When a man salutes in this way he may be two or three miles from the village, the salutation being made, according to some accounts, directly the man sees the village, and according to others, not until he sees the dairy. When my guide Kòdrner was saluting the sacred village of Kiudr, I could see neither the hut nor the dairy of this village, [[420]]though I could see the grove in which I knew them to be. When going from Ootacamund to Paikara by the bridle path the village of Taradr is saluted at a spot about two miles from the village in a straight line.
When a man leaves an etudmad he turns towards the village when it is about to pass out of view, chews some grass, and salutes in the same way as on first viewing it. On all the chief routes over the hills the Todas know the exact spots at which different villages become visible, and I have noticed that the salutation to a given village has been made by different Todas and on different occasions from exactly the same spot.
In a few cases there was some doubt as to whether a given village should receive the kaimukhti salutation or not. It seemed that there were certain etudmad more sacred than the rest, and they would be saluted by every Toda, irrespective of the division or clan to which he belonged, while in other cases the salutation was only obligatory on the members of the clan to which the village belonged, though these villages were often saluted by others who were scrupulous in following the observances of their people. The villages which must be saluted by every one are the seventeen chief villages of the clans (excluding Kidmad and Karsh), and two others, Kiudr and Miuni, the former because it is a satimad (see p. [421]) and the latter because formerly the Toda gods used to hold their naim or council there. I made a list of the villages of each clan to which the salutation is paid by the members of the clan, and found that they were villages with dairies of sanctity, and in every case, so far as I could tell, villages of great antiquity. Many of the villages so honoured are mentioned in legend, and I believe this salutation to be a useful indication that a village is ancient. I shall have to discuss later whether Kavidi, near Gudalur, in the Wainad, is an ancient village or one of modern growth, and I attach importance to the fact that it does not receive the kaimukhti salutation even from the members of the clan to which it belongs.
Certain villages are called kalolmad, or “old man villages,” where only buffaloes and men may live. They are usually [[421]]villages where there is plenty of grass for the buffaloes, and are in general visited for short periods. The only explanation which could be given was that owing to the short time they are occupied it is not worth while to transfer the whole family to the place. It seemed, however, certain that women were definitely forbidden to live at these villages—a village where a woman may live being distinguished as ishnidvaimad—and this suggests that the institution is based on something more than mere convenience, and that the villages have some kind of sanctity which makes it undesirable that women should live in them.
The following are the only existing villages of this kind:—Taradrkirsi, the male funeral village of Kars; Kudrmas and Telgudr, belonging to Taradr; Perg, belonging to the Panol; and Pirsush, belonging to Kuudr.
Three of these, Taradrkirsi, Kudrmas, and Pirsush, receive the kaimukhti salutation, and are certainly ancient and sacred villages, while there was some doubt as to whether Telgudr should not also be saluted. The only kalolmad I visited was Taradrkirsi, where there is now only a dairy, so that there is a clear reason why women cannot live there, but this did not appear to be the reason at other places.
Again, I could not ascertain why they should be called “old man villages,” and their existence must, I am afraid, remain a mystery, though I think we may be confident that there is, or has been in the past, some ceremonial reason to explain their existence.
Two Todas villages are known as satimad. If a dispute arises between two men they are taken to the front of the dairy of the satimad, and are made to state what has happened, and anything a man says under these conditions will be believed. It is thought that if a man does not speak the truth, he will fall sick and his buffaloes will die.
According to some accounts there is only one true satimad, the village of Kiudr, which we have already seen has several signs of especial sanctity, such as the mention of its house in the prayer, the severe restrictions on its women during pregnancy, and the homage rendered to it by Todas of every clan. [[422]]
According to other accounts the village of Kanòdrs[1] is also a satimad, and Todas of all clans may be brought there to make statements. It seems most probable that both places are satimad, but that the custom of using Kanòdrs as a touchstone of truth is now no longer followed, Kiudr only being used for this purpose. It will be remembered that both Kiudr and Kanòdrs have features of dairy ritual peculiar to themselves, and that in some respects there is a close resemblance between the ritual of the two places.