The Koòtiti Ceremony
Among the Tartharol, with the exception of the people of Melgars, a ceremony is performed at the funeral of a male which is called koòtiti. In this ceremony blood is used which in the present day is drawn from one of the slaughtered buffaloes, but formerly a special buffalo was killed for this purpose. [[376]]
According to the old custom the buffaloes were killed about four o’clock in the afternoon. About an hour later another buffalo of the ordinary kind was brought to the funeral place and killed by striking it on the head with a stone, and not with the back of an axe, as in the case of the other buffaloes. It might be killed by any Tarthar man, and then the wursol made a cut in the right side of the animal at the part called kegampkwûdr (over the ribs near the forelegs). The blood which ran from the wound was received into a cup made of tudr leaves, and powdered tudr bark was mixed with the blood in the cup. It is to this part of the ceremony that the name koòtiti (“blood he takes”) is properly applied. At the present time the blood is drawn from one of the buffaloes killed in the ordinary course of the ceremony. However the blood may be obtained, the next step is to bring a female buffalo calf less than one year old. The mantle with which the remains have been covered is taken off, and is worn by a Teivali man who has adorned himself with many ornaments, including those ordinarily worn by women, such as the chain (tagars), necklace (keiveli), earrings (kevthveli), and bracelet (pulthi). He also holds a long pole called tadri. The remains, which are now covered with a loincloth (tadrp) only, are carried by two women to the place where the calf is standing.
The wursol and Teivali man then walk to the calf, the former throwing before and behind him as he walks the mixed blood and tudr bark from the cup. When the wursol comes to the calf he throws down the leaf cup, and the Teivali man then hangs on the neck of the calf a bell of the kind called tukulir mani, and, taking a bow and arrow in his hand, he says three times to the Tartharol, “purs adikina?”—“Shall I touch with the bow?” Each time the Tartharol reply, “Purs ad!” The Teivali man then touches the remains with the bow and arrow. He puts down the tadri on the ground, and the calf is driven away from the spot on which it had been standing. As soon as it begins to move all present, Tartharol and Teivaliol, cry out, “ua! ua!” and fall down and touch the earth with their foreheads. The bell is then removed from the calf, which is not killed, [[377]]but is allowed to go free. The bell (tukulir mani) is kept by the Kotas or Badagas till it is required by the Todas for another funeral.
The assumption of the cloak covering the remains by the Teivali man is called ârtûrverutiti, and the throwing of the mixed blood and bark by the wursol is called kedrkarchiti—i.e., funeral (or remains) purifying. Either at this stage or later the blood and tudr bark are rubbed on the piece of skull and hair which form the narskedr.
One of the most important features of this koòtiti ceremony is that the sacred tudr bark is used. The ceremony is not performed at the funerals of the Teivaliol or of the Melgarsol, because they may use tudr in the ordination ceremonies for the offices of palol, wursol, or kaltmokh.
The object of the ceremony appears to be that members of those clans who have no chance of being purified with tudr during life shall be purified with this substance before they go finally to Amnòdr. A Teivali or Melgars man, however, has only used tudr if he has been ordained to one of the three offices above mentioned. If the dead man has not been through an ordination ceremony, however, the purification does not take place at his second funeral, but a Tarthar man puts a piece of tudr bark into his right hand at the first funeral (see p. [367]).
In the account which Breeks gives of this ceremony he states that certain formulæ are said, including “Karma odi pona,” “May the sin run away.” I could not confirm this, and I do not believe that karma is a Toda word. It is probable that the use of these or other formulæ is an innovation.
The Badagas of the Nilgiris let loose a calf at a funeral to bear the sins of the deceased.[2] It is possible that the calf in this Toda ceremony may have the same significance. If so, the practice has not improbably been borrowed, and the fact that the bell which is hung on the neck of the calf is kept by Kotas or Badagas suggests that the whole incident may have been borrowed by the Todas from one or other of these races. [[378]]
After the buffalo is killed dancing takes place at the funeral of a male. The men only dance and they may begin soon after the killing of the buffalo, while other ceremonies are still in progress. In the dancing the same tall pole (tadri or tadrsi) is used as is carried by the Teivali man who wears the cloak of the narskedr. It is a tall pole which, it was said, might sometimes be as much as 39 feet in length. I only saw a tadri at one funeral, when it was much smaller. It is decorated with rings of cowries, which are called nîrpul, the ornaments in general being called tadri asteram (see [Fig. 67]).
The pole is procured from Malabar through the Kurumbas. It is used at the funeral of males only of both the Teivaliol and Tartharol, and is burnt at the end of the azaramkedr.
In the only dance which I had the opportunity of seeing, the men danced within the circular wall surrounding the funeral hut. In this case the floor of the enclosure was below the general level of the ground. The men formed a circle and danced round in slow step; one man said the name of the slaughtered buffalo—in this case, Purkirsi—and another repeated this name; then the first man said “hau! hau!” which was repeated by the second man.
After a time one of the men took the tadri and they danced round in a similar way, taking the pole with them as they danced (i.e., they did not dance round the pole).
After the dancing is over, food is distributed to all the people present and most return to their homes, while the remainder wait at the funeral place till the following morning, when are held the final ceremonies, which are known as the azaramkedr.