The Sun, Light, and Fire
There is no doubt that the sun is an object of reverence to the Todas. It is the duty of every man when first he leaves his hut in the morning to salute the sun by raising his hand to his face in the kaimukhti salutation. The sun is also saluted by the palol as he comes out of his dairy to milk the buffaloes. All my informants were unanimous in saying that the salutation of the palol was both to the buffaloes and to the sun. The doors of the great majority of the dairies faced more or less in an easterly direction, so that the dairyman, on coming out of his dairy in the morning, would see the sun, and when the dairy had a different orientation, as at Mòdr, the palol had to turn so that he would perform the salutation looking eastward. At the afternoon ceremonial the salutation was performed in the same direction as in the morning, so that, so far as the salutation is performed to the sun, it would appear that it is to the place of the sun-rise rather than to the sun itself.
The sun plays a part in the ceremony which takes place when a woman goes to the seclusion-hut after childbirth, but there was some reason to think that this was due to the belief in the noxious influence of the mysterious body, Keirt, which is near the sun, and not to the influence of the sun itself. When performing the ceremony on leaving the seclusion-hut the woman faces the sun, and this may be an act of reverence, since now Keirt is no longer feared. It seemed quite clear that the moon is not saluted in the same way as the sun with the kaimukhti salutation. No salutation is paid at all to the new moon when it is first seen, but after a day or two, usually on the third day, it is the custom to bow down the head, so that the forehead rests on the corner of the putkuli lying on the ground. The salutation is that called nersatiti shown in [Fig. 44]. I only heard of one custom indicating reverence to the full moon. When the Todas throw away water on the day of the full moon, they do not throw it towards the moon, but away from it. Thus, if the moon is opposite the door of the hut, the people will go round to the back in order to throw the [[437]]water there. Light is undoubtedly an object of reverence to the Todas. Captain Harkness states that when the household lamp is lighted in the evening, obeisance is paid to it by bringing the right hand to the face, and this sign of reverence is still shown. In the dairy ceremonial the lamp and the light it gives are also undoubtedly reverenced, and lighting the lamp is, as we have seen, an act of a ceremonial character.
In some cases the lamps used in the dairies are certainly very ancient and are believed to have come from Amnòdr, but it is clear that they are not reverenced merely on this account, for a lamp of modern origin would, when once consecrated, be treated with as much reverence as those which had come down from antiquity.
I did not learn that any sign of reverence is paid to fire, but the fire of the dairy may undoubtedly be said to have a sacred character. Whenever a new dairy is visited or an old dairy is reconsecrated in connexion with the pepkaricha ceremony, fire is made afresh by friction. Once made, it was, so far as I could learn, kept continuously alight; if on any occasion the fire should go out, it would have to be made again by friction. In the ti dairy there are two fireplaces, one in which fire burns continuously, while the other is lighted by brands transferred to it from the other, and the lamp is lighted by a brand taken from this sacred fire. Here it would almost appear as if the former fire had a profane character, so that it would be regarded as desecration to light the sacred lamp directly from it.
The fire of the tòratthwaskal is used to cook food which has come from outside, and the use of an intermediate fire to light the lamp is in keeping with the general law of the procedure of the ti dairy, according to which the sacred objects are prevented from all possible contamination from the outer world by employing vessels or other objects as intermediaries.
Fire has also to be made by friction in other ceremonies, and especially at those called teutütusthchi and erkumptthpimi and at the funerals of males. At the first ceremony the fire is made by the palol, and at the second by the dairyman conducting the ceremony. At the azaramkedr of a man the fire is made by a man of the same clan as the deceased, and this [[438]]is probably also the case at the first funeral ceremony. I did not definitely ask whether fire by friction is ever made by a woman, but I am fairly confident that this would never happen.
I only heard of one case in which men were prohibited from making fire. The Kidmadol and Karshol, who suffer under several disabilities, are not allowed to make fire by friction, and this is due to a quarrel with their parent-clan many years ago.
Whenever fire is made for a sacred purpose[6] the fire-sticks must be of the wood which the Todas call kiaz or keadj, except in the tesherst ceremony, in which the wood of muli is used.
There are also definite regulations as to the kind of wood which is to be burnt in the fires of all ceremonial occasions. In various ceremonies I have recorded the Toda names of the woods prescribed, and if more were known about their identity, it is possible that some light might be thrown on the original home of the Todas, in the same way as has been suggested in the case of the sacred tudr tree.