The Prayer of Makars
The following is the prayer used at Makars, the chief dairy of the Kars ti. The kwarzam of the dairy are here comparatively few in number, but the prayer is especially rich in the kwarzam of gods and buffaloes, and it furnishes a very good example of the relation of the prayer formulæ to the Toda legends.
The kwarzam of the prayer run as follow:—
| Anto | The god Anto. | |
| Nòtîrzivan | Nòtirzi. | |
| Kûlinkârs | Kulinkars or Teikhars. | |
| Kuzkârv | Korateu. | |
| Onkonm | Onkonm who lives on a hill in the Kundahs. | |
| Ekîrzam meidjam | Teikirzi and Tirshti. | |
| Azo |  | Azo and Mazo. |
| Mazo | ||
| Katadrvanpoh | place near Kûlinkars. | |
| Peigwa | god living on hill near Makurti Peak. | |
| Karmunteu | Karmunteu. | |
| Kotzgârth | the Paikara river (Teipakh). | |
| Kondilteu | Kondilteu, a god opposite the hill of Kòti. | |
| Mûndilteu | a god on a hill near the last. | |
| Onûlvpoh | place near Majòdr. | |
| Kûlâdrazenteu | god on a hill near Kuladrtho. | |
| kaban adi arten teu | “iron door shut god.” | |
| kaban kûl eiten teu | “iron stick held god.” | |
| mòrs ver arten teu | “mòrs tree under event god.” | |
| kûghîr kùdr kwaten teu | “crooked horned buffalo horn cut god.” | |
| tebkúter at, tan mun madrik teu | “imitation buffalo horns took, his mother’s brother’s lap god.” | |
| mâvel kâritan teu | “sambhar from calved god.” (The last six kwarzam refer to the story of Kuzkarv (see p. [190]). | |
| pülnerkûrz | buffaloes of tî called pürsîr. | |
| tetnîrkan | ditto. | |
| pirsk muneki potitth îr | “sun to facing that came buffalo.”[[227]] | |
| nerk muneki potitth îr | “bell to facing that came buffalo.” | |
| putûḍr mun kekitth îr | “tûḍr tree back (face?) rubbed buffalo.” | |
| Kitheri kûtk ethkitth îr | “Kitheri stream to jumped buffalo.” | |
| pâtûsh kattith îr | “desolate pen from made buffalo.” | |
| Warwark ethkitth îr | “Warwar (stream) to jumped buffalo.” | |
| ö khuberam kitj erditth êram | “seven heaps buffalo-dung fire set buffaloes.” | |
| pêrnêr | bell (mani) or pürs dairy. | |
| unêr | ditto. | |
| persagun | mani of pars dairy. | |
| talg | ditto. | |
| nârvtüls | lamp. | |
| poikar | pürs dairy. | |
| pârsvôh | pars dairy. | |
| tînnudri | pen. | |
| kakûnnudri | ditto. | |
| nîrkar | dairy spring. | |
| tülinîr | ditto. | |
| pünpôh | dairy at Enòdr. | |
| kâtû | pen at Enòdr. | |
| pünnîr | spring at Enòdr. | |
| Enòdr | Enòdr ti mad. | |
| mêdrpôh | dairy at Pars. | |
| peiltû | pen at Pars. | |
| tülinîr | spring at Pars. | |
| Pars | Pars ti mad. | |
| âtârnudri | dairy at Neradr. | |
| nêrieners | pen at Neradr. | |
| Neradr | Neradr ti mad. | |
| pülvôh | dairy at Kòn. | |
| aners | ditto. | |
| tedrvâs | pen at Kòn. | |
| pûvârsnîr | spring at Kòn. | |
| Kòn | Kòn ti mad. | |
Then follow “tanenma tarmama,” &c.
The kwarzam of the prayer given above are arranged in a definite order. First come the kwarzam of sixteen gods or of hills or places closely connected with gods, then follow six kwarzam referring to various incidents in the life of the god Korateu. These are followed by two kwarzam of buffaloes, and then follow six referring to various features of the founding of Makars, of which an account has been given on [[228]]p. 116. Then follows a kwarzam relating to an incident which is probably recent. The palol of this ti used to make seven heaps of the dung of the buffaloes. There is a law that the dung should not be sold, which the palol disobeyed, and soon after a fire broke out suddenly from the seven heaps, and this event is commemorated in the prayer by means of the kwarzam meaning “seven heaps of buffalo-dung, fire set buffaloes,” and is included among the kwarzam relating to buffaloes, probably because there was a belief that the anger of the buffaloes was the cause of the fire.
The buffalo kwarzam are followed by eleven referring to the bells of the ti and to the dairy, pen and spring of Makars, and these are followed by kwarzam referring to the other places of the ti—viz., Enòdr, Pars, Neradr, and Kòn. In each case there are said the kwarzam of the dairy, pen, spring, and place except in the case of Neradr, where for some reason the kwarzam of the spring is omitted.
The feature of the Makars prayer which is especially interesting is the reference to legend in the kwarzam. This reference occurs in the Kuudr prayer and in those of Kanòdrs and Anto, but the references are far more elaborate in the Makars prayer. These references were very useful in providing incidental confirmation of the details of legends previously obtained, while in other cases they put me on the track of stories which I might otherwise have failed to obtain. One point of interest connected with them is that, in the absence of the legends, they might easily be supposed to be meaningless sentences. We have seen that there is reason to believe that the Todas are forgetting much of their mythology, and if the legends referred to in the Makars prayer should be forgotten, these kwarzam would become meaningless formulæ. This appears to have happened already in some cases; there were certain kwarzam of which I could obtain no translation; thus, all the kwarzam of the clans and villages were of this nature and could not be explained, though they almost certainly had a definite origin. A good instance of a kwarzam which is on its way towards a similar fate is that at the end of the Kuudr prayer. The meaning of only one word was clear—viz. nâkh—while maj was probably the word for cloud, and [[229]]the kwarzam appears to refer to some incident of legend in which a three-year-old calf and a cloud were concerned, but I could obtain no record of the incident, nor of the legend of which the incident was a feature.
I have treated these formulæ of the dairy as prayers, and I think there can be very little doubt that they are of the nature of supplications, and are believed to invoke the aid of the gods in protecting the sacred buffaloes. It must be confessed, however, that there is no actual evidence in the formulæ of direct invocation of the gods. The name of no god is mentioned in the vocative form. In some prayers there is barely mention of a god at all, if the term ‘god’ be limited to the anthropomorphic beings of the hill-tops.
The exact relation between the formula and the gods largely depends on the exact meaning of the word idith, which is not quite clear. But, whatever the meaning of this word, it is evident that it is used in exactly the same way in the case of a god as in the case of a buffalo, a place, a dairy vessel, or other even meaner object.
Perhaps the nearest approach to an appeal to gods in the prayer is in the words at the end, in which the names of certain gods are mentioned, followed by the words âtham idith emk tânenmâ, “for their sake may it be well for us.”
There is little doubt that the Todas offer prayers to their gods in their ordinary daily life, altogether apart from the dairy ritual. I was told by one man that when anyone leaves an etudmad he should pray that he may return safely, and in this case my informant said that he prayed to Teikirzi. Unfortunately I did not ask the exact form of the prayer, and do not know whether the goddess was invoked by name or whether kwarzam were uttered of the same form as in the prayer of the dairy. We may, however, be confident that the idea of supplication to the gods is not foreign to the Toda mind.
We shall see later that in the formulæ used in Toda sorcery, the names of gods are mentioned, followed by the same word idith which is used in the dairy formulæ. In the magical formulæ the evidence of appeal to deities is somewhat stronger than in the case of the dairy formulæ, [[230]]which are certainly of a religious character. It seems most likely that the word idith was at one time used especially in connexion with the names of gods, and carried with it some idea of supplication. Gradually other sacred objects were included in the prayer, the same form being used for them as for the gods, this inclusion being prompted by the belief that the mention of any sacred object might help to promote the efficacy of the prayer. Later, when any mysterious and seemingly miraculous incident occurred at a village, it seems to have become the custom to commemorate it in the prayer.
It is quite clear that at the present time the earlier portion of the prayer, consisting of the kwarzam, is regarded as more important than the latter portion, which reads like the actual prayer. I suspect even that in practice the prayer proper is often omitted, or that only the first two words, tanenma, tarmama, are said. There certainly seemed to be no very rigorous laws as to the exact number or order of the clauses of this part of the prayer. The earlier portion, on the other hand, is very strictly regulated, and the order in which the kwarzam are to be uttered is definitely prescribed. Certainly there is far more reticence in connexion with the kwarzam, and this may safely be taken to indicate that a higher degree of sanctity attaches to them than to the words of the prayer proper.
It is probable that the alteration in the relative importance attached to the two parts of the prayer would have to go little further in order to produce a state of things in which the Toda dairyman would use the first parts of the formulæ only, and an anthropologist visiting the Todas at this stage would find them using formulæ which would not be recognisable as prayer.
If, at the same time, the process of forgetting their mythology should also have advanced, the Todas would then provide an excellent example of a people using in their religious ritual meaningless forms of words, and the Toda kwarzam seem to furnish one way in which people may come to use such meaningless forms. [[231]]
[1] Erd means two, and this translation is a free rendering of the Toda words, though it probably conveys the proper meaning. [↑]
CHAPTER XI
THE DAIRY RITUAL
In the preceding chapters I have given an account of an elaborate ritual wholly connected with the buffalo and with the dairy. This ritual is certainly of a religious character, and, though there is much in the nature of the dairy formulæ which is uncertain, there can be little doubt that they are intercessory and that they bring the dairy operations into definite relations with the Toda deities.
It seems most probable that the general idea underlying the dairy ritual is that the dairyman is dealing with a sacred substance, the milk of the buffaloes. This sacred substance is to be converted into other substances, butter and buttermilk, which are to be used by the profane. At the present time much of the butter goes to those who are not even Todas and are regarded by the Todas as inferior beings.
It seems most probable that the elaborate ritual has grown up as a means of counteracting the dangers likely to be incurred by this profanation of the sacred substance, or, in other words, as a means of removing a taboo which prohibits the general use of the substance.
Similarly the migration ceremonies have the general underlying idea of counteracting any possible evil influence which may accompany the passage of the buffaloes through the profane world from one sacred place to another. During the migration, objects may be seen by the multitude which under ordinary circumstances are strictly screened from the general gaze, and objects may be touched, or be in danger of being touched, by people who ordinarily may not even see them. [[232]]
Again, the ceremonies connected with entrance upon any dairy office are intended to purify the candidate and make him fit to see and touch and use the sacred objects.
The purpose of some of the other ceremonies is less obvious. The irpalvusthi ceremony seems to be of the nature of a thanksgiving, one of its most important features being a feast, but in this feast people may partake of the milk of sacred buffaloes, which is not ordinarily used by them, and there is a suggestive resemblance to those religious ceremonies in which communion is held with the divine by eating or drinking the divine.
The salt-giving ceremonies seem to point to a time when salt was difficult to procure. According to the Todas the object of these ceremonies is to ensure a plentiful supply of milk. There is a belief that salt is beneficial to the buffaloes, and the occasions on which the salt is given have become religious ceremonies which at the ponup of the ti have reached a high degree of elaboration with very special relations to the chief gods of the dairy. The ceremonies of making new pep are especially mysterious, and I will reserve some speculations as to the general idea underlying them till later (see p. [242]).