Todas and Kotas
The Toda name for a Kota is Kuv. The relation between the two people is very different from that between Toda and [[636]]Badaga. While a Toda regards a Badaga as his equal, or perhaps even as his superior, he looks down on the Kota as inferior, as hardly to be classed as a man with himself. In their secret language, a Toda speaks of a Kota as kimas ithvai, “he that is beneath,” and in the remedies for the evil eye (see p. [264]) the Kotas are the only hill tribe which is not thought worthy of mention—they are not thought to be of sufficient importance to be able to cast the evil eye. When a Kota meets a Toda, he raises both hands to his face and salutes from a distance. The two people do not touch one another in general, though I do not know that contact is definitely prohibited. A Toda will not sleep or take food at a Kota village in general, but makes an exception in the case of Kulgadi in the Wainad (see p. [200]). It is usually supposed that the contempt of the Toda for the Kota is due to the flesh-eating, or even carrion-eating, habits of the latter, and this is certainly one of the elements which influence the relations between the two peoples.
The Kotas supply the Todas with the larger part of their pottery and ironware.[6] All the earthenware vessels of the dairies, except those of the inner rooms of the ti dairies, are supplied by the Kotas, and the various knives and other metal objects of the Todas are chiefly obtained from these people. The Kotas supply most of the things burnt at Toda funerals and they supply the music on these occasions.
Just as the Badagas do not supply grain to the Todas only, so the Kotas do artisan work for Badagas, Kurumbas, and Irulas. The Kotas are the artisans, not of the Todas only, but of the whole hill district.
The relations between the Todas and Kotas are strictly regulated, each Kota village supplying certain Toda clans. There are seven Kota villages on the hills, of which the following are the Toda and Badaga names:—
In the Todanad district:—
Tizgudr, Tizgadr, or Tizgwadr (Badaga, Tirichigadi), between Ootacamund and Kanòdrs, near the Toda village of Ushadr. [[637]]
Kurguli (B. Padagula or Kuruvoje), near the Badaga village of Sholur.
In the Mekanad district:—
Kalmal (B. Kolamala or Kollimalai), not far from Kateri.
In the Peranganad district:—
Meilkukal (B. Melkotagiri or Perangada) in Kotagiri, one of the three chief European stations on the hills. Kikukal (B. Kilkotagiri or Kinnada), north-east of Kotagiri.
In the Kundanad district:—
Medrkukal (B. Menada).
The seventh is Kulgadi (B. Kalagasa) at Gudalur in the Wainad.
The village of Tizgudr is connected with the Toda clans of Kars, Melgars, Kanòdrs, and sometimes with the people of Kulhem. Kurguli supplies the clans of Nòdrs, Taradr, Kuudr, Piedr, and Kusharf, and occasionally Kulhem. Kalmal supplies Keradr, Nidrsi, Päm, Kidmad, and Keadr. Meilkukal and Kikukal are both connected with Kwòdrdoni and Pedrkars, and Medrkukal is the Kota village of the Panol. Kulgadi is connected only with the village of Kavidi, near Gudalur, which belongs to the Piedrol. When there were several Toda villages in the Wainad, it probably served them all.
The connexion between clans and villages seems to depend almost wholly on geographical distribution. The clans are supplied by the Kota villages which are nearest to their headquarters. An outlying village such as Kavidi has not the same Kota village as the rest of its clan. The Kidmadol, who are a branch of the Melgarsol, have not the same Kota village as the parent stock; but, on the other hand, the Panol, who now live chiefly among other Todas near Governor Shola, are still connected with the Kundah Kotas.
Each Kota village is responsible for the supply of the clan or clans with which it is connected. Its inhabitants make the various utensils used in the household and in the less sacred dairy work of the Todas. At the funeral of any member of a clan with which they are connected, they provide the music and the following objects:—
At the etvainolkedr, a cloak in which the corpse is wrapped, [[638]]five to ten measures (kwa) of the grain called patm (samai), and one or two rupees. If the Kotas do not possess the grain, they may give another one or two rupees in its stead.
At the marvainolkedr, they supply a cloak; eight annas to pay for the embroidery of the cloak, which is done by the Toda women; two to five rupees towards the funeral expenses; a bow and three arrows; a knife (kafkati); a sieve (kudshmurn) and a basket (tek).
In return, the Kotas receive the carcases of the buffaloes killed at the funeral, and on the occasion of a Kota funeral, the Todas supply one male calf from three to five years of age and one measure (kudi) of clarified butter. The Kotas also receive the bodies of any Toda buffaloes which die a natural death.
A Kota visiting a Toda village at any time is given clarified butter to take away with him. He is also given food consisting of jaggery and rice, which must be eaten on the outskirts of the village. A Kota is never given milk, buttermilk, or butter.
Once a year there is a definite ceremony in which the Todas go to the Kota village with which they are connected, taking an offering of clarified butter and receiving in return an offering of grain from the Kotas. I only obtained an account of this ceremony as performed between the people of Kars and the Kota village of Tizgudr, and I do not know whether the details would be the same in other cases.
In the Kars ceremony the Todas go on the appointed day to the Kota village, headed by a man carrying the clarified butter. Outside the village, they are met by two Kota priests whom the Todas called teupuli, who bring with them a dairy vessel of the kind the Todas call mu, which is filled with patm grain. Other Kotas follow with music. All stand outside the village, and one of the Kotas puts ten measures (kwa) of patm into the pocket of the cloak of the leading Toda, and the teupuli give the mu filled with the same grain.
The teupuli then go to their temple and return, each bringing a mu, and the clarified butter brought by the Todas is divided into two equal parts, and half is poured into each mu. The leading Toda then takes some of the butter and [[639]]rubs it on the heads of the two Kota priests, who prostrate themselves, one at each foot of the Toda, and the Toda prays as follows:—
Ultamâ; May it be well; Kûv Kotas erdm two tânenmâ; may it be well; kadr fields pelumâ; flourish may; mâ un mâ; rain may; îr buffalo kar milk mâ, may, nûv disease pedr go mâ. may.
The Toda then gives the two mu containing the clarified butter to the Kota priests, and he and his companions return home.
This ceremony is obviously one in which the Todas are believed to promote the prosperity of the Kotas, their crops, and their buffaloes.[7]
In another ceremonial relation between Todas and Kotas, the Kwòdrdoni ti is especially concerned. The chief annual ceremony of the Kotas is held about January in honour of the Kota god Kambataraya. This ceremony lasts about a fortnight, and, during part of the time, the proceedings are attended by Todas and other of the hill tribes. In order that this ceremony may take place, it is essential that there should be a palol at the Kwòdrdoni ti, and at the present time this ti is only occupied every year shortly before and during the ceremony. The palol gives clarified butter to the Kotas, which should be made from the milk of the arsaiir, the buffaloes of the ti. Some Kotas of Kotagiri whom I interviewed claimed that these buffaloes belonged to them, and that something was done by the palol at the Kwòdrdoni ti in connexion with the Kambataraya ceremony, but they could not or would not tell me what it was.
The relations between Todas and Kotas are probably of very old standing. The fact that the Kotas supply the bow and arrows burnt at a Toda funeral suggests that the connexion goes back to the time when the Todas used these weapons, while the special sieve supplied by the Kotas for a funeral is of a different pattern from that in use at the present [[640]]time. The Kotas are mentioned in Toda legend. The people of Tizgudr play a prominent part in the story of Kwoten (p. 195), and this deity is said to have been the first Toda who stayed at a Kota village, viz., at the village of Kulgadi (or Gudalur). He sat and slept on the Kota tün and since that time the Todas have stayed at this village, though they will not stay at any other. The relation between Kwoten and the Kotas seems to have been especially close. The old woman, Muturach, from whom the present people of Kanòdrs are descended, according to the legend, may have been a Kota. The Kotas who give tribute to the Todas are known as their muṭṭu Kotas, and the first part of the old woman’s name may have been this word.
Our acquaintance with Kota mythology is too scanty to contribute much to our knowledge of the relations between the two peoples. Breeks states that Kurguli (Padagula) is the oldest of the Kota villages, and that the Badagas believe that the Kotas of this village were made by the Todas. At Kurguli there is a temple of the same form as the Toda dairy, and this is said to be the only temple of the kind at any Kota village.
Breeks gives a legend which records the origin of the different foods of the Nilgiri tribes. Kambataraya, perspiring profusely, wiped from his forehead three drops of perspiration, and out of these formed the Todas, Kurumbas, and Kotas. The Todas were told to live principally upon milk, the Kurumbas were permitted to eat the flesh of buffalo calves, and the Kotas were allowed perfect liberty, being informed that they might eat carrion if they could get nothing better. My interpreter, Albert, was told a different version of this legend, according to which Kambataraya gave to each people a pot. In the Toda pot was calf-flesh, and so the Todas eat the flesh of calves (i.e., at the erkumptthpimi ceremony); the Kurumba pot contained the flesh of a male buffalo, so this is eaten by the Kurumbas. The pot of the Kotas contained the flesh of a cow-buffalo, which may, therefore, be eaten by this people. [[641]]