The Cloth-giving Ceremony
During or after the lamentation a ceremony is performed which is known as kachütthti[12] (kach, cloth, ütthti or ütiti, he puts). The essential feature of this ceremony is that a cloth is given by a near relative of the dead person to those who have married into his family, and the cloth is placed on the dead body by the wives of those to whom it is given. This ceremony takes place at the funerals of both sexes and for members of all clans. It is an inconspicuous ceremony, and with one exception[13] has escaped the observation of all those who have previously witnessed and recorded the procedure of [[359]]Toda funerals. It takes place in the middle of a crowd, who gather round the corpse possibly while the lamentation is still going on or while other ceremonies are in progress. In the first funeral I witnessed the ceremony took place while dancing was going on, and I missed it entirely, though I was told afterwards that it had taken place as usual, and was able to obtain the names of the chief actors.
FIG. 55—THE MOURNERS ROUND THE BODY.
In the ceremony of kachütthti, a man belonging to the clan of the deceased gives a cloth to one of his paiol, or brothers-in-law. The latter gives the cloth to his wife or wife’s sister, or to some woman whom he would be allowed to marry, and the woman places the cloth on the corpse. The man who originally gave the cloth then takes it from the body and gives it to another paiol, and the ceremony is repeated till the cloth has been given to all the paiol present.
The man who gives the cloth should belong to the same clan as the dead person. At the funeral of a male, the proper person is the father of the deceased, if he is alive, or some other elder of the clan. At the funeral of a woman, a man of the clan of the woman’s husband is chosen. Thus, at the funeral of Kiuneimi (3 and 28), a widow of Kanòdrs, the cloth was given by Neratkutan (28), who was of the same family as the husbands of the dead woman and the eldest representative of their generation. At the funeral of Sinerani (52), the cloth was given by Tebkudr (68), who was the younger brother of the father of Keinba, the husband of the dead child.
The men called paiol, to whom the cloth is given, seem to include all those who have married women of the same clan as the giver of the cloth. Thus, at the funeral of Kiuneimi the cloth was given to Pepob (44) of Melgars, and to Nelkush and Tevò (3) of Nòdrs, who had all married women of Kanòdrs.
At the funeral of Sinerani, the cloth was given to Kuriolv (52), who was the father of the dead child, not, however, for this reason, but because he was the husband of Sintharap, Tebkudr’s sister. At this funeral the only other man to whom the cloth was given was Piliag (52), who received it in the place of his brother, Piliar (52), who was not present. The latter, like Kuriolv, was the brother-in-law of Tebkudr (68). [[360]]If there is no paiol present the cloth may be given to a matchuni,[14] and this may also happen even when paiol are present. Thus at one funeral at which I was present, the marvainolkedr of Pursevan (53), the cloth was given by Piliar (52) to Teikudr (63), his matchuni. Piliar was the son of Mutevan and Teikudr was the son of Kavani, the sister of Mutevan.
If neither paiol nor matchuni be present, it was said that the cloth might be given to a brother, i.e., a man of the same clan, but this probably never happens and the statement is possibly an error.
The man who receives the cloth hands it to his wife, if she is present; if she is not present, he may put it on the corpse himself, and I saw this done more than once. On one occasion a man gave it to a woman who was not his wife, but in this case he was acting as a substitute for the husband of the woman.
This ceremony is one in which a man of the same clan as the deceased person gives a cloth to a man who has married into his family. The latter hands on the cloth to his wife, who was, before her marriage, of the same clan as the giver of the cloth, and it is this woman who places the cloth on the dead body.
The father of each woman who places the cloth on the body receives a fee of one rupee called kachkars, or cloth-rupee, but the sum is not paid till the woman has attended twenty funerals. An account is kept and twenty rupees are paid when the number is completed. The money is paid by the husband of the woman.
In the ceremony of kachütthti, the men who have married into the family of the dead person have to perform this ceremony and have to pay a fee to the family of the dead person. As we shall see later, the chief mourner at a funeral should receive a buffalo from each of his sons-in-law, and we see here that this tribute is supplemented by an addition to the account kept of the times the cloth is given. The cloth-giving ceremony involves a payment to the family of the dead [[361]]man of certain fees from those members of other clans who have married into the family.
The cloth used is a red loincloth of a kind which is never worn by the Todas, but, so far as I could ascertain, it is only an ordinary cloth procured in the bazaar.