At the present time, many of the clans have lost their sacred bells, and those which possess mani have only one or two of them. My most definite account for the Tartharol comes from Kars, where it is clear that the wursuli has two bells, the same as those reputed to have been hung on the neck of Enmon in the legend of Kwoto.[3] The kudrpali also had two bells which have now been lost, but the place where they used to hang still shares in the dairy ritual and is fed with milk just as the bells would have been if they had been there.
Since it is the wursol who takes the prominent part in the funeral ceremonies of a male, it seems also clear that the bells which are hung on the necks of the slaughtered buffaloes are those of the wursuli, but I did not definitely ascertain whether the bells of a kudrpali might not be used for this purpose, and indeed I am not altogether certain that any rigorous distinction is made between wursuli mani and kudrpali mani.
One striking distinction between the dairies of the Teivaliol and Tartharol was said to be the absence of mani among the former, except in the Piedr clan, and here there was something exceptional, for when this bell is used at a funeral it is hung on the neck of the buffalo by a Tarthar man belonging to Nòdrs. I was often told that, with this exception, the Teivaliol had no mani, and it was only towards the end of my visit that I became aware of the existence in the dairy of Kiudr of six bells called mani, two distinguished as patatmani and four as ertatmani. [[426]]
Among the Tartharol there was no distinction of this kind, and it seemed that these bells were looked on by the Todas in a different light to other bells, and were not thought of when they told me that the Teivaliol had no mani. It was quite clear that they were not used at funerals. The suggestion which I have made in the chapter on the dairy ritual would provide an explanation of this apparently exceptional position of the Kiudr mani. If Kiudr is the relic of an old ti dairy and the bells are the old mani of the ti, it becomes clear why the bells have their exceptional character, and why they are not used at a funeral, for the bells of a ti would never be allowed to suffer the defilement to which this ceremonial use subjects them.
Most of the mani have milk, curds, or buttermilk offered to them during the dairy ceremonial. The only exceptions of which I heard were some of the bells of the ti dairy, the bell called Keu at the Nòdrs ti, and that called Pongg at the Pan ti, which are not ‘fed,’ to use the common Toda expression.
At the village dairy the ‘feeding’ is a regular part of the dairy ritual, curds being put on the bells in the earlier, and some of the milk from that first brought into the dairy, in the later part of the proceedings. I only heard of one instance in which bells were given buttermilk. This was done with the ertatmani of the Kiudr dairy, and if the supposition given above is correct, this should, therefore, also be the procedure with the kudrs mani of the ti dairy. It is quite possible that this is one of the details of the dairy ritual which escaped me, or it may be that it was a special custom of the ti dairy from which I suppose the Kiudr dairy to have been derived.
Some writers on the Todas have regarded the bells as the Toda gods, and there certainly is some evidence which would justify one in regarding them as idols. The ‘feeding’ is a definite indication that the bells are, to a certain extent, regarded by the Todas as living beings, and in the legendary accounts of the origin of certain bells, belief in their activity is obvious. One bell is born and another comes from the sea and sits on the side of a milking vessel. It is quite clear, however, that the bell belongs to a different category in the religion of the Todas from that occupied by the gods. [[427]]Possibly the Todas may have some clear ideas about the connexion between their bells, gods, and dairies, but I could not discover them, and am inclined to believe that the people are now very hazy about the exact place of the bell and the god in their theology.
It was quite clear that they believed an offence against the dairy was punished by the gods, and I cannot say definitely that in this case the bell may not have been personified as a god, but I do not think that this was so.
It seems to me probable that the present sanctity of the bell has come about by a process of transference[4] from the buffalo to the object worn by it. Probably at one time the buffaloes were more directly venerated than they appear to be at present. There is evidence that even in recent times the bell-cow or buffalo which carried the bell was an object of especial veneration. In such books as those of Harkness and Marshall, the bell-cow seems to occupy a more prominent position than, so far as I could tell, it occupies at present.
In the present day the mani of the ti is only hung on the neck of a buffalo at the migration from one ti mad to another and at the Nòdrs ti, only for a few minutes even then. At the village dairy, the mani is never, so far as I could tell, put on the neck of a buffalo except at the funeral ceremonies. The idea in the latter case seems to be that a sacred buffalo should wear its bell, and in order that the buffalo slaughtered at a funeral should go to Amnòdr with its bell, the mani is hung on its neck while it is being killed. The legend of Kwoto and Punatvan shows that the bells are believed to travel to Amnòdr with the buffaloes.