The Toda Buffalo
The Toda buffalo is a variety of the Indian water-buffalo, but the life on the hills seems to have produced a much finer animal than that of the plains. Although thoroughly under the control of the Todas, the buffaloes are semi-wild and often attack people of a different race from their owners, and Europeans have frequently been severely injured by the onslaught of these animals.
The Toda name for the male buffalo is er, and for the female ir, but either term may be used when the people speak of buffaloes collectively. Calves have different designations at different ages. A young calf is kar, one from one to two years of age is pòl, and a three-year-old calf is nakh.
Defective buffaloes, and especially those with only one horn, are called kwadrir, and those whose horns bend downwards are kughir. Barren buffaloes are called maiir.
There are considerable differences of colour among the buffaloes. Those much lighter than the rest are called nerir or pushtir, and there is a legend about the origin of these buffaloes, which, however, I failed to obtain. The only obvious way in which the animals differ from one another in marking is that some have a black stripe running down either side of the neck very much in the position which would be occupied by the chain suspending a bell.
There do not seem to be any physical differences between the buffaloes of different classes, and, as we shall see shortly, the nature of the breeding of the Toda buffaloes is such as would have entirely destroyed any distinctions of the kind if they had ever existed.
Every adult female buffalo has an individual name, which is usually given when her first calf is born. The number of buffalo names is limited, so that many buffaloes bear the same name. [[48]]
The following are among the buffalo names of which I have records:—Kûdzi or Kûrsi, Kâsimi, Pän or Pern, Kiûd or Kiûdz, Enmon, Koisi, Keien, Ilsh or Idrsh, Kârsthum, Perûv or Perov, Kebân, Enmars, Persud, Nerûv, Kôzi, Perith, Pülkoth, Persuth, Tòthi, Kerâni, Keirev, Püthiov, Peires, Nersâdr, Tâlg, Ûf, Köji, Persv, Arvatz, Kòjiû, Pundrs, Purkîsi, and Òrsum.
Both Tartharol and Teivaliol have the same names for their buffaloes, and it seemed that a buffalo of any village herd might have the same name as one belonging to the ti. It is possible, however, that certain names may be restricted to the ti herds. I collected some names which occurred only in these herds, but I cannot say positively that they might not also be used for less sacred buffaloes.
Male buffaloes are unnamed and appear to have little or no sanctity even when born of cows of the most sacred herds. The greater number of male calves are either killed at erkumpthtiti ceremonies ([Chap. XIII]) or given away to the Kotas. A few are kept for breeding purposes, usually in the proportion of two to every hundred females.
There is a singular absence of care about the breeding of the buffaloes. The Todas have many herds of which every female has some degree of sacredness, and it might have been expected that the bulls of a sacred herd would have been carefully chosen from the male calves of that herd. So far as I could ascertain after repeated inquiries, there was no restriction of any kind in the mating of the sacred animals; a bull of the ordinary buffaloes (putiir) of a village might even mate with the highly sacred animals of a ti dairy. No importance seemed to be attached to the question of paternity among the buffaloes, and so far as I could ascertain the people were quite indifferent whether the male was related or unrelated to the female, whether of the same or of another herd.
I did not hear of the existence of any ceremonies connected with the chosen male buffaloes. Marshall states[6] that a bull new from one of the sacred ti herds undergoes a process of sanctification before he is permanently installed, [[49]]by being isolated for a day and night in a small pen in the sacred woods of the ti, during which time he is deprived of food, though allowed access to water. Marshall also states that it is permissible to introduce a bull from an ordinary drove “after due sanctification.” Though I failed to obtain definite confirmation of Marshall’s statement, it is possible that something of the kind may at one time have taken place or may even still take place.
At the present time the buffaloes are tended entirely by males, and males only are allowed to take any part either in the work of the dairy or in those dairy operations which are performed in the house. There is a tradition that at one time women attended to the buffaloes at the time of calving, and one incident is recorded in which women performed Cæsarian section on a dying buffalo (p. 78), but this custom has now long ceased to be followed.
The first buffaloes were created by one of the chief Toda gods, Ön, and his wife. The buffaloes created by the male deity were the progenitors of the sacred buffaloes, while the ordinary buffaloes or putiir are descended from those created by the wife. Certain other buffaloes are descended from ancestors created by other gods, but the account of their various creations may be deferred till the chapter containing the legends of the gods. I was told by some that the sacred buffaloes were descended from a sambhar deer, but it was later found that this was only believed to be true of one special group of buffaloes belonging to one clan.