Comparison of the Procedure of Different Dairies
One of the most striking features of the ritual in all its branches is its increasing elaboration and complexity from the lowest to the highest grade of dairy.
One of the details of the ritual which runs through the whole series of dairies is the separation between the vessels and objects which come into contact with the buffaloes or their milk, and those which come into contact with the outside world, or with the products of the churning which may go to the outside world.
In the proceedings with the milk of the ordinary buffaloes in the huts where the people live, there is, so far as I know, no distinction of this kind.
In the lowest grade of dairy we already meet with the [[233]]separation. All the vessels are kept in the same room, but in different parts of the room, the patatmar and the ertatmar, and this distinction between the two sets of objects is kept up in the migration ceremonies where they are carried by different men.
There are no striking differences in this respect between the lower grades of dairy, whether tarvali, kudrpali, or wursuli; in all, the two sets of vessels are separated, but no strict measures are taken to prevent a vessel of the patatmar from coming into contact with a vessel of the ertatmar during the dairy operations. It is only on reaching the kugvali of Taradr that we find an intermediate vessel, the kuvun, used to transfer substances from a vessel of the more sacred to one of the less sacred kind, and to prevent possible contamination of the former by the latter.
It is in the ti dairy that these precautions reach their highest degree of development. Here the two sets of vessels are kept in different rooms, separated by a screen, and the dairy products are never transferred directly from a vessel of one kind to a vessel of the other, but always by means of an intermediate vessel. The butter and buttermilk produced by the churning operations in the inner room are transferred to the vessels of the outer room by means of the idrkwoi, which is kept on the dividing line between the two compartments. Similarly the vessels into which the butter and buttermilk are received are never allowed to come into direct contact with objects from the outside world, but their contents are transferred to vessels used outside the dairy by means of intermediate vessels, the uppun or the mòrpun.
In the migrations of the ti buffaloes this strict separation between the two kinds of vessel is still kept up. The things of the inner room are carried by the palol himself, while the things of the outer room are carried by others. The idrkwoi, though carried by the palol on the same staff as the things of the inner room, is kept apart from the rest, and is not allowed to touch them.
The fires of the ti dairy furnish another interesting example of the principle by which sacred objects are prevented from coming directly into relation with objects which may have [[234]]been contaminated by contact with the outside world. The lamp is not lighted directly from the tòratthwaskal, which is probably sometimes touched by the kaltmokh, but fire is transferred from this fireplace to the pelkkatitthwaskal, from which the lamp is lighted. Here, again, the use of an intermediary object is limited to the ti dairy.
The principle of management by which the palol prevents the contamination of the sacred by the profane in the dairy is adopted by him in other ways. Whenever I paid any money to the palol at Mòdr, I placed it on a stone from which it was taken by the kaltmokh and handed to the palol. A similar procedure is generally adopted whenever anything is brought to, or taken from, a ti dairy. The kaltmokh in the above instance acts as the intermediate link between the palol and the unclean.
In the ordinary procedure of the village dairy, except at the kugvali of Taradr, no example occurs of this use of intermediate links, but there is such an example during the ordination of the wursol. When the palikartmokh gives the candidate milk from the ertatpun (p. 149), he does not pour it directly into the leaf-cup from which the candidate drinks, but first pours it into another leaf-cup and then from that into the cup used by the candidate.
Other features of the ritual in which there are differences in different grades of dairy are in the ceremonial touching of dairy vessels, in the avoidance of turning the back towards the contents of the dairy, in lamp-lighting, in the ritual connected with the bell, and in the frequency with which the prayer of the dairy is recited.
At the tarvali and kudrpali, the dairyman touches ceremonially the majpariv and the patat at the beginning of the afternoon churning, while at the wursuli this is done both morning and afternoon. At the ti, however, this ceremonial touching does not occur, or, at any rate, I failed to obtain any account of its performance.
The method of carrying out the dairy procedure kabkaditi, in which the back is never turned on the sacred vessels of the dairy, is not followed in the tarvali, except at the irpalvusthi ceremony. I have no record of it in the kudrpali, except on [[235]]the same occasion, and it is only followed regularly in certain dairies of the wursuli grade, viz., Nòdrs, Nasmiòdr, Òdr, and Kozhtudi. The first has a conical dairy, and Nasmiòdr and Òdr are especially ancient and sacred places. At the kugvali and the ti dairy, on the other hand, the dairy ceremonial is always performed kabkaditi. At one ceremony, that of irpalvusthi, the work of the dairy is performed kabkaditi in every dairy of whatever grade.
The lamp-lighting is another feature which becomes more frequent and more ceremonial in the higher grades of dairy. In all the village dairies, including the kugvali of Taradr,[1] the lamp is only lighted ceremonially at the afternoon churning, the lighting being made the occasion of prayer. If the morning is dark, the lamp maybe lighted, but it is clear that this is not done ceremonially, and the lighting is not accompanied by prayer. At the ti we have already seen that the lamp is lighted in a more ceremonial manner and in the morning as well as in the afternoon.
Some of the details of the ritual are definitely associated with the mani, and since the presence of a mani implies a higher grade of dairy, this leads to an increase in the elaboration of the ritual. The mani is treated in much the same way in all the grades of dairy which possess this sacred object.
Another feature in which the increasing sanctity of the dairy is shown is the frequency with which prayer is offered. At all the village dairies the dairyman only prays at the afternoon ceremonial when lighting the lamp, and when shutting up the buffaloes in their pen for the night. As already mentioned, there is a definite association between prayer and the ceremonial lamp-lighting.
In the ti dairy, prayer is offered both morning and evening; at the morning ceremonial twice and in the afternoon three times. On both occasions the first prayer begins when the lamp is being lighted and is continued while the palol knocks on one of the persin with the persinkudriki. The second prayer in each case is offered at the conclusion of the milking, and the third prayer of the afternoon corresponds to [[236]]the second prayer of the village dairy, being offered when shutting up the buffaloes for the night.
The increasing sanctity of the different grades of dairy is shown very clearly by the increasing stringency in the rules of conduct of the dairyman. The tarvalikartmokh may sleep in the living hut on any night in the week, and there are no restrictions on his intercourse with women. The kudrpalikartmokh may only sleep in the hut on Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and is prohibited from intercourse with Teivali women. The wursol is limited to two nights, Sunday and Wednesday, and, though himself a Teivali man, is prohibited from intercourse with Teivali women. The kugvalikartmokh has similar restrictions, but the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs must avoid women altogether, and this is almost certainly the case with the palol also.
The tarvalikartmokh takes his buttermilk and food without any ceremony. The kudrpalikartmokh must hold his food in his hands throughout his meal and must not put it on the ground.
In the case of the wursol we meet first with the ceremonial drinking of buttermilk, which must in this case be poured into the leaf-cup from the vessel called ertatpun. The kugvalikartmokh drinks buttermilk sitting on the seat outside his dairy and pours from the ertatpun, drinking three times only and saying “Oñ” each time.
The pohkartpol of Kanòdrs has to take his food with very special precautions. He sits on the wall of his dairy and his hand must not touch his mouth nor the leaf-cup his lips. At the ti the drinking of buttermilk has become a definite ceremony in which the kaltmokh pours out drink for the palol with prescribed formulæ, but, strangely enough, the palol does not suffer from the same restrictions against touching his mouth as the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs, though the latter holds an office which in most ways is distinctly less sacred than that of the palol.
The clothing of each grade is also regulated. Perhaps the most important feature here is the use of the garments called tuni. These are made of dark grey cloth of a quite different kind from that of the ordinary clothes worn by the Todas. [[237]]The garments are procured from the Badagas, and cloth of the same kind, called än, is used to enwrap the corpse in the funeral ceremonies. It is mentioned as the ordinary clothing of a woman in the legend of Kwoten, and is almost certainly the ancient clothing of the Todas still persisting in ceremonial in connexion with the dead and in the dairy ritual.
The tuni is only worn by the higher grades of the dairyman-priesthood and by the palikartmokh of the Teivaliol. The palol wears tuni only, both his loin-cloth and his mantle being of this material. The kaltmokh has no need for a tuni, for when he is engaged in his work at the ti he has to be naked, and when away from the ti and in the sleeping hut he wears a small piece of tuni, the petuni, in his girdle, the piece of cloth marking the difference between the full kaltmokh and the perkursol.
The wursol, the kugvalikartmokh, and the Teivali palikartmokh only wear the tuni when actually engaged in the dairy work and leave it inside the dairy at other times. I am doubtful whether the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs resembles the palol or the lower grades in this respect.
Although the palikartmokh of the tarvali and the kudrpali never wear the tuni, a small piece of this cloth is put in the girdle during the ordination ceremonies, and this may be a relic of a time when every dairyman wore the tuni.[2] In the secret language (see [Chap. XXV]) the word petuni is used in one place as the equivalent of ‘uniform,’ and this seems to indicate that the petuni is regarded as the badge of a dairyman.
The use of the leaves and bark of the sacred tudr tree is another feature which distinguishes different dairies. In the tarvali it is, so far as I know, not used at all. In the kudrpali it is only used in the pepeirthti ceremony. The wursol uses tudr in his ordination ceremonies, but not in the ordinary ritual of his dairy, nor is it used in the daily ritual of the ti dairy, though largely used in the purification of the dairy and of the dairy vessels, and in the ordination ceremonies of the palol. [[238]]
The use of tudr in the ordination ceremonies is only allowed to the members of the Teivali division and of the Melgars clan of the Tartharol.
Special kinds of dairy or special dairies may have features peculiar to themselves; thus the pepeirthti ceremony, in which the dairyman beats on the patat with a piece of tudr bark, is only performed at the kudrpali; the prescription of nakedness when milking is confined to the kudrpalikartmokh; the special method of wearing the putkuli open in front when going to the buffaloes is only practised by the wursol, and the method of taking food sitting on the wall of the dairy and throwing the food into the mouth is peculiar to the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs.
One feature of interest in the dairy organisation is the existence of different names at different dairies for the dairy products, and for the various objects used at the dairy or in connexion with the dairy ceremonies. The chief differences are found on comparing the village dairy with the ti, nearly every object having a different name in the two places, though occasionally a peculiarity of nomenclature may be confined to one dairy, as at Kanòdrs, where milk is called persin, the name of the churning vessel of the ti. As a general rule it seems that the name used in the village dairy is the same as that in ordinary use; thus, the dairy vessels used in the house for the milk of the ordinary buffaloes are known by the same names as those of the village dairy.
The use of special names in the more sacred dairies is probably connected with their high degree of sanctity. The names of the dairy vessels of the village are in common use, and it would doubtless seem sacrilegious that the names of the vessels of the ti should be thus in everyone’s mouth. Consequently nearly every object used in the ceremonial of the ti dairy has a special name, and in the ordinary life of the Todas these words are probably never uttered.
One striking feature of the dairy ritual is the use of the syllable Oñ. With one exception (p. 177) this word is always uttered thrice, and it seems to be especially connected with the act of putting curds or milk on the bells. It has a suggestive resemblance to the mystical syllable Om of the Hindus. It is [[239]]also possible that it may be a form of the name of the god Ön, or, again, it may be a corruption of the word mani, of which the initial letter has been dropped, a process of which other examples have been given.
It is doubtful how much significance is attached to the right and left sides in the dairy ritual. There is no doubt that in the most sacred acts of the ritual, such as saluting the buffaloes and the sun, or feeding the bell, it is the right hand which is used. This preference of the right hand is emphasised by the action of the palol in washing out his mouth, when he takes the water into his mouth from the left hand, because it is his right hand which has most to do with the sacred objects. In the migration ceremonies the dairy vessels are carried on the left shoulder, but at the ti the choice of this shoulder by the palol is obviously due to the fact that either the mani or churning-stick is carried in the right hand, and in other cases it is probable that the choice of the left shoulder is due to the necessity of leaving the right hand free. When the candidate drinks in the ordination ceremonies he holds the cup in the right hand, and this hand certainly has the preference throughout the dairy ritual. On the other hand, the petuni is worn on the left side of the waist-string, both by the kaltmokh, as a sign of his full rank, and by the palikartmokh during his ordination ceremonies.
In the ordinary dairy the side which is on the right hand in entering seems to be the more sacred, and the platform on this side is the meitün or superior bed. In the ti dairy, on the other hand, there was some doubt as to the more sacred side. At Mòdr it seemed that the mani is on the left hand side of the palol as he is performing his duties, but it is doubtful whether this is so at other places, and it may be that my account of the Mòdr dairy is wrong in this respect.