The Nidrsi Ti
This is an offshoot of the Kwòdrdoni ti. One evening, after the buffaloes and calves of the Kwòdrdoni ti had been shut up for the night, the women of an adjoining village were pounding the grain called ragi. When the calves heard the noise of the pounding, they ran out of their pen and made their way to Pursâs. One of the wooden tasth which bar the entrance of the pen became entangled in the neck of one of the calves, and when the calf reached a place near Edrpali village, the tasth dropped and became a wood, and the place is now called Tasthnòdrpem. From here the calf went on to Pursâs. The Kwòdrdoni people went to Pursâs to fetch back the calf, but when they got to the place they changed their minds and said that the calf should stop at Pursâs, and that the Nidrsi people should make a ti there and appoint a palol; and this was the origin of the Nidrsi ti, which is called kar ti because it was derived from a calf, while the ti of Kwòdrdoni is called ir ti. The two institutions have different dairies, but both are at Pursâs.
I could obtain little satisfactory information about the customs of the Nidrsi ti. There is only one ti mad, viz., that at Pursâs near the dairy of the Kwòdrdoni ti. Any of the Teivaliol may hold the office of palol, but at the time of my visit there was no palol, and the six buffaloes, which are all that remain of the herd, are being looked after, though not milked, by a Tarthar man, Todrigars (41), at one of the ordinary villages. A palol would have to be appointed before the second funeral ceremonies of one of the Nidrsiol could be performed, but apparently he would only hold office for a short time. [[123]]
[1] The proper name for the pen at the ti was mukadr, and for the calf-pen, tülkkadr, but my informants always used the ordinary words tu and kadr. [↑]
[2] These are the kwarzam, or prayer names (see [Chapter X]) of Teikirzi and Tirshti. They were used by Naburs (64) who had been palol at the Pan ti, but it is doubtful whether their use or the use of any other kwarzam on these occasions is an established custom. [↑]
[3] In the story of Kwoto and the Keradr ti ([Chap. IX]) the kaltmokh has to pour away buttermilk at an appointed spot. It is probable that this buttermilk is that unfinished by the palol, and possibly this custom is still followed but was not mentioned by my informants. [↑]
[4] According to Breeks (p. 14) these garments are made by the Badagas of Jakaneri. This may be correct, but it is much more probable that they are procured through the Badagas living in this village. [↑]
[5] It is possible that Finicio was told of this custom, and that his statement about the relations of the palol to women only refer to this ceremony. [↑]
[6] This legendary account probably preserves a tradition of a real invasion of the Nilgiri Hills by the people of Coorg. The Todas put the date of the occurrence at about seven or eight generations ago. In 1774 Linga Raja, with 3,000 Coorgs, invaded the Wainad and remained there for five years. During this time it is highly probable that the Coorgs would have explored the Nilgiri Hills. (See Mysore and Coorg, by Lewis Rice, Bangalore, 1878, vol. iii., p. 110.) [↑]
CHAPTER VI
BUFFALO MIGRATIONS
At certain seasons of the year it is customary that the buffaloes both of the village and the ti should migrate from one place to another. Sometimes the village buffaloes are accompanied by all the inhabitants of the village; sometimes the buffaloes are only accompanied by their dairyman and one or more male assistants.
There are two chief reasons[1] for these movements of the buffaloes, of which the most urgent is the necessity for new grazing-places. During the dry season, lasting from about December to March, the pasturage around the villages where the Todas usually live becomes very scanty, and the buffaloes are taken to places where it is more abundant. Many of these places are in or near the Kundahs, where the rainfall is greater than over the rest of the hills, and others are scattered here and there about the hills in spots where, owing to favourable conditions, the ground is less parched than elsewhere. At other seasons of the year it may happen that the grazing in the neighbourhood of a village becomes exhausted, and it becomes necessary to take the buffaloes to another place.
The other chief reason for the migrations is that certain villages and dairies, formerly important and still sacred, are visited for ceremonial purposes, or out of respect to ancient custom. Some of these places, such as the villages of Piedr [[124]]and Kusharf, are in outlying parts of the hills, and are entirely unoccupied except on the occasion of these ceremonial visits. Another example is the ancient and sacred village of Nasmiòdr, of which there now only remains a dairy, situated in a grove in the middle of a valley cultivated by Badagas. It is visited once a year by the wursulir of Kars for about a month, and, as there is only scanty pasturage available, there is little doubt that the visit to this dairy has no utilitarian motive.
At the ti the same reasons hold good. Several of the ti herds have dairies, in or near the Kundahs, to which they go during the dry months of the year, while other dairies of special sanctity are visited only for a short time in each year. The dairy of Anto is a good example of the latter case; it is in an outlying part of the hills, and should be visited for one month every year, because it is the most sacred dairy of the ti.
The migrations of the ti buffaloes are more strictly regulated than are those of the village herds, and there are definitely prescribed rules for the order in which the dairies of the ti shall be visited, and for the duration of the stay at each, though, as we shall see later, these rules are not always followed.
As a general rule, the more ancient and sacred the dairy to which the buffaloes are going, the more elaborate are the ceremonies on reaching the new destination.
The day of migration is called irskidithbutnol or irnödrthnol.