of the Karsol;

the Todi or Tothi include two clans, the Nòdrsol and the Panol, while

the Kuttan comprise the remainder of the Tarthar clans—viz., those of

Taradr, Keradr, Kanòdrs, Kwòdrdoni, Päm and Nidrsi. I could obtain no

direct information from the Todas which would explain why the Badaga

classification should differ from their own. It is possible that it is

an old classification of the Todas, but this is unlikely, since it is

probable that the intercourse with the Badagas is not very ancient. It

seems to me possible that it may have arisen out of the constitution of

the naim or council. This has four Toda representatives belonging to

Kuudr (representing the Teivaliol), Kars, Nòdrs and Taradr. This would

correspond to four of the Badaga divisions, and the fifth, the

Melgarsol or Pekkan, would certainly be well known to the Badagas

through their privileges as mòrol. It is possible that the Nòdrs

representative used also to represent Pan, and that the Taradr member

represented the remaining clans, and, if so, it would point to there

having been some old five-fold division of the kind believed in by the

Badagas. It is quite clear that the five-fold division has no influence

on the marriage regulations and Peiki, Todi and Kuttan all marry freely

within their divisions. Except in connexion with the naim, I could

learn of nothing which would show that the five-fold division has any

social significance, and I know of no other way in which the Panol are

associated with the Nòdrsol nor of any other way in which the six clans

included in the Kuttan are associated together. It is possible that the

five-fold division is connected with some customs regulating the

payment of the Badaga tribute to the Todas, but I could learn nothing

of such customs.

Each clan has divisions of two kinds called kudr and pòlm. The kudr is

a division of ceremonial, the pòlm of practical, importance.

THE KUDR

Normally each clan has two kudr and two only, and, as we have seen in

Chapter XIII, these divisions become of the greatest importance in

connexion with the irnörtiti ceremony, the whole regulation of which is

dominated by the division into kudr. So far as I could ascertain, the

kudr has now no other significance, and I do not know whether the

division is one which formerly possessed a social significance which it

has now lost, so that the kudr only persists in ceremony, or whether it

is a mode of division of the clan which has arisen purely in connexion

with the irnörtiti and other allied ceremonies.

In one or two cases there was some doubt as to whether a certain

division of the people was a clan or a kudr. This was especially the

case with the Kwaradrol, now extinct, who were said by some of my

informants to have been a clan, but it seemed clear that they only

formed a kudr of the Keadrol, and were not properly a distinct clan.

This is one case in which a kudr has a distinctive name, and another

example occurs in the Panol where the kudr have separate names, one the

Panol or Pandar, the other the Kuirsiol or Peshteidimokh. In general,

each kudr is named after its leading man, thus the two kudr of the

Nòdrsol are spoken of as the kudr of Mudrigeidi (1) and Kerkadr (2).

The man who gives his name to the kudr is probably responsible for the

general management of the ceremonies in which the kudr is concerned.

In a few cases a clan was said to have more than two kudr, but on

cross-examination it turned out in each case that the statement was due

to the fact that the clan contained a section which had no part, or

only a subordinate part, in the irnörtiti ceremony and that this

section might sometimes be spoken of as a kudr. Thus, in the Kuudr clan

there are three sections, two which have reciprocal relations in the

irnörtiti ceremony, and a third consisting of the family of Tövoniners

(61) which lost certain privileges owing to a dispute many generations

ago (see p. 675). This family could perform the irnörtiti ceremony, but

in such a case the buffalo would go to the members of the two other

divisions and Tövoniners would receive nothing if either of the other

divisions performed the ceremony. Another example of a clan said to

have three kudr is that of Piedr, where the family of Nongarsivan (62)

stands in the same relation to the other divisions as is the case with

the family of Tövoniners in the Kuudrol. In this case Nongarsivan’s

exceptional position is probably due to the fact that his family lives

at Kavidi in the Wainad.

When a kudr becomes extinct a new division of the remaining kudr may

take place, but, as a rule, this is not done till an occasion for the

irnörtiti ceremony arises. There are several cases in which one kudr of

a clan has now been extinct for several years, but though the

re-division is often a subject for discussion, it is not probable that

a new kudr will be instituted till the necessity arises. Occasionally,

however, it would seem that a new kudr may be decided on apart from an

occasion for the irnörtiti ceremony, for about the time of my visit the

people of Keadr, who had lost one kudr by the dying out of the

Kwaradrol, decided that the family of Karem (69), of which the sole

living representatives are three boys, should form a new kudr. I could

not learn what had been the motives for the decision. Some unimportant

clans which have arisen by fusion from other clans, such as those of

Kidmad and Kulhem, have no kudr, and do not appear ever to have

possessed these divisions.

THE PÒLM

The word pòlm means ‘portion,’ and is the name of the section of the

clan by means of which is regulated the sharing of any expenses which

fall on the clan as a whole. Any expenses which the clan may incur as a

whole are not equally divided among the individual members of the clan,

but are equally divided among the pòlm. The chief occasion on which

such expenses arise is in the repair or rebuilding of a dairy.

When a clan owns a ti and a dairy of the ti needs to be rebuilt or

repaired, the expense also falls on the clan, and is equally divided

among the pòlm, as in the case of the village dairy.

The outlay is equally divided among the pòlm, however much they may

vary in size. Thus in the Kars clan one pòlm has sixteen adult male

members, while another has only one, but this one man would contribute

exactly the same amount as the other sixteen.

Occasionally a pòlm is so poor that it cannot pay its share, and in one

such case at the present time the pòlm, in this case consisting of two

boys only, has been incorporated into another.

The number of pòlm in a clan varies greatly, from ten in the case of

Kars to one only in the Pedrkars clan. There is no definite relation

between the kudr and the pòlm as regards numbers; thus, one kudr of a

clan may consist of one pòlm only, when the other kudr is divided into

many pòlm. When there is a great degree of inequality in the sizes of

different pòlm, a redistribution may take place, and this is probably

the more likely to happen the more influential are the members of the

smaller pòlm.

I believe that redistribution in the case of both pòlm and kudr is

usually decided by the members of the clan itself, but in cases of

doubt it is probable that the general council may have a voice in the

matter.

Each pòlm has a headman and is spoken of as the pòlm of this man. He is

responsible for collecting the amount due from it, but as the pòlm

often consists of a number of brothers, who hold much of their property

in common, the collection is not usually a matter of difficulty, and I

never heard of any disputes arising from this source.

The Todas recognise the existence of the family (kudupel or kudubel)

within the clan, meaning by this a group of people bound together by

near blood kinship. As a general rule, the family corresponds with the

pòlm, but sometimes there may be more than one pòlm in the same family.

It seemed to me that the term kudupel had not the same clear meaning as

the pòlm. The family has no important function in the social

organisation except in so far as it corresponds with the pòlm, but it

is taken into account when the pòlm and kudr are readjusted.

The term was chiefly used when the Todas were speaking of certain

families as being noted in certain ways or as having certain

privileges. Thus, some families are noted for their powers as

sorcerers, and these are called pilikudupel; others are known as

manikudupel, or chief families, whose members are important in

government and can hold the office of monegar and serve on the naim.

Other families important in government whose members can serve on the

naim or council are called tinkaniputitth kudupel or tinkani kudupel

and palutth kudupel. The members of certain other families have certain

duties of a lower order in connexion with the naim. They take messages

and act generally as servants at the meetings, and the families with

these functions are called kavòdiputipol kudupel, or servant families.

They are also sometimes called armanol or palace people, because at one

time the Rajah of Nelambur in the Wainad put his buffaloes into their

charge.

LAWS OF DESCENT

Descent among the Todas is always reckoned in the male line. A man is

always of the same clan as his father, if by his “father” we understand

the man who has given the bow and arrow to his mother at the pursütpimi

ceremony. In the case of the offspring of a mokhthoditi union, there is

at first sight an appearance of female descent. The child of a Teivali

mother and a Tarthar father belongs to the Teivaliol and vice versâ,

but on further inquiry it is found that the child does not belong to

his mother’s clan, but to that of her legal husband. The child of a

Teivali mother in such a case is not Teivali because his mother is of

this division, but because a Teivali man only is allowed to perform the

pursütpimi ceremony with a Teivali woman and become the legal father of

her child. If, in such a case, the pursütpimi ceremony had not been

performed, the child would belong to the division and clan of neither

father nor mother, but would be a padmokh, of no division and of no

clan. [223] I did not definitely inquire into the point, but from my

general knowledge of the position of such an individual, I have little

doubt that he would not be allowed to perform the pursütpimi ceremony,

and could therefore never become the legal father of a child.

In this as in all cases the clan to which a child belongs is determined

entirely by the pursütpimi ceremony. If in a polyandrous marriage the

husbands belong to different clans, a child belongs to the clan of the

husband who has last performed this ceremony, and, as we have already

seen, in the case of the death of one of the husbands, the dead man may

become the legal father of several children, if the surviving husband

does not perform the ceremony of giving a bow and arrow to the wife.

Again, in the case of a woman becoming pregnant while still unmarried,

the father of the child is the man who is called in to give the bow and

arrow, although he may have had nothing to do with the woman before the

ceremony. Further, if for any reason the husband of a woman should be

prevented from performing the pursütpimi ceremony, some other man is

called upon to give the bow and arrow and he becomes the father of the

child. Lastly, in the numerous cases of transference of wives from one

man to another by the terersthi custom, one man may be the real father

of a child, but another will become the legal father if the

transference should take place in time for him to perform the essential

ceremony.

The Todas show few traces of mother-right. In some communities there is

little reason to doubt that such acts as are performed by a Toda

towards his sister’s son are survivals of a condition of society in

which the mother’s brother was responsible, largely or altogether, for

the welfare of the child. Among the Todas, however, the mun stands in

two relations to a child. He is the mother’s brother, and he is also

the prospective or actual father-in-law, and we have no means of

telling in which of these two rôles he performs his duties. If the

duties of a man towards his sister’s son among the Todas be a relic of

mother-right, there can be little doubt that this condition must have

been very remote.

The Todas have a special name for the village of a man’s mother—viz.,

karuvnòdr, or “honoured place,” and when a manmokh gives a buffalo or

other contribution on the occasion of a funeral, he speaks of it as a

gift to his karuvnòdr. When a man visits his karuvnòdr, he goes to the

door of the dairy and bows down with his head to the ground at its

threshold, and then goes to the huts, where he is greeted with the

appropriate greeting, but this differs in no way from the procedure of

a visitor to any etudmad.

Marshall in his book [224] on the Todas has suggested that the

existence of female succession among the buffaloes of the Todas may be

a relic of female descent among the people themselves. He suggests that

at one time the scheme of descent and kinship was the same for the

Todas and for their buffaloes, and that with the introduction of

polyandry there came in inheritance through males among themselves,

while they continued to reckon the descent of the buffaloes in the

female line.

We have seen (see p. 471) that the method of reckoning descent among

the buffaloes is due superficially to the absence of names for male

buffaloes and more deeply to the lack of interest in paternity.

Nevertheless, Marshall’s suggestion, wild as it may seem, should not be

utterly scouted. The Todas regard their buffaloes so much as fellow

creatures that any of their ideas concerning the relations of their

buffaloes to one another should not be without interest to the student

of social regulations.

If one may speak of social organisation among buffaloes—and in the case

of the Toda herds we are justified in doing so—we have a state of

society in some ways analogous to that which many sociologists suppose

to have existed at one time in the early stages of human society. We

have various groups of buffaloes, and each buffalo—certainly each

female buffalo—belongs to the same group as its mother. There is

complete promiscuity, and the buffalo belongs to its mother’s group

because paternity is unknown or disregarded.

It is true that this condition is artificial, but it is this very

artificiality which gives it its interest, for it shows that people

like the Todas, whose whole lives are devoted to the buffalo, to whom

the breeding of the buffalo should have the deepest interest, have

allowed this state of things to come about. If they had attached

importance to paternity nothing would have been easier than to regulate

breeding, to record paternity, and even to have developed a system of

male descent among their buffaloes such as exists among themselves.

The nature of what may be called the social regulations of the

buffaloes shows that the Todas take little interest in the part played

by the male in the process of mating, and, as we have seen, this lack

of interest is almost as great among themselves. Side by side with the

strictest regulation of marriage as a social institution, such great

laxity prevails in regard to sexual relations that the Todas may almost

be said to live in a condition of promiscuity, though, as I have

endeavoured to show, the degree of promiscuity is in practice perhaps

hardly as great as their statements would lead one to expect.

ADOPTION

It is clear that the custom of adoption of children is not practised by

the Todas. They denied its existence emphatically, and I met with no

instance which led me to suspect its presence in compiling the

genealogies.

If a child is left an orphan, it is looked after by the people of its

clan, but it is always clearly recognised that the child retains the

father’s property, and belongs to the madol and pòlm of the father.

There is, so far as I could ascertain, no religious custom which makes

it necessary that a man should have children. The duties of a child at

the funeral ceremonies can quite well be performed by some other member

of the clan.

There is a social reason which makes it inconvenient in some cases that

a man should die without male issue. If a man is the only

representative of his kudr, and has no children, the kudr will become

extinct, and the clan will be put to the trouble of rearranging the

families of which it is constituted. If such a man is childless he may

take another wife in the hope of having a son to carry on the kudr, but

the adoption of a child for the purpose is never thought of. A good

case is that of the two brothers Mudrigeidi and Odrkurs in Table I.

They are the last two representatives of one kudr of the Nòdrsol. They

have had two wives, one of whom has had a daughter and a boy who died,

and in the hope of having a son, one of the brothers had recently

married a young girl, Obalidz, as his third wife, the others being

still alive, though one had been taken by another man.

GOVERNMENT

The most important feature of Toda government is the naim, or noim,

[225] a council having a definite constitution. The naim proper has to

do with the affairs of the Todas in general, and, in addition, more

informal councils, [226] consisting of the chief members of a clan, may

be held to settle matters arising within the clan. It seems, however,

that the supreme naim may sometimes be called upon to settle the

internal affairs of a clan.

The naim of the general body of Todas should have five members, or, if

more than five members, they should be drawn from five sources. Four of

these sources are the Tarthar clans of Kars, Nòdrs, and Taradr, and the

Teivali clan of Kuudr. The fifth source is the Badaga village of

Tuneri, from which a Badaga man may be sent to take part in the naim.

He is only called upon to sit, however, on special occasions; and in

the many councils which I saw during my visit a Badaga was rarely

present. He probably only sits, as a rule, when questions arise which

involve the relations between the Todas and Badagas.

The Toda representatives should be drawn from certain families of their

respective clans. The Kuudr representative should belong to the family

known as the manikudupel, and the representatives of Kars, Nòdrs, and

Taradr to the families known as tinkanikudupel. A few years ago the

Toda representatives were Kuriolv of Kuudr (52), Parkurs (8) and

Piutolvan (10) of Kars, Kudòdrsvan (3) of Nòdrs, and Ircheidi (20) of

Taradr, though there was some question whether Ircheidi was on the

naim, or whether his place had not been taken by Piutolvan, the second

Kars representative. All these men are at present living, but, with the

exception of Kuriolv, they are too old or infirm to serve. Kuriolv is

still on the naim, and his influence is entirely predominant, and it

appears that he has been instrumental in altering the constitution of

the council very largely. The number of representatives has been

increased, and the following were the members in 1902:—Kuriolv and

Ivievan (52) of Kuudr, Perner and Tebner (68), of Keadr, Parkeidi (21),

Paners (23) and Siriar (20) of Taradr and Pidrvan (9) of Kars. Thus

several members of the Kuudrol and Taradrol are serving, while there

appears to be no representative of the Nòdrsol; and I was told by

several Todas that Perner and Tebner are on the council because they

are friends of Kuriolv, though, as members of the Keadr clan, they have

no right whatever to the position.

On the slopes below the hill called Mirson, near Paikara, there are the

remains of ruined walls marking a place where the naim used to meet.

This place is called Idrgûdipem, and seems to have been at one time the

chief meeting-place.

At the present time the naim meets anywhere. I have seen the council

sitting in the compound of the bungalow at Paikara and on one occasion,

when I was working in a bungalow at the Ooty Club, the naim sat in the

grounds of the club. In general, they now meet at the places which

happen to be most convenient for the chief members.

The members usually sit in a semicircular row. If they are considering

a dispute between two parties, representatives of the parties take part

in the sitting, and in these cases the members of the naim sit in the

middle of the row while the representatives sit on either wing.

During my visit the council was chiefly occupied with the various

complicated transactions which are always arising out of the custom of

transferring wives from one man to another. This custom is the chief

source of disputes among the Todas, and at times the naim may sit for

several days before one case is settled.

I am doubtful whether the naim should have a definite head, but at the

present time it certainly has such in the person of Kuriolv of Kuudr.

He is the senior representative of the manikudupel of Kuudr, and is

therefore the natural representative of this clan on the naim. He is

highly intelligent, and gave me the impression that he might have risen

to a high place in any community. He has the reputation among the Todas

of being very eloquent and of having great persuasive powers. When

persuasion fails, there is very little doubt that he resorts to

intimidation of some kind, though I could not discover what his means

of intimidation are.

On one occasion the naim spent a whole day discussing a marriage case

in the compound at Paikara. On the following day they met in a distant

part of the hills to continue the discussion of the case, and I was

told that this was arranged by Kuriolv because he hoped to enforce his

wishes in some secluded spot more effectively than in the publicity of

Paikara where the evidences of the ‘government’ probably lent moral

support to his opponents.

However Kuriolv effects his purpose, there is no doubt that he almost

entirely dominated the Toda people at the time of my visit. We have

already seen that he has succeeded in altering the constitution of the

naim, and several examples are given in this book of his interference

in the normal course of Toda affairs; interference usually in favour of

his own family or friends. In at least one case (see Chap. XVI) during

my visit he considered himself superior to ceremonial laws.

He seemed to me to afford an excellent example of the process by which

one man may bring about considerable changes in the laws and

regulations of a community; though I was told in several instances that

the Todas would revert to their old customs as soon as Kuriolv died.

I did not obtain a full account of the duties of the naim and of the

affairs which come under its jurisdiction. There is no doubt, however,

that it is largely concerned with the settlement of civil disputes

arising between individuals, families, and clans. As I have already

mentioned, it seemed to me that it was almost exclusively engaged

during my visit in the regulation of the disputes arising out of the

terersthi custom. In one such case the question of funeral

contributions was involved, and I have no doubt that the settlement of

any dispute arising from this source would come within the province of

the naim, and probably any doubtful point in the working of the social

regulations would be submitted to it.

In addition to its functions in disputes between individuals, the naim

has wide functions in connexion with Toda ceremonial. It decides when

many ceremonies take place, and has the chief word in regulating the

affairs of the ti dairies. Thus it appeared that the various

arrangements and alterations of arrangements in connexion with the

migration of the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti which were made during my

visit were the work of the naim, or, at any rate, of its chief members.

CRIME

I have no knowledge about the power of the naim in criminal as opposed

to civil matters. I never heard of inquiry by the naim into any

criminal offence committed by one man against another or against the

community. It is, however, doubtful whether crime can be said to exist

among the Todas.

Acts such as infanticide are committed which would be regarded as

crimes by others, but since these are the outcome of custom they are

not crimes from the Toda point of view. Again, we have seen that the

Todas have a code of offences against the dairy, but these must be

regarded as sins rather than as crimes, for they are neither

investigated nor punished by the civil authority, the naim, but are

punished directly by the gods, and the various ceremonies described in

Chapter XIII are expiatory and not punitive.

The list of offences given on p. 295 includes quarrelling between

people of the same clan at a festival and quarrelling in the dairy. In

both cases the quarrelling is an offence against the dairy, and I have

no information to show whether quarrels ever lead to acts of violence

which might in other places become the subject of criminal

investigation. So far as I could learn, any investigation by the naim

would only deal with the causes which had led to the quarrel; it would

deal only with the civil and not with the criminal aspect of the case.

Again, the custom of terersthi, or transference of wives, which is the

chief subject of the deliberations of the naim, sometimes leads to acts

of violence. A woman who has been transferred by the naim from one man

to another may be carried off by force from the home of the former,

but, however such an act may be regarded from our standpoint, it is not

a crime from the Toda point of view, but merely the carrying out of the

decision of the judicial authority. So many Todas are, however,

discovering that such an act is regarded as a crime by Europeans that

there will probably soon come about a state of public opinion which

will regard such abduction as a crime, and possibly the same idea may

become attached to the whole custom of transference of a woman from one

man to another unwillingly. It seemed not unlikely at the time of my

visit that this conversion of a custom into a crime might be assisted

by the action of the Government.

In the legend of Kwoten, this hero kills Parden, but so far as I know

this is the only example of murder, either legendary or historical,

among the Todas. The Todas may take part in the murder of a Kurumba who

has been working magic, but this is of course no crime from the Toda

point of view, but an obvious method of self-defence, for it is

believed that the only way of stopping Kurumba sorcery is to kill the

sorcerer.

With the exception of the occurrences accompanying the transference of

wives, which I have already considered, I heard of no case of assault

by one Toda on another.

Similarly, I heard of no offence against property except in connexion

with the dairy. So far as I know, ornaments or clothing are never

stolen. In the list of offences against the dairy, stealing ghi is

included, but it was clear that this is regarded as sacrilege, as an

offence against the dairy and not as an offence committed against the

individual.

SUICIDE

In the legend of Kwoten there is a record of suicide by strangling, and

since the suicide of Erten and his confederates this is said to have

been a recognised custom among the Todas. Several instances have

occurred in recent times; thus, about four generations ago, at a

village called Podzkwar, near Taradrkirsi, a woman and her husband had

a dispute and the woman strangled herself. About three generations ago

a man strangled himself in the dairy at Melgars, and when a Toda is

very angry he will threaten to commit suicide, saying “on mêdr kati

kêdraividikin”—“my neck tying, I will die.”

Another way of committing suicide, said to have been borrowed from the

Badagas, is that of taking opium. There has been a recent case of

suicide, by this means, and when angry, a Toda sometimes says, “mud tid

kêdraividikin”—“Opium eating, I will die.”

THE MONEGAR

The Todas have a monegar, or headman, who is responsible for the

assessment which the Todas pay to Government for their grazing rights,

&c. (see below).

The earliest monegar whom the Todas remember is Teitchi or Teiti (52).

He was succeeded by his fourth son, Mutevan, who is still alive. The

two eldest sons had died before their father, and Persevan, the third

son, was said to be weak-minded, and Mutevan was therefore chosen to

succeed.

Mutevan is now a very old man, probably about eighty years of age, and

his office was taken over some years ago by his eldest son, Ivievan.

Though Ivievan is the monegar he is not the chief representative of his

family on the naim, this position belonging to Kuriolv, the son of

Pareivan and Persevan. Ivievan is helped in collecting the assessment

by an assistant monegar, and till lately this place belonged to Parkurs

of Kars.

It does not appear that the monegarship is a real Toda office, but that

the earliest monegar was appointed by Mr. Sullivan, the first British

official of the Nilgiris. The family, however, to which the monegar

belongs is called the manikudupel, which may mean the monegar family,

but I could not discover definitely whether this title is older than

the institution of the monegarship. It is possible that Teitchi was one

of the chief men of the naim when the Europeans first came to the hills

and that he was therefore appointed as monegar.

It is quite clear that at the present time the monegar, Ivievan, is not

the most important man among the Todas, but that the predominant

position belongs to his cousin, Kuriolv, the representative of the

family on the naim.

HEADMEN

Though it is very doubtful whether the institution of monegar is not an

innovation, and whether the Todas as a whole have properly any true

chief, it is fairly clear that the clan and its divisions have definite

leaders.

Each clan has a headman or etudol; usually, it seemed to me, one who

had come to the top by virtue of his character and ability. I did not

learn how far his position was generally recognised nor by what means

he was chosen. It was quite clear, however, that the leading man of a

clan might lose his position in old age or as the result of illness,

and at the time of my visit there were several men who had been the

heads of their clans but no longer occupied those positions.

Similarly, as we have seen, both kudr and pòlm have their leading men,

who give their names to the divisions and are probably responsible for

the conduct of their business.

PROPERTY

Among the Todas, property may be held by the clan, the family or the

individual. I am not clear whether there is any case in which property

is held to belong to the Todas as a whole, or to either of the two

divisions. There were two villages, Padegar and Ki Perththo, said to be

common property, so that any one might live at them. At the time of my

visit both were occupied by Melgars people, and I could not satisfy

myself as to what was meant by saying that they were common property.

In general, land, the dairies of the chief villages, and some buffaloes

may be said to be the property of the clan. The house, and probably

also some villages, are the property of a family, and most buffaloes,

household goods and ornaments are the property of the individual.

Land.—The relation of the Todas to the land has been a much discussed

theme, and for many years after the first settlement of the hills by

Europeans it was a subject of controversy. The fact that the Badagas

paid what seemed to be a tribute of grain to the Todas was held to show

that the latter were regarded as the “lords of the soil,” and the view

was strongly upheld that they should be so regarded by the Indian

Government. The other view taken of the matter was that permanent

rights in the soil throughout India belong to the State. The

controversy [227] was not settled till 1843, when it was decided that

the Todas should have the privilege of pasturing their herds on the

State lands on payment of a small tax. At the present time the Todas

receive an annual sum from the Government as compensation for land

taken from them in Ootacamund and elsewhere.

Although the Todas have thus had much difficulty with the Government in

relation to the ownership of land, it does not seem that they have

trouble in this matter among themselves, and I heard of no disputes

between members of different clans or different villages about grazing

rights.

In the account of the marriage dispute between Punog and Nertiners (see

p. 536) the former had evidently put many of his buffaloes in the

charge of his brother-in-law for grazing purposes, but it was quite

clear that no question of grazing rights came into this dispute. The

buffaloes only came into the quarrel because Nertiners happened to have

them in his charge when the marriage dispute arose.

I did not ascertain definitely how grazing rights between two clans or

families are regulated, but I think it is quite clear that there is no

individual ownership in land.

Certain dairies, and probably all the chief villages (etudmad), are

regarded more or less as the property of the whole clan. There probably

never arises any real question of ownership, but as regards the

dairies, it was clear that any expenses incurred in the repair or

rebuilding of a dairy fall on the whole clan, each pòlm of the clan

contributing an equal share. [228]

The buffalo herds of the ti are also regarded as the property of the

whole clan, but the rights of ownership are in these cases very

shadowy. It does not appear that the owning clan derives any pecuniary

benefit from its possession of the herd, while, on the other hand, the

possession involves considerable expense, chiefly owing to certain

feasts which have to be provided, and these expenses are given as the

reason why certain of the sacred dairies are unoccupied. The people of

the owning clan have, it is true, the right of choosing the palol, but

as the choice is limited, and there is, in most cases, little

competition for the office, this is a very empty honour.

Houses. Each house belongs to a certain family. The normal Toda family

consists of a number of brothers with one wife, and each house belongs

to a family of this kind, and is handed on to the children of the

brothers.

If the brothers quarrel, the affair is settled by the naim, and it is

usually decided that one brother or more than one of the brothers shall

occupy the house for a certain period, usually a year, and that at the

end of this period he (or they) shall move to another village, when

another brother or brothers will occupy the house.

Such disputes do not seem to be frequent, but one was in existence

during my visit. The two younger of three brothers had taken a wife

without the knowledge of the eldest. The latter did not approve of the

choice, and wished his brothers to send the wife away, which they

refused to do. As the dispute had not yet been settled, the eldest

brother at the time of my visit was living in the house, while the

other brothers were living at the village of their newly chosen wife.

If a family dies out, it seems that the house is not, as a rule, taken

on by another family. It falls into disuse, and in time disappears. As

a village may sometimes consist of one house only, villages may

disappear in this way, and the ruins of some villages were pointed out

to me which had fallen into disuse owing to the dying out of the

families which formerly occupied them. A really important village,

i.e., one with an important dairy, would of course never disappear in

this way, but it is possible that the reason why some villages, such as

Nasmiòdr and Kanòdrs, now consist of a dairy only, is that the families

which possessed the houses at these villages became extinct. I do not,

however, know positively that a house at such an important village may

not, in some cases, be taken over by another family.

Breeks has stated that the Toda custom is that the house shall pass to

the youngest son. It seems quite clear that this is wrong, and that

this custom is absolutely unknown among the Todas. It is, however, a

Badaga custom, and among them I was told that it is due to the fact

that as the sons of a family grow up and marry, they leave the house of

the parents and build houses elsewhere. It is the duty of the youngest

son to dwell with his parents and support them as long as they live,

and when they die he continues to live in the parental home, of which

he becomes the owner.

Buffaloes. These are to a very large extent individual property. In

practice, owing to the fact that brothers usually live together, a herd

of buffaloes is treated as the property of a family of brothers, but

whenever the occasion arises there are definite rules for the division

of the buffaloes among them.

I have already referred to the fact that certain herds of buffaloes,

such as the ti herds and the kugvalir of Taradr, are the common

property of a clan, but the great majority of both sacred and ordinary

buffaloes belong to families or individuals. [229] When a man who owns

a certain number of buffaloes dies, the buffaloes are not necessarily

divided among his sons. If the sons are all living together, the

buffaloes may be treated as if they were common property. The milk of

the ordinary buffaloes is churned in the dwelling-hut, and that of the

sacred buffaloes in the dairy, and the produce in each case is regarded

as the property of the whole family. It is only when dissensions arise,

or when some reason makes it desirable that the brothers should

separate and live in different villages, that the laws regulating the

partition of buffaloes come into force.

When such an occasion arises the buffaloes are equally divided among

the brothers, with the exception that the eldest son and the youngest

son each receive one buffalo in excess of the rest. This custom is

known as îrvâkhtnûdr meilkûdr, or “if divide buffaloes, superior

portion.”

If there are only two sons, each will get meilkudr, and the buffaloes

are equally divided; but if there should be an unequal number of

buffaloes, the odd buffalo is taken by the elder son.

If there are more than two sons, the buffaloes are equally divided with

meilkudr to the eldest and youngest, and any odd buffaloes are in this

case sold and the proceeds equally divided, or, more commonly, one of

the brothers takes the odd buffaloes and gives the right proportion of

their value to the other brothers.

Thus, if sixteen buffaloes are to be divided among four brothers, the

eldest and youngest would each take four, the second and third brothers

would each take three, and the remaining two buffaloes would either be

sold and the purchase money equally divided, or taken by one of the

brothers, who would divide three-quarters of the value of the buffaloes

between the other three men. If there should be only fourteen

buffaloes, the eldest and youngest sons would each take four buffaloes

and the others three.

The meilkudr is also operative if a man divides his buffaloes among his

sons in his lifetime. In this case a man usually keeps some buffaloes

for himself; thus I was told that a man who had sixteen buffaloes and

three sons might give four buffaloes to the eldest, three to the next,

and four to the youngest son, keeping five for himself.

The Todas told me of one apparent exception to the law of meilkudr. If,

in a family of four brothers, the two elder brothers marry one wife and

the two younger marry another and the two groups separate, the

buffaloes would be equally divided, but this is because each would

receive a meilkudr. If, on the other hand, the eldest and youngest son

married one wife, and the other two sons married another woman, the

first group would receive two buffaloes in excess of the second. The

former example is, of course, an obvious consequence of the law of

meilkudr. I only mention it because the Todas told me of it especially,

and seemed to regard it as a case which might be thought to be a

departure from custom.

I gave the Todas a number of hypothetical problems of buffalo division,

and all were solved in accordance with the law of meilkudr. I have not

been able to learn of any exact parallel in other parts of the world,

and it seems possible that it is an independent invention of the Todas.

The division is called kudr, or horn, and it seems to me quite possible

that at some time it occurred to an ingenious Toda that the two

extremities of the family should be regarded as the two horns of the

family, and that this fact should be recognised in the division of

property, or, it may be, that the custom of endowing the eldest of the

family above his fellows existed among the Todas as among so many other

races, till it was pointed out that this was like a buffalo with one

horn, and the youngest son was therefore similarly endowed to restore

the symmetry of the family. The buffalo influences the Toda mind so

much that I do not think this is a far-fetched explanation of a custom

which appears to be the unique possession of this people.

The word kudr is also the name of one of the divisions of the clan, and

it seemed clear in this case that the proper number of kudr in each

clan is two.

There is much transference of buffaloes from one man to another, or

from one family to another. Many ceremonies involve gifts of buffaloes,

and these are usually presented by a member of one clan to a member of

another. Marriage is one of the chief occasions of such gifts. Refusal

to fulfil the marriage contract and divorce involve the payment of

buffaloes, and the terersthi custom is a great source of the passing of

buffaloes from one clan to another. Similarly, buffaloes are given at

the ceremonies of naming, ear-piercing, &c., and as I have already

pointed out, these transferences have led to great confusion in the

classification of the different kinds of sacred buffaloes, as a man may

have in his possession animals belonging to several named groups.

In the case of ordinary buffaloes, or putiir, it seemed that a

distinction is made between buffaloes which have been acquired by a man

and those descended from animals which had been in the possession of

his father and grandfather. My attention was drawn to this point by the

occurrence at the funeral of Sinerani. The recalcitrant buffalo on this

occasion was one of the latter kind, and I was told that it should not

have been killed at the funeral of a girl because, being descended from

a buffalo which belonged to Kuriolv’s grandfather, Kuriolv’s heirs had

a right to it of which they were deprived by its slaughter for a girl.

If the dead child had been a boy the slaughter of this buffalo would

have been proper, for the dead child in this case would have been one

of the heirs.

Transferences of buffaloes also take place between Todas and Badagas,

as we have seen in connexion with the ear-piercing ceremony described

in Chapter XIV. In this case the gift appeared to be nothing more than

a friendly compliment, but it is possible that transferences of

buffaloes may in some cases be connected with the other complicated

relations between the two tribes.

Household Goods. These are equally divided among the sons, though, as

in the case of the buffaloes, they are used in common so long as the

sons live together. If household goods have to be divided among the

members of a family they are shared as equally as possible, and this is

also the case with any ornaments. If the man had only one ring, it was

said that this ring would either be broken up and shared equally, or

its value would be divided. Money is shared equally among the sons.

If one of several brothers who has his own wife should die and leave

children, the sons would take their father’s share at any division of

property. Thus, at the time of my visit, Piutolvan and Püljeidi (10),

two very old men, were thinking of dividing their buffaloes among their

descendants. In this case Menkars would receive the number which his

father Tagners would have received if he had been alive. If Tagners had

left two sons, the portion which their father would have received would

be divided between the two boys or devoted to their common use.

Daughters inherit nothing. They only receive from their parents what

they are given as dowry (adrparn).

Any property given to a woman as dowry goes with her if she changes

husbands, but any ornaments or other property given to a wife by her

husband are kept by the husband if the wife is transferred to another

man or group of men.

Harkness records a case in which a dispute about property arose. In

this case a woman bore two children to three husbands. One of the

husbands died and the other two husbands married other wives. The two

children claimed one-third of the property of the mother and her first

husband, and Harkness was told that this was generally recognised to be

a just claim. I did not inquire into this special case but according to

the laws of inheritance of property which I have given, it would seem

that the children were entitled to one-third of the whole of the

property of the three brothers. If the property had been divided among

the three brothers, the man who died would have received one-third, and

the children should have received his share.

In all cases of distribution of property, inheritance depends on

descent as determined by the pursütpimi ceremony, and not on the real

descent, even if this should be well known. Thus the boy Meilitars

(44), who is really the son of Kuriolv, but is legally the son of

Pepners, should not inherit any of Kuriolv’s buffaloes, but will

receive those of his legal father, Pepners, of whom at present he is

the only son.

If the whole of a family, such as is given in one of the genealogical

tables, should die out, the inheritance of the buffaloes and other

property is determined by the nearest links of descent, of which a

tradition may be preserved, even if the actual relationship cannot be

definitely traced.

Several interesting features of Toda law are illustrated by a case out

of which a lawsuit may one day arise. If the family of Kiugi (57)

should become extinct, there would arise a dispute about the succession

to the property, which would turn largely on a case in which the

pursütpimi ceremony was performed several generations ago. When the

eldest child of Tudrvan (52) was about to be born, Tudrvan was away

from home, and had not performed the pursütpimi ceremony. There was a

danger that the delivery might take place before the ceremony could be

performed, and Kòrs (57) was therefore called in to give the bow and

arrow, and Teitchi, who was born soon afterwards, was, according to

Toda custom, the child of Kòrs. When Teitchi grew up, however, he

decided to regard himself as the son of his real father, Tudrvan, and

being a powerful and influential person like his grandson Kuriolv, he

appears to have had his way, and his descendants have been regarded as

the descendants of Tudrvan. Tudrvan himself gave the bow and arrow in

the succeeding pregnancy, and there is therefore no doubt about the

legitimacy of Pusheiri and his younger brothers and sisters.

Owing, however, to the part played by Kòrs before the birth of his

grandfather, Kuriolv has lately directed that Kiugi, the son of Kòrs,

should belong to the same pòlm as himself in order that he or his

family may succeed to the buffaloes of Kiugi’s pòlm if this should die

out. It is known, however, that Kiugi’s pòlm is closely related to that

of Tüliners (56), so that should the pòlm of Kiugi become extinct,

there would arise a lawsuit between Kuriolv and Tüliners or their

representatives for the possession of Kiugi’s buffaloes.

The essential point of the situation is that Kuriolv is trying to make

use of his double position as the descendant of Tudrvan by real

paternity and of Kòrs by virtue of the pursütpimi ceremony. According

to the latter he is of the same pòlm as Kiugi, but if equity prevails

in the decision of the naim which may have to settle the dispute,

Kuriolv or his representative will have to decide whether he is

descended from Tudrvan or Kòrs, and will not be allowed to take

advantage of both lines of descent.

As a matter of fact, I was assured by several Todas that though they

have apparently fallen in with Kuriolv’s wishes, they still regard

Kiugi’s pòlm as most closely allied to that of Tüliners, and if Kuriolv

should die before the extinction of Kiugi’s family, I have little doubt

that the naim would decide that the buffaloes of Kiugi should go to the

family of Tüliners.

This potential lawsuit is important as showing the rôle played by the

genealogies in the social regulations of the Toda community. We see

that an eventuality which may never arise and probably will not arise

for many years to come is already the subject of consideration and

discussion, that the crucial point upon which the lawsuit will turn is

an event which occurred probably about 120 years ago, and that the ties

of kinship which will be involved in the dispute are carefully

preserved in the memories of the people.

The history is also very interesting in showing that a century ago a

man of force was able to set aside a fundamental regulation of Toda

society, and that his grandson, who has apparently inherited the

powerful character of his ancestor, is following in his footsteps, and,

as we have seen frequently during this volume, is able to put on one

side Toda customs or laws when they conflict with his interests or

desires.

DEBT AND SERVITUDE

It seems to be not uncommon for a Toda to die in debt, and it is the

duty of the sons to pay off the debts of their father. If there are no

children, the payment of the debt is regarded as the duty of the

brothers of the dead man.

When children have to pay the debts of their father, they may give

their services to others, receiving in return money and other

recompense. The usual pay is six rupees a year, two cloaks, and food.

To this is often added the loan of a milking buffalo.

This custom of working for another is called kûlvatkerthchi or

kûlvatkerthiti. Several of the eight sons of Pushteidi and Keitan (6)

are now working to pay their father’s debts. Two of the sons are

married to one woman and live at one of their own villages, where they

look after the buffaloes of the family. Another brother is unmarried,

but lives with a Teivali woman. The other five sons are unmarried and

work for various people. One is employed on a tea estate, and the

others are working for different Todas, who reward them in the manner

already described. The milking buffaloes lent to them are handed over

to the charge of the brothers who are married.

It is very exceptional to find a family in which so many of the men are

unmarried, and this was said to be due to the necessity of paying off

their father’s debt. In this case the two eldest brothers have remained

unmarried, but this was said to have been due to their own choice. It

seems that it is left to the family to decide which of them shall marry

and which shall undertake the duty of paying the debt. As soon as the

debt is paid off, all the sons are allowed to marry.

THE POSITION OF WOMEN

There is no doubt that women have a subordinate position in the Toda

community. The ceremonial of the dairy has a predominant place in the

lives and thoughts of the people, and the exclusion of women from any

share in this ceremonial must have influenced the attitude of the

community towards the sex. The laws regulating the relations of the

dairymen with women also can hardly have contributed to raise the

esteem in which they are held. The special ceremonies in which women

are concerned involve various disabilities due to the ideas of impurity

connected with these ceremonies. The seclusion-hut of a woman has

attached to it the same ideas of impurity which attach to a corpse or

its relics.

Not only are women excluded from any share in the work of the dairies

connected with the sacred buffaloes, but they are also prohibited from

any part in the milking of the ordinary buffaloes or in the churning of

their milk, which is performed solely by males in a part of the hut

with which women have nothing to do. It seems that at one time women

had the one function of tending the buffaloes at the time of calving,

but even this is no longer allowed them.

In other household matters, the duties of women are very limited in

scope. Their chief work is the pounding and sifting of grain, the

cleaning of the hut, and the decoration of clothing. I am doubtful

whether they are allowed to cook, at any rate to cook food in which

milk forms one of the ingredients. With such occupations as divining

and sorcery they have nothing to do, but one woman has the reputation

of possessing the powers of healing which belong to the utkòren.

I could not learn of any matters of social importance in which women

are consulted. When collecting genealogies in Torres Straits, I found

that women were often repositories of this important branch of

knowledge, but I received no indication that this was the case with the

Toda women, though I cannot say definitely that they may not have

possessed some knowledge of this and cognate subjects.

Though thus unimportant in ceremonial and of little influence in the

regulation of social affairs, women have nevertheless much freedom. In

general social intercourse the two sexes always seemed to be on the

best of terms, and I never saw or heard anything to indicate that women

are treated harshly or contemptuously.

In my psychological tests it certainly seemed to me the general

intelligence of the women was very much lower than that of the men.

Some of the younger women were as acute and intelligent as the men, but

the older women seemed to me hopelessly stupid. They did not try to

give their minds to the tasks I set them with anything approaching the

keenness and interest shown by the men, and again and again I failed to

obtain results of any value in tests which men understood readily.

It seems probable that the intelligence of the two sexes is not

appreciably different in youth, but that the social life of the women

does nothing to develop this intelligence and everything to force its

exercise into the narrowest channels.

It might, I think, be expected that polyandry would be associated with

a subordinate position of woman, and there can be no doubt that the

Todas show the association of the two conditions.

When a woman marries she becomes of the same clan as her husband, and

this is a matter of some importance in connexion with religious and

social ceremonial. Thus, in the funeral ceremonies of a woman, the

choice of appropriate day and place, of the people who are to take part

in the funeral rites and other features of the ceremonial are

determined, not by the clan of the woman’s father, but by that of her

husband, and this even when the marriage itself forms part of the

funeral ceremonies.

While I was on the hills, the widow, Kiuneimi (3), who had been living

with her father at Nòdrs, died. Her husbands had belonged to Kanòdrs,

and as a member of this clan she should have been taken to its

burning-ground. This was, however, so far from Nòdrs that it was

decided not to go there, but to hold the funeral ceremonies near the

place where she had died. The proper funeral place for Nòdrs women

could not, however, be used, for she belonged to another clan, and the

body was therefore taken to a village which was not a true funeral

place, and so no laws were infringed.

The funeral of Sinerani (p. 391) is an excellent example which shows

how all the details of a funeral ceremony are dependent on the

transference of a young girl to the clan of a boy who acts as husband

to the corpse. By her marriage to Keinba, the dead girl became a member

of the Keadrol, and her funeral should have been held at the

burning-ground of this clan. Many of the features of the ceremonies

were in accordance with this change of clan, and since all were not so,

the various mishaps which occurred at the funeral were ascribed by the

Todas to the departure from prescribed custom.

CHAPTER XXIV

ARTS AND AMUSEMENTS

The arts of life among the Todas are extremely simple. The fact that

their agriculture is done for them by the Badagas and that all the

objects they use in their daily life are made for them by the Kotas

leaves them free to devote their whole attention to the care of the

buffalo and the dairy. This employment has acquired so ceremonial a

character that, having dealt with the ceremonies of the Todas, we find

little left to consider in connexion with the regulation of the affairs

of daily life.

The artistic side of life among the Todas is but little developed.

Their interest is so much absorbed in ceremony that little is left for

the development of art, even of a primitive kind. The decorative arts

are of the simplest and are directed only to the adornment of the

clothing or the person, and even here we shall find that the methods of

wearing the clothes or the hair are quite as much influenced by

ceremonial as by æsthetic considerations. In their amusements again we

shall find that the influence of ceremonial is so great, that many of

the games are merely imitations of ceremonial occupations.

I have included in this chapter an account of the ideas which are held

about the heavenly bodies, the primitive astronomy of the people. To

the Todas, though in a less degree than to many people of low culture,

it is the sun, moon, and stars which are the chief objects of those

observations and speculations which are the beginnings of science.

CLOTHING

The clothing of the men consists of a large cloak called the putkuli, a

loincloth called tadrp, and a small perineal cloth called kuvn, kept in

its place by a string round the waist called pennar.

The putkuli is made of a large piece of double cloth, which is usually

worn by placing one side over the left shoulder and then throwing the

whole garment round the back and over the right shoulder and across to

the left shoulder, so that it completely envelops the body. This method

of wearing the cloak, which is shown by the third man of Fig. 61, is

called kai ulk üt nidvai, “hand into laid who stands,” or “who stands

with hand placed within the cloak.”

The double layer of cloth of which the cloak is made is sewn together

at the edges except at the upper part of one side, leaving the opening

of a large pocket which is bounded by lines where the two layers of the

cloak are again sewn together. This pocket is called kudsh and is very

capacious, so that a Toda may produce a surprising number of articles

from it. As we have seen, many of the articles given to the dead are

placed in this pocket.

There are two methods of wearing the cloak adopted on special

occasions. One of these is that called kevenarut (adopted by the second

man in Fig. 61), with which we have already often met. The right arm is

put out of the cloak, so that the arm and shoulder are bare whenever a

Toda approaches certain sacred personages or objects. The cloak is worn

kevenarut whenever the wearer is engaged in prayer or employed in any

way at the dairy. It is also worn in this way when approaching a palol,

when performing the kaimukhti salutation, and when crossing either of

the sacred streams.

The other method is that shown by the fourth man in Fig. 61 and is

called mad âr mitch nidvai, “head on covered who stands.” The cloak is

worn in this fashion by a widower between the middle of the first

funeral ceremony and the final scene of the azaramkedr. It is also worn

in this way by those who throw earth in the puzhutpimi ceremony of each

funeral.

The tadrp is a loincloth worn in the ordinary way, as shown by the

first man in Fig. 61. The tadrp of a young child has a pocket called

terigs, but I do not know whether this pocket also exists in the tadrp

of an adult.

Both putkuli and tadrp are manufactured by Hindus, probably in the

Coimbatore district. Thirty years ago, according to Breeks, the cloth

was procured from weavers who came from Serumuge in Coimbatore, but at

the present time the garments are bought by the Todas at the bazaar.

When obtained by the Todas they have certain red and blue lines, and

sometimes the Todas supplement this decoration by embroidery called

pukuru, which is the work of the women, and a cloak so decorated is

called pukuruputkuli. The decoration is shown in Figs. 1 and 9. Some

women are especially expert at this work, and one woman who has

recently had to change her name is now called Pukuruveli on account of

her special skill.

The chief point of interest in connexion with the kuvn is the string by

which it is supported. This string is called pennar, or “butter

string,” and forms a special contribution made by relatives, and

especially the sister’s son, at a funeral. Further, the string is of

especial significance in the dairy ceremonial, where it is sometimes

called kerk.

Both putkuli and tadrp are also worn by women. The garments are of the

same kind as those of the men and are worn in the same ways.

The higher grades of dairymen wear garments called tuni, made of a

different material, a grey cloth, which has been said to be

manufactured by the Badagas of Jakaneri, but is probably only procured

by their help. A cloak of similar material called än is, or should be,

used to enwrap the bodies of the dead; and, as we have already seen,

there is some reason to believe that garments of this material may have

been the original clothing of the Todas, for in the legend of Kwoten,

the wife of this hero wore a cloak of this kind.

The Todas themselves manufacture a special kind of material called

twadrinar from the bark of a plant, and this is largely used in the

ordination ceremonies. In the ordination of a Teivali palikartmokh, it

may take the place of the petuni; at that of a wursol, twadrinar may be

used as a girdle; and on the fourth day of the ordination ceremonies of

the palol, the candidate manufactures and wears a rough kuvn made of

this material. Its use in ceremony appears to be limited to the

Teivaliol, and it is possible that it also is a survival in ceremony of

clothing once in general use by this or both divisions of the Toda

people.

Many of the older and more important Todas now wear the turban called

madpâri, but there is no doubt that this is an innovation. The Todas

themselves sometimes speak of the Badagas as “they who wear the

turban,” and it seemed clear that the custom has been adopted in

imitation of these people. Harkness and other of the earliest writers

state that the Todas never wear any covering to the head, and there is

little doubt that the practice has been adopted during the last

century.

At the present time a man always removes his turban when performing any

act of reverence (see Fig. 10) and when crossing one of the sacred

rivers.

Mr. Thurston mentions that on his first visit, the man whom he chose as

his guide adopted the turban in honour of his appointment, and my

guide, Kòdrner, although much younger than most of those who wore

turbans, also adopted this custom when he was with me.

METHODS OF WEARING THE HAIR

There are various methods of wearing the hair, each of which has its

special significance. The ordinary method for men is to allow it to

grow to a certain length, so that it forms a compact mass, as shown by

the first man of Fig. 61, or as in Fig. 15.

When a member of a clan dies, all the men of the clan tie their hair in

knots in front till the funeral ceremonies are completed. This is

called mad tutvai, “head (or hair) who rolls,” and the second man in

Fig. 61 is wearing his hair in this fashion, a girl of his clan having

died not long before, whose second funeral ceremonies had not yet taken

place.

Another method of wearing the hair is shown by the third man in Fig.

61. This method is called mad nadrk vai, “head (or hair) long to who.”

It is adopted by anyone who has made a vow. In Fig. 62 another man is

shown in the same condition, but his head has a different appearance

owing to the fact that he has tied two locks behind in order to keep

the long hair away from his face. This tying back has no other

significance.

Women wear their hair as shown in Figs. 3 and 11, in long ringlets, and

there do not appear to be any differences in the method of wearing the

hair under different conditions corresponding to those of males.

After a funeral the Tarthar division of the Todas except the Melgarsol

shave their heads, and this may also happen in connexion with vows made

at the Hindu temple at Nanjankudi or elsewhere.

The hair of a child is shaved about the third month of life (see p.

332), so that the head has the appearance shown in Figs. 63 and 64. The

head is shaved on the top and sides, and in a strip from the top to the

forehead, so that three locks are left, two in front, called the mîkuti

(? meikuti), and one behind, called the kut.

In the case of a girl, there is some difference in the method of

shaving according to the position of the child in the family. If a girl

is the eldest of the family, she wears three locks like a boy, but

younger girls and the eldest girl, if she should have an elder brother,

wear only the two front locks, the mîkuti.

SKIN-MARKS

The only kind of skin-mark made on males takes the form of a cicatrix

on the right shoulder and, less commonly, on the elbow. It is produced

by means of a stick made hot by the drill method of producing fire,

exactly as in the production of fire for ceremonial purposes. The

operation is not, however, accompanied by any ceremonial and may be

performed by anyone. The marks are made when a boy is about twelve

years old, at which age he begins to milk the buffaloes. The object of

the marking is to cure the pain arising from the fatigue of milking. If

the operation has not the desired result and the boy still feels the

fatiguing effect of milking, a second mark is made, and occasionally a

third or fourth may be necessary. In one case, in which a man had three

marks one on the shoulder and two on the elbow, the third mark was not

made till he was fifteen or sixteen years of age, three or four years

after the first mark had been produced. This was done because, even

after this lapse of time, he still suffered from aching in his arm

after milking the buffaloes. Another man had four scars on the

shoulder, this being the largest number I observed.

Occasionally I observed a man without any of these scars, and, in more

than one of these cases, the reason given was that the man had been one

of a large family and had not had to do much milking. The cicatrices

are usually raised well above the surrounding skin and are often

distinct lumps of scar tissue (keloid). This appears to be the result

of special treatment of the burn. A leaf called kudiers is put on the

wound with butter, and this keeps it open for a considerable time. If

the wound remains open too long, another leaf, called pöturers, is used

to hasten the healing.

Similar, but less raised, marks are occasionally seen on the wrist or

elsewhere. In men these are always the result of treatment for pain or

illness and are made in the same way by means of a hot stick. Sometimes

a metal instrument called sunurkudi is now used for this purpose.

The ceremonial burns made on the wrists of women during the first

pregnancy have already been fully considered.

Tattooing is only practised by women. The patterns consist of rings and

dots arranged in straight lines, and they are most commonly to be seen

on the chest, shoulders, and upper parts of the arms. [230]

I believe that there is some kind of ceremonial connected with

tattooing, but unfortunately I failed to obtain satisfactory

information about it. When I began the subject one day, I received an

intimation that it was not a matter to be discussed in public, and

later the subject slipped my attention and was never properly

investigated.

The tattooing is performed by certain women, but it seemed that any

woman who had learned how to tattoo might undertake the business. The

following are at present recognised as experts: Achaveli (43), Sinpurs

and Edjog (20), Sinpurs being probably the same woman who acts as one

of the utkòren. The woman who tattoos is given eight or twelve annas

and she also receives food.

The tattooing must not take place before puberty, but it may be done

either before or after childbirth.

Little use is made by the Todas of pigments. The juice of a fruit

called îlpom, which has a red colour, is sometimes used to adorn the

forehead, and another reddish juice from a fruit called puthimulpom

[231] is used for the same purpose. The yellowish juice of the

pelkurthpom is rubbed on the face, but this was said to be done in

frosty weather only, as a protection against the cold. Ashes are now

occasionally rubbed on the face and head, especially by women at the

ceremony of going to the seclusion-hut after childbirth. The last is

certainly a recently borrowed custom, and I suspect the other

adornments just mentioned to be modern imitations of the forehead marks

of the Hindus.

ORNAMENTS

The men usually wear silver rings on the fourth digit of one or other

hand. Often earrings are worn by the men and these are not uncommonly

of gold. Harkness says that men sometimes wore chains of silver round

the neck, but it is doubtful whether these are ever worn now. Formerly

it seems that men used to wear far more solid rings, and one such ring

is preserved which is said to have belonged to the hero or god Kwoten.

The ornaments of the women are more numerous and take the form of

bracelets or bangles; armlets, often adorned with bunches of cowries;

necklaces, sometimes made of silver coins; earrings; and a brass

circlet worn round the waist. These ornaments are usually of brass or

silver. At one time they seem to have been very massive, Breeks

recording that a pair of brass armlets worn on one arm weighed six

pounds. Formerly gold ornaments seem to have been commonly worn, and,

so far as one can judge from older accounts and illustrations, it seems

that Toda jewellery has greatly degenerated and is of a very paltry

kind compared with that worn in the past.

FOOD

The chief foods are milk, buttermilk, ghi, grain, rice, and sugar. The

chief drink is buttermilk, and milk is used chiefly when boiled with

rice or grain.

In clarifying their butter the Todas add some grain or rice, and this

forms a sediment on the bottom of the cooking vessel which is called

al, which is the chief food of the dairymen, and it is probably also

used largely as a food in ordinary life.

A list of various herbs, fruits, &c., eaten by the Todas is given by

Mr. Thurston. [232] There is very little doubt that at one time these

were used much more largely than at present, when the grain provided by

the Badagas is supplemented by rice and grain bought in the bazaar. The

Todas have a tradition of a time when they lived chiefly on roots,

herbs, fruits and honey, and the importance of honey comes out in

several of their legends.

A much prized substance called patcherski is made from samai grain

(Panicum miliare), which is roasted and pounded so as to get rid of the

husk. It is used in the preparation of a food which is eaten on all the

chief ceremonial occasions. When they prepare it the Todas say

“ashkkartpimi,” and this verbal form is used as the name of the food.

In making ashkkartpimi, patcherski is put into a basket (tòdri) which

has been carefully cleansed by rubbing it all over with dried

buffalo-dung. Buttermilk and jaggery are added and the whole mixed

together and rolled into balls, each about as large as a cricket ball.

When eating, a hole is made in the ball into which ghi and butter,

sometimes honey, are poured, and then the hole is covered with rice.

[233] A man will usually eat two of these balls at a feast, but a

greedy man may manage three or four.

The Todas do not like others to see them eating, and if this happens,

the same consequences may ensue as are produced by the evil eye. Their

natural politeness also makes the Todas uncomfortable when they see

others eating, and in the early part of my visit I sometimes dispersed

a group surrounding me by taking sandwiches out of my pocket and

beginning to eat.

I did not ascertain definitely who cooks among the Todas. I had some

reason to suppose that all the cooking is done by the men and that the

women have nothing to do with this part of domestic economy, but I am

not clear about this. It is possible that it is only food containing

milk which must be cooked by the men.

The Todas are an example of a people who have no native intoxicant, but

they have now taken to alcoholic drinks, though I do not believe that

they indulge in these habitually. The only occasions on which I saw

Todas under the influence of alcohol were when they were returning from

the bazaar on market days. I was only once asked by a Toda for alcohol

and then by a woman. Tobacco is now largely used and opium is certainly

also used, though I do not believe that it is taken in excess. It may

be employed, however, as a means of committing suicide.

FIRE-MAKING

We have already seen that the fire used for several sacred purposes

must be made by friction with the fire-sticks. The method employed is a

variety of the drill method shown in Figs. 65 and 37. In the former the

wursol of Taradr is making fire in order to enable me to procure a

photograph; the latter is the result of a snapshot taken when the fire

was being produced during a ceremony. In the horizontal stick, which is

held firmly by the foot, a hole is made for the insertion of the

vertical stick, and in this a little charcoal is placed. A small groove

is cut on one side to assist the falling of the spark on the tinder

beneath. The vertical stick is inserted into the hole and twirled

between the two hands. In the only case in which I saw fire produced by

friction in a ceremony (Fig. 37), the continued efforts of the two old

men were unavailing, and a third younger man was called upon, and with

a few powerful manipulations he was rapidly successful.

Several kinds of wood are used for the fire-sticks, the Toda names of

these being kiaz or keadj, mòrs, parskuti, and main. Only the first of

these, however, may be used if fire is being made for sacred purposes,

and I was told that it was much easier to make fire with this than with

any other.

In some Toda villages a stone is kept called tütmûkal, which was used

at one time for making fire by striking it with a piece of iron.

Probably this method was employed for non-sacred purposes in the period

between giving up the fire-sticks for ordinary purposes and the

introduction of matches.

The Todas have two kinds of fireplace, the waskal, consisting of three

stones, and the kudrvars, with four stones. The former is found in the

dwelling-hut, in the wursuli, and in the ti dairy, and the latter in

the tarvali and kudrpali; but I did not discover why the more sacred

dairies should have the same kind of fireplace as the house. According

to one account waskal is the name used by the Teivaliol and kudrvars by

the Tartharol, and it may be that this is the explanation of the

apparent anomaly.

THE HOUSE

Various parts of the house have definite names, and may only be used

for certain purposes. As we have already seen, there are raised seats

both outside and inside the house, the latter being used as beds. These

are made of earth, the upper surface of which is made level, and the

whole is usually well coated with a layer of dried buffalo-dung,

sometimes nearly half an inch thick. The general name for these raised

parts is tün, the seats outside the building on either side of the door

being called kwottün, while the bed on the right side of the interior

is the meitün, and that on the left side the kitün. The part of the hut

where the bed or beds stand is called the idrtul.

The floor is called kuter, and this is divided into two parts by the

hole in which the women pound the grain. The part near the door is

called kikuter, and it is in this part only that dairy operations may

be carried on. The part behind the pounding hole is especially assigned

to the women and is called meilkuter. [234]

The end wall, on which various objects, such as sticks, are kept is

called tashten, and the fireplace, usually on one side, is called

waskal. The part above the fireplace where firewood is kept is called

waskalkûbi, and the place of the cooking vessels is called adikudi. The

western side of the hut is sometimes called the meilmakol, and the

eastern side the kimakol, but I do not know if this implies any rule as

to the orientation of the houses.

The method of building is illustrated by Fig. 66, which shows a hut

only partially built. Certain Todas have special reputations as

architects, and the most famous of these at the present time is

Kijievan (50), who superintended the building of the hut at Kiudr shown

in Fig. 7, the most spacious and artistic of the strictly Toda

dwellings which I saw on the hills. Especial care is often taken with

the arrangement of the rattan on the front of the hut, which is shown

in Fig. 20. This is a picture of a dairy, but it shows the arrangement

which is also found in the best of the houses.

The hut used for the seclusion of women before and after childbirth is

a rough structure of wood and thatch, but its name, puzhars, means “mud

house,” which suggests that huts made of earth may at one time have

been used by the Todas.

IMPLEMENTS AND UTENSILS

The most important objects in the economic life of the Todas are their

dairy vessels, which have been already amply considered. Cooking

vessels and implements used for cutting wood or for any other purpose

are, like the vessels of the village dairy, procured chiefly from the

Kotas, though at the present time the source of supply is probably

supplemented by purchases in the bazaar.

As the Todas practise few arts, their need of implements is very small.

At one time they used thorns as needles, but now steel needles have

taken their place. Thorns are also used for tattooing. Leaves are used

as plates and cups, and the fingers take the place of forks. The only

definite implements used are knives and axes, the latter being

especially needed for procuring firewood.

In some of their ceremonies, the Todas have preserved practices which

may possibly be survivals of the use of stone implements. In the

funeral ceremonies the buffaloes destined for the next world are killed

with the back of an axe, but the buffaloes killed at the koòtiti

ceremony and at the ceremony of purifying the funeral places must be

killed with a stone. Further, the bark of the tudr tree used in so many

ceremonies must always be knocked off the tree by means of a stone. The

latter of these practices must certainly be very ancient, and may well

be a relic of an age in which implements were made of stone.

THE POUNDER, SIEVE, AND BROOM

The interest of these articles lies in the fact that they are evidently

regarded as the emblems of woman. When the wursol sleeps in the village

hut, these articles are removed from the hut, and when the ti buffaloes

pass the village of Kiudr, the women who leave this village take with

them the pounder, sieve, and broom.

In the case of the wursol, this sacred personage may associate with the

women themselves if the three objects which seem to be emblematic of

womanhood are removed.

The pounder, sieve, and broom are burnt at the funerals of women, who

use the pounder on their journey to the other world. A special kind of

sieve called kudshmurn is also burnt at the azaramkedr, but I believe

that this is burnt at all funerals, both of males and females.

The pounder, sieve, and broom are widely endowed with magical

properties, and this is especially the case in India, [235] but I do

not know of any other instance in which they are especially regarded as

the emblems of woman.

WEAPONS

At the present time it cannot be said that the Todas use any weapons,

but they retain in their ceremonies weapons which were, no doubt,

formerly in use. These are the club and the bow and arrow.

The club only remains in the funeral ceremonies, in which it is called

nanmakud (see Fig. 67), and is burnt at the azaramkedr, and several

other special sticks are also burnt, which may have been of the nature

of clubs.

The bow and arrow have left more traces of their former importance.

They are burnt at the azaramkedr of a man, and the weapons for this

purpose are provided by the Kotas. The bow and arrow are also used in

the koòtiti ceremony of a Tarthar funeral. In the pursütpimi ceremony

the husband gives an imitation bow and arrow to his wife. The bow gives

its name to the ceremony and its gift forms the essential incident of

the ceremony. Further, the bow has a special name different for each

clan. The use of an arrow lingers in name in other ceremonies. In the

erkumptthpimi ceremony, the knife used for cutting up the sacrificed

calf is called ab, or arrow. In the ceremony of tersamptpimi a lock of

hair is cut from a young child with a piece of sharpened iron called

kanab, or “eye arrow,” but this name is only in use among the

Tartharol. The use of these words seems to point to a time when

iron-tipped arrows were used as cutting instruments, and it is even

possible that this is a survival of a time when the Todas were so much

isolated that their only iron was that of the tips of their arrows.

The bow and arrow are also mentioned in the legend of Kwoten.

Teikuteidi was killed by an arrow shot by a lame man who lay down when

he shot. It is possible that this legend points to an ancient custom of

shooting the bow and arrow by means of the legs.

MEASURES AND NUMERALS

The Toda measure of length is the mogai or mogoi, which corresponds to

the cubit, being the length from the elbow to the tips of the fingers.

The word is probably related to mogal, the term for fore-arm.

The usual measure of capacity for liquids is the kudi, said to be equal

to about four pints. Another measure is the kòni, two of which make one

kudi. The kòni probably corresponds to the milking vessel, or pun.

For measuring out grain, the Todas use a special table of measures

consisting of âk and kwâ, eleven âk making one kwâ. When measuring out

grain, modifications of the ordinary numerals are used.

In the following lines I give these on the right-hand side of the page,

those on the left being the ordinary numerals. Urâk is the equivalent

of ud âk, or one measure.

ud one ûrâk

erd two îrâk

mûd three mâk

nonk four oponi

udz five oiâk

âr six ârâk

ö or eu seven öâk or euâk

öt eight ötâk

unpoth nine unpâk

poth ten pothâk

ponud eleven ukwâ

ponerd twelve ponerdâk

ponmûd thirteen ponmûdâk

ponnonk or pânk fourteen ponnonkâk

ponudz or podz fifteen ponudzâk

pâr sixteen pârâk

pö or pör seventeen pöâk

pût eighteen pûtâk

ponpoth nineteen ponpothâk

evoth twenty evothâk

evoth ud twenty-one evothudâk (doubtful)

evoth erd twenty-two ikwâ

evoth mûd twenty-three ikwâ ûrâk

: : :

: : :

mopoth thirty ikwâ ötâk

: : :

: : :

mopoth mûd thirty-three mûkhwâ

: : :

: : :

nâpoth forty mûkhwâ öâk

: : :

: : :

nâpoth nonk forty-four nâkhwâ

: : :

: : :

epoth fifty nâkhwâ ârâk

: : :

: : :

epoth udz fifty-five aiiwâ

: : :

: : :

âroth sixty aiiwâ oiâk

: : :

: : :

âroth âr sixty-six ârwâ

: : :

: : :

övoth seventy ârwâ oponi

: : :

: : :

övoth ö seventy-seven ökwâ

: : :

: : :

ötvoth eighty ökwâ mâk

: : :

: : :

ötvoth öt eighty-eight ötkwâ

: : :

: : :

unvoth ninety ötkwâ ârâk

: : :

: : :

unvoth unpoth ninety-nine unpawâ

: : :

: : :

anûr hundred unpawâ ud

Above a hundred the numbers of kwâ are continued to potkwâ, ponudkwâ,

&c., up to twenty kwâ, which make one siligh, and then the people begin

again at the beginning.

This occurrence of the number eleven is probably a consequence of the

transactions between Todas and Badagas. There was some reason to

believe that the true Toda measure is the âk (probably a contraction of

achok) and that the Badagas brought their grain to the Todas in vessels

called kwâ. The kwâ contained eleven of the Toda âk, and hence came

about the very unusual proportion between two measures.

In giving ages or any other period of time, the word for year, kwòdr,

is often abbreviated to wâ; thus nâpoth kwòdr, forty years, becomes

nâpothwâ.

In counting the Todas use their fingers largely and have a special

method of indicating the numbers. To signify one, the thumb is placed

against the tip of the little finger; for two, against the tip of the

ring finger; for three, against the middle finger; for four, against

the forefinger; for five, the tip of the index finger is placed over

the nail of the thumb; the same position is used for six, while that

for seven is the same as for four, and so on, so that when ten is

reached the thumb is resting again on the tip of the little finger.

MONEY

The Todas use the ordinary Indian currency. In their legends and

ceremonies there is frequent reference to the panm, or four-anna piece.

Among the coins used by the Todas at the funeral ceremonies there are

many of considerable age with Arabic inscriptions, and the earlier

visitors to the hills describe the Todas as possessing old Venetian

gold pieces. In the legend telling how the kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti

dispersed the invading Coorgs (p. 114), the boy made use of a small

gold coin called pirpanm, which he had in his possession.

THE CALENDAR

The Todas have twelve months, each of which begins with the new moon.

The first month of the Toda year is Tai, which begins with the new moon

in October, so that this month usually includes part of October and

part of November. Some of the chief Toda ceremonies, such as that of

teutütusthchi and the more important ceremonies of erkumptthpimi, take

place soon after the new moon marking the commencement of this month,

and these ceremonies were sometimes said to signalise the beginning of

a new year. The following are the names of the Toda months, with the

periods of our year to which they approximately correspond:—

Tai October—November

Emioti November—December

Kûdrl December—January

Alâni January—February

Nalâni February—March

Âni March—April

Âtheri April—May

Âdi May—June

Ovâni June—July

Peritâthi July—August

Tudeivi August—September

Kirdivi September—October.

Each month has thirty days. A record is kept of the number of days from

one new moon to the full moon, and from that to the next new moon. The

full moon is counted as being on the fifteenth day after the new moon,

and the new moon as being on the sixteenth day after the full moon.

THE WEEK

The names for the days of the week are as follows:—

Âsvom Sunday

Tûvom Monday

Òm Tuesday

Pûthvom Wednesday

Tâm Thursday

Pîlivom Friday

Thanivom or Tanivom Saturday.

According to Schmid, who wrote in 1837, Òm is regarded as the first day

of the week. Schmid also notes that the names for Wednesday, Friday,

and Saturday agree in etymology with Tamil, Wednesday being Buddha’s

day and Friday the day of Venus. He gives Etnat as an alternative name

for Saturday.

ASTRONOMICAL IDEAS

We have already seen that the Todas reverence the sun, and that the

period of the moon is of the greatest importance in the regulation of

the times for their ceremonies. In this chapter we have to deal with

their views as to the nature of these bodies and of the stars.

THE SUN

The Todas believe that when the sun goes down in the west, it goes to

Amnòdr. The same sun illuminates both worlds, and this is shown very

well in the story of Kwoto; when this demi-god tied down the sun, there

was darkness both in this world and in the other, and the people of

Amnòdr joined with those of this world in imploring that the sun should

be restored to its proper place.

When the Todas know that there is going to be an eclipse of the sun,

they abstain from food, but they do not shout out during the eclipse as

we shall see they do in the case of the moon. When the eclipse is over,

they have a feast with ashkkartpimi.

THE MOON

The new moon is called mut and the full moon nêrv. We have already seen

the enormous influence of the period of the moon in Toda ceremonial and

I have given above the method of counting between the periods of new

and full moon so as to know the correct day of the new moon if for any

reason it should not be visible.

The Todas see a figure in the moon which they call mürs, the hare.

[236] The following story not only shows how the hare comes to be

there, but also furnishes the explanation of eclipses of the moon and

the origin of the Paikara river. [237]

Two men who were matchuni (see p. 501) went out one day to fetch honey.

After a time they separated, and one found honey, while the other found

none. The man who found the honey put it into a dairy vessel called

pun, which he hid in a tree, and when he met the other did not tell him

of his good fortune. After a time the pun containing honey which had

been put in the tree suddenly broke, and the vessel became a snake,

while the honey became the Paikara river. The snake ran after the man

who had hidden the honey, and when the man saw the snake coming after

him, he ran away. As he was being pursued, a hare came between the man

and the snake. Then the man threw his cloak over the hare and hid

himself, and the snake ran after the hare. The hare ran to the sky

followed by the snake, and they came near the sun, which said, “Don’t

come near me because I am very hot. Go to the moon!” So the hare went

to the moon, and the moon said, “Do not be afraid; I will protect you

till the end of the world.” The snake still goes sometimes to catch the

hare in the moon, and when he goes the moon becomes dark and some

people fire guns and send up rockets and the Todas shout. When it is

known that there is going to be an eclipse the Todas abstain from food,

and when they see the moon being eclipsed they shout out.

I was told that there was another incident of the story connected with

shooting stars, but I was unable to obtain an account of it.

PLANETS

The Todas know Venus, which they call Pili, and they also speak of the

“morning star.”

CONSTELLATIONS AND STARS

The Todas have names for several stars or constellations. The Pleiades

are called Kadsht and the constellation is believed to be composed of

six stars.