Origin of Funeral Customs
The various funeral customs are said to have been partly ordained by Teikirzi. The following story is given as the account of their origin:—
At first no Toda died. After a time a Piedr man died at the village of Erparskòdr. He died in his hut and the Todas took his body to the funeral place, but on the way they laid it by a heap of stones between Erparskòdr and Umgas. The stones are still to be seen, and are called Möditikars.[20] While the body lay by these stones, some of the people were weeping bitterly; others were dancing and singing, and others were going to drive buffaloes. Teikirzi, who saw the people weeping, took pity and came to bring the dead man back to life. When she came to the place she found that though some of the people were crying, others seemed quite happy. She liked what she saw, and decided not to raise the dead man, so she went away and ordained that in the future some should cry at funerals and others should be happy, and her laws as to the conduct of the funeral ceremonies have been followed ever since.
Then the people took up the dead body and went on to Kûrûvòrs, near Umgas, where they performed the funeral ceremonies.
In the various complicated ceremonies described in this chapter there are certain features which may be briefly discussed. [[401]]
There is no doubt that the buffaloes killed at the funeral are supposed to go to Amnòdr with the dead person. Sacred buffaloes are only killed at the funerals of men, for they would be useless to women, who, in the next world as in this, have nothing to do with dairies at which the sacred buffaloes must be tended. There is no evidence that the slaughter of buffaloes is in any way a propitiatory sacrifice, and there seems to be a very marked absence of anything resembling prayer or other forms of appeal to higher powers in the funeral ceremonies.[21]
Dairymen take part in the funeral ceremonies, but chiefly in connexion with the sacred buffaloes. The highest kind of dairyman, the palol, has no duties whatever, and loses his office if he takes part merely as a visitor. At Tarthar funerals the wursol has important duties, chiefly connected with the sacred buffaloes and with the mani, which is hung round their necks. He also takes the chief part in the koòtiti and accompanying ceremonies of the second funeral, probably because the sacred tudr bark is used. In one rite there is no obvious reason why the wursol should play a part—viz., in that of throwing earth. As this ceremony, however, is of especial importance, it suggests that formerly dairymen may have had more to do with funeral ceremonies than is the case at present.
Among the Teivaliol, the palikartmokh has less important functions. He probably kills the sacred buffaloes, though on this point I am not certain. Only one Teivali clan possesses a mani which is used at a funeral, and it is noteworthy that, though the bell is removed from its hiding place (see p. [354]) by the palikartmokh, it is taken to the funeral and hung on the neck of the buffalo by a Tarthar man belonging to the Nòdrs clan.
The facts that the wursol takes part in the funerals of men; that sacred buffaloes are killed; that dairies are used in these funerals, and that the funeral hut of a man is always [[402]]called pali or dairy, even when built for the occasion, all bring the funeral ceremonies of men into connexion with the religious dairy ceremonial of the Todas. On the other hand, even in those cases in which a dairy is used as a funeral hut, the dairyman of that dairy has nothing to do with the funeral ceremonies; thus, at Nòdrs the dairy in which the body of a dead man is laid is the tarvali, but the tarvalikartmokh has no duties in connexion with the funeral, and does his dairy work as usual, while it is the dairyman of the conical poh, the wursol who takes an active part in the funeral rites.
The earth-throwing ceremony is of especial interest, because it would seem to be a relic of burial. Earth is thrown three times on the corpse before it is burnt. In connexion with the idea that the ceremony is a relic of a previous stage, in which the Todas buried their dead, it may be mentioned that a ceremony with some points of similarity is performed at the funerals of the Hill Arrians of the Western Ghats,[22] who bury their dead. A man of the same clan as the deceased takes a new cloth and tears from it a narrow strip which he fastens upon himself. He then goes backwards to the place fixed for the grave and digs with a hoe, removing three hoes full of earth. In this ceremony he is said to be calling on the earth to give up six feet for the dead. There is a suggestive resemblance between the ceremonies performed by these two hill tribes of South-west India, which lends some support to the view that the earth-throwing ceremony of the Todas is a relic of inhumation.
It perhaps may be regarded as a fact inconsistent with this view that the earth-throwing ceremony is performed at both funerals, and again the throwing of earth into a buffalo pen is so essential a feature that it is possible the whole ceremony may have some other meaning.
It is tempting to extend the conjecture by supposing that the dead were at one time buried in the tu or buffalo pen, but there is, as far as I know, no evidence that this was ever done by the Todas or by any other Indian tribe. Unless, indeed, the azaram is the representative of a tu, in which case the burial of the ashes at the entrance of the azaram may be [[403]]a survival of a time when the body was buried at the entrance of a pen.
The custom of burning the hut at a woman’s funeral is probably a survival of the common custom of burning the house of a dead person, but it is possible that in the case of the Todas this may have been associated with the belief that the hut would be useful in the next world. The funeral hut of a man is not burnt, and this is almost certainly because it is, or represents, a dairy. The motive for the burning of the house of a dead person is probably to remove a place which the ghost may haunt, and the sanctity of the dairy was probably such as to render this precaution unnecessary after the death of a man.
The Toda custom of cremating their dead is accompanied by a belief that the dead go to a distant spirit-world. It seems quite certain that the Todas believe that the dead do not set out on their journey to the next world till after the second funeral ceremonies, but I am not at all clear what is supposed to become of the spirits of the dead in the interval between the two ceremonies. The spirit of a Melgars man during the interval is said to be a kazun or malignant spirit, but I was unable to obtain a full account of the Toda belief about the kazun, nor was I able to find out whether there is any belief in the malignity of the spirits of the dead of other clans.[23] That such spirits are impure is, I think, shown conclusively by the impurity of the relics of the dead and of all those who have been in contact with them. The intense objection to the sacred ti buffaloes or their guardians coming into relation, however indirectly, with the relics is evidence of the belief in the impurity, if not in the malignity, of the spirits of the dead between the two funeral ceremonies.
There is one rite which seems to point to the influence of the spirits of the dead on the living, and this is the obscure ceremony of tersamptpimi, which is performed on the day after the marvainolkedr of a Tarthar man (see p. 333). The ceremony consists in cutting a lock of hair from a young child. One obvious explanation would be [[404]]furnished if we supposed that the spirits of the dead are malignant and that the ceremony was postponed till after the spirit had set out on his journey to Amnòdr, but there are two objections to this explanation. If the Todas had had this in their minds, they would have said that the ceremony might not be performed while there was kedr among the Tartharol, i.e., while the funeral ceremonies of a Tarthar man were still incomplete. For the tersamptpimi ceremony, however, it seems that a child has to wait till after a marvainolkedr even if there has been no recent death among the Tartharol. Further, if the proposed explanation had been correct, there is no reason why the karvnol, or day immediately after the funeral, should have been appointed for the ceremony. The fact that this day is prescribed points rather to some beneficial influence which it is hoped may emanate from the dead. [[405]]
[1] Kûdri is the generic word for creeper. [↑]
[2] See Thurston, Bull., ii. p. 4. [↑]
[3] See [Chap. XXV]. [↑]
[4] Probably Olea robusta. [↑]
[6] As I have already pointed out, this would only happen if the people were of the same clan and sex. [↑]
[7] My notes do not make it absolutely clear who lights the fire at the funeral of a male. The puntüt is lighted by a man of the same clan, and this is probably also the case with the azaramtüt. Owing to the fact that a woman becomes a member of her husband’s clan, the daughter-in-law who lights the fire at a woman’s funeral will also be of the same clan as the deceased. [↑]
[8] There was some question as to whether the ceremony did not begin as soon as the fire was lighted. [↑]
[9] This would seem to indicate that when the fire is extinguished, the objects burnt with the relics are far from being consumed by the fire. [↑]
[11] Ind. Antiq., 1874, vol. iii. p 35. [↑]
[12] This is also the usual vocative termination. [↑]
[13] Kakoji is the Kota name for a toe-ring worn on the second toe of the right foot by Kota women (see Breeks, p. 123). A similar word is used for bracelets of vine made by the Todas as a game. [↑]
[14] In some cases Samuel could not give the literal meanings, and has only given the general sense of the kwarzam. [↑]
[15] A play on Pidrvan’s name. [↑]
[16] As both these funeral laments were obtained from Samuel, I cannot guarantee that the method of spelling adopted is the same as that used elsewhere in the book; this is especially the case with the sign ‘th,’ which, in agreement with the practice customary in South India, was used by Samuel for the lingual ‘ṭ,’ and sometimes for a sound for which I have used the letter d. [↑]
[17] For the story to which this refers, see [Chapter XXVIII]. [↑]
[18] This may possibly be the world of Yama, the Todas rarely, if ever, using the letter y. The word was often pronounced Amanòdr. [↑]
[19] This is one of several instances in which the initial t of a word is omitted in compound forms. [↑]
[20] Möditi is the name applied to all the women of other tribes. It is perhaps suggestive that this name should be used for a stone connected with the goddess Teikirzi. [↑]
[21] Several of those who have witnessed Toda funerals have noticed that barren buffaloes are killed on these occasions, and I believe that it is a recognised custom to use such animals. Pidrvan’s funeral lament begins with a reference to barren buffaloes, and the clause, “in the midst of barren buffaloes you went,” evidently refers to Pidrvan’s skill in catching buffaloes at the funeral ceremonies. [↑]
[22] See Fawcett, Journ. Anthrop. Soc. Bombay, 1890, vol. ii., p. 146. [↑]
[23] In Teitnir’s lament for Pidrvan (see p. [387]) he speaks of a Kars kazun, which suggests that each clan has its own kazun. [↑]
CHAPTER XVII
SACRED DAYS AND NUMBERS
We have seen that nearly every Toda ceremony has its appointed day or days, and that the choice of these is often dependent on another Toda institution, the sacred day, either of the village or of the dairy. Every clan has certain days of the week on which people are restricted from following many of their ordinary occupations, although they are not the occasions of any special ceremonies. These sacred days are the madnol or village day, and the palinol or dairy day. Another occasion to which the same kinds of restriction apply is the arpatznol, the day of the week corresponding to that on which the father of a man has died.