[7] Burton (Goa and the Blue Mountains, p. 316) brands the Todas as inveterate liars, because, evidently owing to some misunderstanding, he was told that a “putting stone” was the “grandfather of the gods.” [↑]
[8] It will be remembered that at the azaramkedr of a woman, two women stand at the entrance of the azaram one of whom holds a pounder in her hands. [↑]
CHAPTER XIX
THE TODA RELIGION
The last seventeen chapters have been almost entirely devoted to the religious institutions and ceremonies of the Todas. In the earlier chapters I have described the ritual of the dairy and have discussed some of the problems of general interest which this ritual suggests. In later chapters I have described the ceremonies which are associated with the chief incidents of life: birth, growth, and death. In these and in the chapter dealing with sacrifice I have described many details of Toda ceremonial which clearly establish its religious character, and [Chapter X] is especially devoted to the formulæ which bring the ceremonial into definite relation with the Toda gods. In [Chapter XI] I have described practices and beliefs all of which stand in some relation to religion, though most of them must be regarded as belonging to a different category. In the last two chapters I have collected a number of special features of the Toda religion, the existence of sacred days and the part played by numbers, places and material objects in the various religious observances, and I have discussed how far the attitude of the Todas towards these objects can be described as one of worship.
There remains the general nexus which binds all these beliefs and practices into a whole so that they constitute the Toda religion. I have given in [Chapter IX] the stories of the Toda gods, giving them in this place because they were necessary for the proper understanding of the dairy formulæ, and I can now discuss more fully than was then possible the essential nature of these deities. [[443]]
The Gods
The Toda gods are definitely anthropomorphic beings, who are believed to have lived in this world before man existed. Both man and buffalo were created by the gods, and the Todas seem to picture a time when gods, men, and buffaloes lived together on the Nilgiri Hills, and the gods ruled the men. At this time the gods seem to have lived much the same kind of life as the Todas themselves. Ön was palol to the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti, his son Püv was palikartmokh at Kuudr, and other gods are believed to have filled dairy offices. From the earliest times, however, the gods were connected with the hills—i.e., they were believed to dwell on the summits of the hills of the Nilgiri plateau. At first they seem to have mixed at times in human society and at other times to have retired to their hill-tops. The earliest of the gods was Pithi, who was born in a cave, and the Todas and many of their buffaloes were created by his son Ön and his wife. Later death came to the gods in the person of Püv, the son of Ön and Ön followed Püv to the world of the dead, called Amnòdr, of which he has since been the ruler. He left behind him as predominant among the deities Teikirzi, a goddess, who ruled over the Todas. It is to her that the origin of most of the Toda institutions is ascribed, and there is some reason to think that she was predominant among the gods even before Ön went to Amnòdr.