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[6] 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 [[558]]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.[7]
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 [[559]]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 [[560]]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.[8] 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. [[561]]
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 [[562]]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 [[563]]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 [[564]]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 [[565]]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. [[566]]