The Todas

by W. H. R. Rivers

One of the most striking features of the ritual in all its branches is its increasing elaboration and complexity from the lowest to the highest grade of dairy.

One of the details of the ritual which runs through the whole series of dairies is the separation between the vessels and objects which come into contact with the buffaloes or their milk, and those which come into contact with the outside world, or with the products of the churning which may go to the outside world.

In the proceedings with the milk of the ordinary buffaloes in the huts where the people live, there is, so far as I know, no distinction of this kind.

In the lowest grade of dairy we already meet with the [[233]]separation. All the vessels are kept in the same room, but in different parts of the room, the patatmar and the ertatmar, and this distinction between the two sets of objects is kept up in the migration ceremonies where they are carried by different men.

There are no striking differences in this respect between the lower grades of dairy, whether tarvali, kudrpali, or wursuli; in all, the two sets of vessels are separated, but no strict measures are taken to prevent a vessel of the patatmar from coming into contact with a vessel of the ertatmar during the dairy operations. It is only on reaching the kugvali of Taradr that we find an intermediate vessel, the kuvun, used to transfer substances from a vessel of the more sacred to one of the less sacred kind, and to prevent possible contamination of the former by the latter.

It is in the ti dairy that these precautions reach their highest degree of development. Here the two sets of vessels are kept in different rooms, separated by a screen, and the dairy products are never transferred directly from a vessel of one kind to a vessel of the other, but always by means of an intermediate vessel. The butter and buttermilk produced by the churning operations in the inner room are transferred to the vessels of the outer room by means of the idrkwoi, which is kept on the dividing line between the two compartments. Similarly the vessels into which the butter and buttermilk are received are never allowed to come into direct contact with objects from the outside world, but their contents are transferred to vessels used outside the dairy by means of intermediate vessels, the uppun or the mòrpun.

In the migrations of the ti buffaloes this strict separation between the two kinds of vessel is still kept up. The things of the inner room are carried by the palol himself, while the things of the outer room are carried by others. The idrkwoi, though carried by the palol on the same staff as the things of the inner room, is kept apart from the rest, and is not allowed to touch them.

The fires of the ti dairy furnish another interesting example of the principle by which sacred objects are prevented from coming directly into relation with objects which may have [[234]]been contaminated by contact with the outside world. The lamp is not lighted directly from the tòratthwaskal, which is probably sometimes touched by the kaltmokh, but fire is transferred from this fireplace to the pelkkatitthwaskal, from which the lamp is lighted. Here, again, the use of an intermediary object is limited to the ti dairy.

The principle of management by which the palol prevents the contamination of the sacred by the profane in the dairy is adopted by him in other ways. Whenever I paid any money to the palol at Mòdr, I placed it on a stone from which it was taken by the kaltmokh and handed to the palol. A similar procedure is generally adopted whenever anything is brought to, or taken from, a ti dairy. The kaltmokh in the above instance acts as the intermediate link between the palol and the unclean.

In the ordinary procedure of the village dairy, except at the kugvali of Taradr, no example occurs of this use of intermediate links, but there is such an example during the ordination of the wursol. When the palikartmokh gives the candidate milk from the ertatpun (p. 149), he does not pour it directly into the leaf-cup from which the candidate drinks, but first pours it into another leaf-cup and then from that into the cup used by the candidate.