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.