The Tarthar Clans
Nòdrs
The people of Nòdrs owe their special importance to their connexion with the goddess Teikirzi, who was the nòdrodchi, or first ruler of the clan, and according to tradition bestowed certain special favours on her people. Chief among these is the possession of the Nòdrs ti. This is undoubtedly the most sacred and important of the five ti institutions, and its herds are much larger than those of any other. The fact that the Nòdrs people own this ti and have the power of appointing to the office of palol gives them great distinction in the eyes of the Todas, and this is emphasised when the palol is undergoing his ordination ceremonies, for several of these take place in villages of the Nòdrsol. The preliminary ceremony for those who wish to become palol, which is called tesherst, is also usually performed at a Nòdrs village. [[644]]
Another title to fame is the possession of the poh, or conical dairy temple at Nòdrs, which is known to the European inhabitants of the Nilgiri Hills as the “Toda Cathedral.” It is certainly not the most sacred of Toda dairies, but it is the most accessible of the few dairies of this kind now remaining.
The Nòdrsol are one of the clans represented in the naim. They now stand second among the Tarthar clans in point of numbers, having forty-three males and thirty females.[1] It has two kudr, one of which, consisting of the family given in the first of the genealogical tables, has now only two male members; as these have at present no son, it is possible that it may shortly become extinct. The other kudr has five pòlm, of which the chief men are Kerkadr (2), Kudòdrsvan (3), Teigudr (4), Mondothi (5), and Keitan (6). If any of the members of these five pòlm should perform the irnörtiti ceremony, the buffalo would go to Mudrigeidi and Odrkurs, while, if either of these men had to give a buffalo, its value would be divided among the other five pòlm. Kerkadr is regarded as the head of the second kudr.
The madnol of the Nòdrs people are Tuesday and Friday, and they hold the funerals of men on Sunday, and of women on Thursday. The special features of their funeral ceremonies are that the body of a man lies in the tarvali of Nòdrs for some days before the etvainolkedr and that a special bell (mani) is used at male funerals which has to be brought from Òdr. Male funerals are held at Nòdrs, and female funerals at Külthpuli. The clan used also to have another funeral place close to the Paikara road, which is not now used.
The Nòdrsol have many villages, of which fourteen are still inhabited, and I obtained the names of five others now in ruins.
The following are the chief villages.
Nòdrs (Muttanadmand). In addition to the conical poh, this village has the distinguishing feature of a long wall which passes between this dairy and the huts where the [[645]]people live. The wall then passes at the back of the poh and runs for some distance northward. The tarvali (in [Fig. 12]) is situated in an enclosure of the wall near the dwelling-huts, so that the women can go to it for buttermilk without crossing the wall and entering the enclosure in which the poh stands. In the south part of the wall is the gap through which the calf is driven at the irnörtiti ceremony (see [Fig. 43]). The wall is reputed to have been built by Elnâkhum.