The Sacrifice at the Ti
The sacrifice at the ti is called ernudrtipimi, and is performed at every ti three times in the year. The first occasion is about fifteen days after the ceremony of teutütusthchi in October. The second occasion is about January, when the buffaloes of the ti migrate to the Kundahs or elsewhere for the dry season. The third occasion is after the ceremony of giving salt, which is known as kòrup (see p. [175]). The ceremony may take place at any ti mad except Anto.
The appointed days are Sunday and Wednesday. On the day before the ceremony wood is taken by the palol and kaltmokh to the sacrificial spot, called ernkar as at the village. At Mòdr the wood in which the sacrifice takes place is called Turikipül.
The sacrifice may be performed either in the morning or evening, and takes place, in either case, before kaizhvatiti, the ceremonial pouring of buttermilk. This means that the sacrifice takes place during and not after the dairy ceremonial, and thus forms part of the dairy ritual. Each palol wears the pòdrshtuni, while the kaltmokh is naked throughout except for the kuvn. The kaltmokh arranges the firewood and the chief palol (at the Nòdrs ti, the ti palol) lights the wood with fire brought from his dairy. The calf is then killed and cut up with exactly the same ritual as in the village ceremony. [[286]]
After the flesh has been placed round the fire both the palol return to their dairies, leaving the kaltmokh at the ernkar to look after the roasting flesh. Each palol prays as usual and takes buttermilk without the aid of the kaltmokh, and then returns to the ernkar, the chief palol taking butter with him. At the place of the sacrifice the palol eats the tütmîis only, first putting it, together with butter, on leaves of kakud, from which he eats. The kaltmokh eats part of the liver at the ernkar, and is not allowed to touch any other part of the animal unless given to him by the palol. The mogâl, agelv, mad, and kwelthkh are then carried by the palol to the dairy where they are kept. They are eaten only by the palol and kaltmokh. Some parts are carried by the kaltmokh to the sleeping-hut, and are eaten by the kaltmokh and mòrol; other parts are taken to the outskirts of the ti mad and given to any Todas who may visit the dairy.
In connexion with the erkumptthpimi ceremony, I was told of a device employed to induce the mother of the sacrificed calf to continue suckling after her offspring has been killed. Several days before the sacrifice the calf to be sacrificed and a female calf of about the same age are shut up together in the kush, or small structure in which young calves are kept. On the floor of the kush are spread some of the grass called nark[4] and some leaves of the kiars[5] tree. When these have been broken up and mixed with earth by the trampling of the calves, a handful of the mixture, together with milk, is rubbed on the backs of both calves, and this is repeated for three or four days. The object is that the mother shall not know which is her own calf, and shall suckle both, and continue to suckle the female calf when her own has been taken away. During the days on which the calves are shut up together the dairyman should keep pon, i.e., he should not sell or give away any of the produce of the dairy.
If this device is not employed or is unsuccessful the skin of the sacrificed calf is placed on the back of a female calf, and in this way the mother may be induced to suckle the latter. [[287]]When Teitnir performed the erkumptthpimi ceremony for my benefit, he did not succeed in getting the mother to suckle another calf and demanded 60 rupees[6] as compensation for the loss of milk which he would suffer till the buffalo had another calf. When he found that I had no intention of paying this sum, he adopted the second device just described, and this expedient was successful.
The erkumptthpimi ceremony was first mentioned by Harkness (p. 139), who witnessed the sacrifice. The details of the ceremony which he gives agree in general with those observed by myself. He calls the sacrifice “yerr-gompts.” A still more complete account which agrees closely with my own was given by Muzzy in 1844. Breeks mentions the ceremony, as is usual with him, under its Badaga name of kona shastra, and his account contains several features which disagree with those of Harkness, Muzzy, and myself.
I could obtain no satisfactory account of the origin of the sacrifice. Teitnir gave me a circumstantial story of the way in which Kwoto or Meilitars induced the gods to eat the flesh of a male calf. Teitnir stated that when Kwoto was visiting the gods in the form of a kite, and before he had tied down the sun (see p. [206]), he killed a male calf with exactly the same ceremonial as that practised since, and taking some of the flesh threw it into the midst of the gods, saying, “I have brought the flesh; it is sacred flesh; I have partaken of it, and if your counsel is to be right, you must partake of it.” At this the gods were very angry and blamed Kwoto, whereupon he said, “I am not blameworthy; if you blame a man who should not be blamed, why do you not eat flesh which should not be eaten?” Kwoto was then given the task of tying down the sun, and when he succeeded in doing this and had been acknowledged by the gods as their superior, the gods agreed to eat the flesh, and since that time the Todas have sacrificed a male calf, just as Kwoto did, and have eaten the flesh of the calf.
The truth of this account, given by Teitnir, was denied by every other Toda whom I questioned, and I have not therefore included it in the story of Kwoto given in [Chap. IX], but [[288]]I think it is possible that Teitnir was right, and that the denial of the other Todas was due to their reluctance that I should know the real belief about this ceremony. Even if not correct, Teitnir’s account is valuable as a record of an ingenious example of Toda reasoning.
At the ceremony I witnessed there was one feature of some interest. When it was found that the calf had not been killed by the blow with the log of tudr wood, the animal was belaboured over the testicles. This procedure had not been included in the account given to me before the ceremony, and I could not discover how far it is an established custom to kill the animal in this way if it is not killed by the blow. The interest arises from the fact that in the ancient Vedic sacrifices, the animal was killed by stopping its mouth and beating it severely ten or twelve times on the testicles till it was suffocated.[7] I have not been able to discover whether this method of killing an animal is still practised in India. If so, it has probably been borrowed by the Todas; but if not, this ancient Indian method may have been preserved by the Todas. I did not observe that the mouth of the calf was stopped at the sacrifice which I witnessed, but this was probably done.