Sketch of Social Organisation
I shall consider the social organisation in detail at a much later stage, but it is necessary to give here a brief sketch in order to make its main features clear before going on to describe the Toda ceremonial, which often shows differences according to the division or clan with which the ceremony is connected. The fundamental feature of the social organisation is the division of the community into two perfectly distinct groups, the Tartharol and the Teivaliol. As we shall see more fully later, there is a certain amount of resemblance between these two divisions and the castes of the Hindus. There is a certain amount of specialisation of function, certain grades of the priesthood being filled only by members of the Teivaliol. Further, marriage is not allowed between members of the two divisions, though certain irregular unions are permitted; a Tarthar man must marry a Tarthar woman, and a Teivali man a Teivali woman. The Tartharol and Teivaliol are two endogamous divisions of the Toda people.
Each of these primary divisions is subdivided into a number of secondary divisions. These are exogamous, and I shall speak of them throughout this book as ‘clans,’ using this word as the best general term for an exogamous division of a tribe or community. [[35]]
FIG. 12.—THE ‘KALMELPUDITHTI’ SALUTATION TAKING PLACE AT THE VILLAGE OF NÒDRS. ON THE LEFT IS THE HOUSE; ON THE RIGHT IS THE LESS IMPORTANT DAIRY OF THE VILLAGE (THE ‘TARVALI’), AND IN FRONT OF IT IS THE STONE CALLED ‘MENKARS.’
[[36]]
Each clan possesses a group of villages and takes its name from the chief of these villages, the etudmad, and the people of a clan are known as madol, or village people.
The Tartharol are divided into twelve clans, which take their names from the villages of Nòdrs, Kars, Pan, Taradr, Keradr, Kanòdrs, Kwòdrdoni, Päm, Nidrsi, Melgars, Kidmad, and Karsh.[7] The people of each clan are known as Nòdrsol, Karsol, Panol, &c. The Kidmadol and Karshol are much less important than the other ten clans, having split off from the Melgarsol in comparatively recent times. The original number of Tarthar clans appears to have been ten, and I have no record that any clan of this division has become extinct.
The Teivaliol are divided into six clans, or madol, taking their names from the villages of Kuudr, Piedr, Kusharf, Keadr, Pedrkars, and Kulhem. The people of Kuudr are called both Kuudrol and Kuurtol, and similarly the people of Piedr and Keadr are often called the Piertol and Keartol.
Here again two clans, the Pedrkarsol and the Kulhemol, are less important than the others. They are offshoots of the Kuudrol, but the separation is of very long standing.
There was some doubt as to the existence of another clan, the Kwaradrol, but it seemed certain that these people, who have now died out, formed a subdivision of the Keadrol.
One Teivali clan has become extinct, its last member having died, it was said, about a hundred years ago. This clan took its name from the village of Kemen, which was near Kiudr, but no trace of this village exists at present and I think it probable that the Kemenol have been extinct longer than the Todas suppose.
The villages of each clan are usually situated in the same part of the hills, though there are very often outlying villages far from the main group. At any one period of the year, only some of the villages of the clan are occupied. The people may move about from one village to another according [[37]]to the need for pasturage, and the villages in the Kundahs and other outlying parts of the hills appear only to be visited during the dry season before the south-west monsoon sets in.
Each clan is further subdivided, these subdivisions being of two kinds. One, called the kudr, is only of ceremonial importance, and we shall meet with it first in the chapter dealing with offerings. The other, called the pòlm, is of more practical importance, and is the basis of the machinery for regulating any expenses which fall on the clan as a whole. [[38]]
[1] Those who wish for information on this point should consult the articles by Mr. Edgar Thurston in the Bulletins of the Madras Museum, vol. i., pp. 148 and 207, and vol. iv., p. 2. [↑]
[2] The word marth is also occasionally used. [↑]
[3] Harkness and others have called this pen tuel, but repeated inquiry on my part failed to elicit this form of the word. Tuelu would mean “where is the tu?” and it is possible that Harkness heard the word in this form. [↑]
[4] For the purpose of photography, a hole was made outside the hut exactly like that within the hut. The picture must not be taken to indicate that pounding is ever normally performed out of doors. [↑]
[5] The old man on the right in this picture shows a very characteristic Toda attitude, in which a person crouches down completely enveloped in the cloak. [↑]
[6] This salutation has been previously known by its Badaga name, adabuddiken. [↑]
[7] In these names and throughout the text the signs to indicate long vowels are generally omitted. In order to ascertain the exact method of pronunciation, the map or the list of villages in [Appendix III]. should be consulted. [↑]
CHAPTER III
DAIRIES AND BUFFALOES
The milking and churning operations of the dairy form the basis of the greater part of the religious ritual of the Todas. The lives of the people are largely devoted to their buffaloes, and the care of certain of these animals, regarded as more sacred than the rest, is associated with much ceremonial. The sacred animals are attended by men especially set apart who form the Toda priesthood, and the milk of the sacred animals is churned in dairies which may be regarded as the Toda temples and are so regarded by the people themselves. The ordinary operations of the dairy have become a religious ritual and ceremonies of a religious character accompany nearly every important incident in the lives of the buffaloes.
Among the buffaloes held by the Toda to be sacred there are varying degrees of sanctity, and each kind of buffalo is tended at its own kind or grade of dairy by its own special grade of the priesthood; buffaloes and dairies forming an organisation the complexities of which were far from easy to unravel.
Each kind of dairy connected with its special kind of buffalo has its own peculiarities of ritual. The dairies form an ascending series in which we find increasing definiteness and complexity of ritual; increasing sanctity of the person of the dairyman-priest, increasing stringency of the rules for the conduct of his daily life, and increasing elaboration of the ceremonies which attend his entrance upon office. There are also certain dairies in which the ritual has developed in [[39]]special directions, and there are special features of the organisation of buffaloes and dairies not only in each of the two chief divisions of the Toda people, but also in many of the clans of which each division is composed.
I propose in this chapter to sketch some of the chief features of the buffalo and dairy organisation, and in succeeding chapters there will follow detailed accounts of the different dairies and of the ceremonial which accompanies the daily work of the dairy and the important events of buffalo life.