Stones
The Todas have many stones which may be held to have some degree of sanctity; certainly many have their place in the religious ceremonial. All these stones have names, either general or individual, but two stones with the same name need not necessarily have the same function.
At the ti there are stones marking the spots where the dairy vessels are taken up and put down during the migration ceremonies, but the most interesting stones at these dairies are those called neurzülnkars. At several dairies these stones are anointed, and their appearance indicates that they have undergone the process for very long periods of time; at other places they are so weathered and worn away that they must obviously be of great antiquity. At some dairies of the Nòdrs ti these stones take the place of the head of the kaltmokh in the ceremonies accompanying migration, but at other places they are said to have different uses. [[439]]
At an ordinary village the stones usually belong to one of the following classes:—
(a) Stones to mark off boundaries or places, such as the majvatvaikars, marking the path or spot used by the women in fetching buttermilk from the dairy.
(b) Stones used in the ceremonies in which offerings are made, the irnörtkars and the pilinörtkars.
(c) Funeral stones, at which the buffaloes are killed. These are, of course, only found at funeral villages, but there are certain other stones, such as the imudrikars, which may be found in any village. Such a stone may mark the spot where the body is laid, or may even, as in the case of the imudrikars of Kars, form a mound on which the body is laid.
(d) Stones in or near the tu or buffalo pen, such as the mutchudkars and pudothkars. I do not know the origin or use of these, but in some villages there are stones in the pen marking the places where the mu or dairy vessels are buried, and it is possible that the above stones are in some way connected with the buried dairy-vessels.
(e) The lifting stone or tukitthkars. This is usually a large round stone which sometimes resembles in appearance stones of a ceremonial character.[7]
(f) Commemorative stones. The teidrtolkars of Nòdrs (see [Fig. 13]), and certain stones with the same name lying between Nòdrs and Teidr, had their origin in events connected with the death of a man belonging to the village of Teidr who was once wursol at Nòdrs. When he was told to milk one of the buffaloes, he replied, “If I milk it, the milk will not fill this place,” pointing to a small depression on his thumb. Still the people told him to milk, and when he did so the milking-vessel was completely filled. Then the palikartmokh was very angry, and, taking the wand which the wursol was carrying, he struck him so that he flew in the air and fell down midway between Nòdrs and Teidr. When the people came to the place they found that the man was dead, and they tried to take up his body and carry it to the funeral place. But [[440]]the body would not move and so they held the funeral on the spot and made a tu. At the entrance of the tu they placed two women carrying pounders[8] in place of the posts or tüli, and these women were changed into stones and their pounders became the tasth of the entrance of the pen. The stones which are now found on the spot are the remains of the pen and the teidrtolkars of Nòdrs marks the spot where the wursol milked the buffalo.
FIG. 59.—THE MEMORIAL OF KEIREVAN.
In the village of Tovalkan there is a mound shown in Fig. 59 which is much like the imudrikars of Kars, but it is of modern origin, having been made to mark the spot where Keirevan (26) fell out of a tree and was killed.
(g) Stones connected with special features of the dairy ceremonial. I only know of one stone of this kind at a village, the pârsatthkars of Nidrsi, on which the palikartmokh puts milk every morning and evening.
Stones are often used for more than one purpose; thus, the [[441]]irnörtkars of Umgas (see [Fig. 72]) is also a boundary stone, and the menkars of Nòdrs (see [Fig. 12]) used for the game called narthpimi, and the teidrtolkars at the same village are also funeral stones at which buffaloes are killed.
I have given a brief list of the chief stones which may be called sacred owing to their coming in one way or another into Toda ceremonial, but I should like to make it clear that no great idea of sanctity attaches to these stones, and in no case are they shown any definite signs of veneration or worship. They, and many of the other objects described in this chapter, are not sacred in the same sense in which the etudmad or the mani are sacred. [[442]]
[1] At this place there is now only a dairy. [↑]
[3] According to another account, these bells are kept at the wursuli of Nasmiòdr, and the wursuli of Kars has three mani in addition to these. [↑]
[4] As we have already seen (p. 243) there is some reason to think that there has been example of such transference of sanctity to an object in the case of the mu or buried dairy vessel. [↑]
[5] Falls of the Cavery, 1834, p. 49. [↑]
[6] For the special method employed see p. [581]. [↑]
[7] Burton (Goa and the Blue Mountains, p. 316) brands the Todas as inveterate liars, because, evidently owing to some misunderstanding, he was told that a “putting stone” was the “grandfather of the gods.” [↑]
[8] It will be remembered that at the azaramkedr of a woman, two women stand at the entrance of the azaram one of whom holds a pounder in her hands. [↑]
CHAPTER XIX
THE TODA RELIGION
The last seventeen chapters have been almost entirely devoted to the religious institutions and ceremonies of the Todas. In the earlier chapters I have described the ritual of the dairy and have discussed some of the problems of general interest which this ritual suggests. In later chapters I have described the ceremonies which are associated with the chief incidents of life: birth, growth, and death. In these and in the chapter dealing with sacrifice I have described many details of Toda ceremonial which clearly establish its religious character, and [Chapter X] is especially devoted to the formulæ which bring the ceremonial into definite relation with the Toda gods. In [Chapter XI] I have described practices and beliefs all of which stand in some relation to religion, though most of them must be regarded as belonging to a different category. In the last two chapters I have collected a number of special features of the Toda religion, the existence of sacred days and the part played by numbers, places and material objects in the various religious observances, and I have discussed how far the attitude of the Todas towards these objects can be described as one of worship.
There remains the general nexus which binds all these beliefs and practices into a whole so that they constitute the Toda religion. I have given in [Chapter IX] the stories of the Toda gods, giving them in this place because they were necessary for the proper understanding of the dairy formulæ, and I can now discuss more fully than was then possible the essential nature of these deities. [[443]]