The Todas

by W. H. R. Rivers

I have now given the whole of the material which I have collected on the institutions of the Todas. In describing these institutions I have discussed various general problems suggested by their nature, but I have said little about the points of resemblance or difference between the customs of the Todas and those of other peoples either in India or elsewhere. It remains in this last chapter to see how far the evidence which I have given throws any light on the very difficult questions: Who are the Todas? How do they come to be living on the Nilgiri Hills?

The evidence which might be available for our inquiry is of three kinds: records of the Todas in the past, traditions preserved by the Todas, and, lastly, evidence derived from the comparative study of physical and psychical characters, language, beliefs, and institutions.

The evidence coming under the first two heads is of the scantiest. Our earliest record of the Todas is contained in a Portuguese manuscript now in the British Museum. It records the visit of a Portuguese priest named Finicio to the Nilgiri Hills in 1602. This manuscript was partially translated and published by Thomas Whitehouse in a book dealing with the Syrian church of Malabar, under the title “Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land.” As the translation given by Whitehouse is incomplete, I had the manuscript retranslated, and it was then found that several interesting details had been omitted, and that there were several errors in the translation. The new translation is given on pp. [721]–730. [[694]]

The account given by Finicio is very superficial, being the result of only two days’ intercourse, but it is sufficient to show that there has probably been little change in the Todas and their surroundings in the three centuries which elapsed between his visit and mine. I have referred in the general body of the work to several of the points in which his account either corroborates or differs from my own. Perhaps the most important feature of his story is that it shows the relation between the Todas and Badagas three centuries ago to have been very much what it is at the present day, and shows clearly that this relation between the two tribes is of longer standing than has usually been supposed. Finicio’s account is, however, so brief and superficial that it helps us little in our search for evidence on the evolution of Toda society. We know from it that the institution of the ti was in existence, and the scanty evidence goes to show that the life of the palol was much what it is now, but there is nothing to tell us whether the ritual had then reached the high pitch of development which it now shows, nothing to tell us whether since that time there has been development or degeneration.

From 1602 to 1812 we have, so far as I am aware, no record of the Todas. In the latter year William Keys, Assistant Revenue Surveyor, reported the existence of the Todas, or Thothavurs, and other tribes in a letter to the Collector of Coimbatore. His account gives little information about the Todas, except that they kept buffaloes and held it a sacred and inviolable custom to keep their heads uncovered. In 1819 “a Subscriber” wrote an account of the Nilgiri tribes which was published in the Madras Courier. Beyond a description of their appearance, the only information given about the Todas or Todevies is that it is against the custom to wear either turban or sandal, that they permit hair and beard to grow long, and that the Badagas pay a few handfuls of grain from each field as acknowledgment that they received their land from the Todas. In 1820 Lieutenant Macpherson reported the practices of polyandry and infanticide, and in the following year Captain B. S. Ward described the marriage customs more fully, and gave some account [[695]]of the dairies and priesthood. In 1826 the Rev. James Hough addressed a number of letters to the Bengal Hurkaru, giving an account of the Nilgiris and their inhabitants, and these letters were republished in a book in 1829. A more elaborate and most excellent account of the Todas was given by Captain Harkness in 1832, in a work entitled A Description of a Singular Aboriginal Race Inhabiting the Summit of the Neilgherry Hills, and since that time very many of those who have visited the Nilgiri Hills have had something to say about the Todas and their ways. As I have already pointed out, these records from the earlier part of last century differ but little from my own, and do not furnish us with any evidence that Toda customs underwent any great change during that century.

As regards the evidence from Toda tradition, we are in no better case. Several writers have stated that the Todas believe that they came to the Nilgiris from elsewhere, but whenever I made any inquiries on this point I was assured that they had always been on the Nilgiri Hills, the first Toda having been created on the Kundahs in the manner already described.

It seems most probable that those who have ascribed such traditions to the Todas have been misled by the account of the Kamasòdrolam. These are the people who are believed to have been driven away from Kanòdrs by Kwoten (see p. [195]). The Todas have a very sincere belief in the existence of these people, and when I showed one man the frontispiece in Marshall’s book, representing a Toda village and its inhabitants, something unfamiliar in the arrangement of the scene made the man think that it must be a picture of the Kamasòdrolam. Any Toda who is asked whether there are other Todas and where they live will at once think of the Kamasòdrolam and will tell of these people, and the story might easily be mistaken for a tradition of their origin.

The Todas are also said to believe in their descent from Ravan, and I was told by one man that they were descended from the Pandavas, but I have little doubt that such beliefs are only recent additions to their mythology.

In studying the origin and history of the Todas we have [[696]]thus no record earlier than three centuries ago, and no traditions of any value, and we are altogether thrown back on the evidence furnished by the manners and customs of the people, their language, and their physical characteristics.

Though the manners and customs of the Todas are in many ways unique, or very exceptional, there is a general resemblance between them and those comprised under the general title of Hinduism, and especially with such more popular customs as are described by Mr. Crooke.[1] The great development of the ritual aspect of religion, the importance of ceremonies connected with birth and death, the sacredness of the milk-giving animal, the nature of the system of kinship, the marriage regulations and many other features bear a general, and in some cases a close, resemblance to institutions found in India generally, or in certain parts of India.