There is one fact which may be held to show that the relation between Todas and Badagas is recent as compared with that between the Todas and other Nilgiri tribes. This is the fact that the Badagas are not mentioned in one of the legends of the Toda gods, while Kotas, Kurumbas, and Irulas each play a part in one or more of these stories.
Todas and Kotas
The Toda name for a Kota is Kuv. The relation between the two people is very different from that between Toda and [[636]]Badaga. While a Toda regards a Badaga as his equal, or perhaps even as his superior, he looks down on the Kota as inferior, as hardly to be classed as a man with himself. In their secret language, a Toda speaks of a Kota as kimas ithvai, “he that is beneath,” and in the remedies for the evil eye (see p. [264]) the Kotas are the only hill tribe which is not thought worthy of mention—they are not thought to be of sufficient importance to be able to cast the evil eye. When a Kota meets a Toda, he raises both hands to his face and salutes from a distance. The two people do not touch one another in general, though I do not know that contact is definitely prohibited. A Toda will not sleep or take food at a Kota village in general, but makes an exception in the case of Kulgadi in the Wainad (see p. [200]). It is usually supposed that the contempt of the Toda for the Kota is due to the flesh-eating, or even carrion-eating, habits of the latter, and this is certainly one of the elements which influence the relations between the two peoples.
The Kotas supply the Todas with the larger part of their pottery and ironware.[6] All the earthenware vessels of the dairies, except those of the inner rooms of the ti dairies, are supplied by the Kotas, and the various knives and other metal objects of the Todas are chiefly obtained from these people. The Kotas supply most of the things burnt at Toda funerals and they supply the music on these occasions.
Just as the Badagas do not supply grain to the Todas only, so the Kotas do artisan work for Badagas, Kurumbas, and Irulas. The Kotas are the artisans, not of the Todas only, but of the whole hill district.
The relations between the Todas and Kotas are strictly regulated, each Kota village supplying certain Toda clans. There are seven Kota villages on the hills, of which the following are the Toda and Badaga names:—
In the Todanad district:—
Tizgudr, Tizgadr, or Tizgwadr (Badaga, Tirichigadi), between Ootacamund and Kanòdrs, near the Toda village of Ushadr. [[637]]
Kurguli (B. Padagula or Kuruvoje), near the Badaga village of Sholur.