The Kugvali of Taradr
The people of Taradr have a special institution which is in many ways intermediate between the dairies of the village and the institution to be described in the next chapter—the ti.
The buffaloes connected with this institution are known as the kugvalir. They are said to belong to the whole of the Tartharol, but this only seems to mean that they are so important that every Toda looks up to them and feels that they are in some measure his. It does not mean that every Toda has a voice in their management or share in their produce.
The people of Taradr are divided into six families (pòlm), and each family has charge of the kugvalir in turn for periods of three years, the head of the family having the chief direction. At the present time they are in charge of Siriar (20), having only recently passed to his family.
The head of the family in charge appoints the dairyman, who is called kugvalikartmokh. This dairyman must be a [[77]]member of the Taradr clan, but need not necessarily be a member of the family in charge.
FIG. 24.—THE ‘KUGVALI’ OF TARADR. ON ITS LEFT IS THE ‘KWOTARS,’ AND ON THE EXTREME RIGHT, UNDER THE TREE, IS THE ‘KUSH.’ THE FLAT STONE TO THE RIGHT OF THE ‘KUGVALI’ IS THE ‘PÜDRSHTIKARS’ (see p. [654]).
Each of the chief Taradr villages has a special dairy for the kugvalir. It is called the kugvali (kugpali) or chief dairy (kug = etud = chief), and it was said to be the chief of all the dairies. All these dairies have one room only, except that at Taradr itself, where there are two rooms. These dairies do not at present differ in form or general appearance from dairies of other kinds. The kugvali at Taradr is shown in [Fig. 24], and it is the dairy on the right-hand side of [Fig. 5].
The kugvalir have one feature peculiar to themselves. They are never recruited from any other herd. Even the buffaloes of the ti often have additions to their number, especially through the ceremony of irnörtiti ([Chap. XIII]), but in no circumstances are any additions from outside made to the kugvalir.
There is a legend that the original buffaloes of this herd [[78]]were sent from Amnòdr[8] by the god Ön to the people of Taradr. A long time after they came to Taradr the herd was on the point of dying out, only one cow buffalo remaining, which was so old that it had lost its teeth. This sole survivor was pregnant, and when about to calve the delivery was much delayed, and it seemed that the buffalo would die before the calf was born. Only women were present and they cut open the belly of the buffalo and took out the calf, which was tended very carefully and lived, and the existing kugvalir are descended from this calf.
This story preserves a tradition of the practice of women attending to the buffaloes at the time of calving, which is said to have been at one time the regular practice.
The kugvalikartmokh sleeps in the kwotars or calf-house, except at Taradr, at which place he sleeps in the outer room of his dairy. He is allowed to sleep in the ordinary hut on certain nights in the week, and may only have intercourse with Tarthar women.
He wears the grey garment, or tuni, which he ties round his waist when churning and wears over his shoulders when milking.
The work of the dairy is carried out on the same general lines as that already described, but with certain distinguishing features.
All the work is done kabkaditi; the dairyman never turns his back to the contents of the dairy. In those villages in which he sleeps in the calf-house he goes naked (except for the kuvn) to the kugvali, washes his hands, prostrates himself at the threshold, enters, and puts on his tuni which is kept on the patatmar. He salutes the mani which he feeds with curd and milk as in other dairies. He also knocks on the patat three times, saying “Oñ” each time.
As in the other village dairies, he only prays and lights the lamp in the evening. When he gives out buttermilk, he must use the vessel called pòlmachok. He drinks buttermilk (peputi) in a distinctly more ceremonial manner than in the ordinary dairy, sitting on the seat (kwottün) outside the dairy, and pouring from the ertatpun into a leaf-cup made of two [[79]]leaves of the kind called kakuders. He drinks three times only, raising the leaves to his forehead and saying “Oñ” each time.
In this more definite ceremonial when drinking buttermilk, we have a transition to the ritual of the ti, and this resemblance to the procedure of the ti is still more marked in the following features. In addition to the kugvalir, the kugvalikartmokh has certain ordinary buffaloes, putiir, to provide milk for his personal use, and these buffaloes are milked in a special vessel called kuvun (kupun). This vessel is also used to transfer butter and buttermilk from the patatmar to the ertatmar, i.e., buttermilk is not poured directly from the patatpun into the majpariv, but poured from the former into the kuvun and from this into the majpariv, and similarly the butter is transferred from patatpun to penpariv by means of the same vessel.