The Todas

by W. H. R. Rivers

Soon after beginning to churn, the kudrpalikartmokh takes up some of the broken-up curd (adrpars) and puts it on the bell (mani) three times, saying “Oñ” each time, and milk from the vessel first brought into the dairy is also put on the bell in the same manner.

At the kudrpali of Kars, the dairyman puts the curd and milk on a board called pato. The bells of this dairy have been lost, and the dairyman puts the milk on the board on which the bells used to hang. The process of putting milk on the bells is properly called terzantirikiti, but the Todas [[67]]often speak of the process as “feeding the bell.” At the kudrpali of Kuzhu, belonging to the Kars clan, milk is put in the same way on a gold bracelet.

FIG. 21.—THE ‘KUDRPALI’ OF KARS, WITH THE ‘KUDRPALIKARTMOKH’ STANDING ON THE WALL. IN THE FOREGROUND IS THE MOUND CALLED ‘IMUDRIKARS’ IN THE BACKGROUND ON THE RIGHT IS THE CALF-HOUSE.

When making butter, it will be remembered that the dairyman of the tarvali makes a certain amount, and then pours away the buttermilk, and repeats this till all the adrpars has been converted into butter and buttermilk. Whenever the kudrpalikartmokh pours away buttermilk, he takes a piece of the bark of the sacred tudr tree (Meliosma pungens and Wightii) and beats three times on the patat, saying “Oñ” each time. This ceremony is called pepeirthti, and is the exclusive privilege of the kudrpalikartmokh. If this ceremony should be omitted, the buttermilk may not be drunk by any one.

The kudrpalikartmokh is allowed to sleep in the ordinary hut, but only on special days—viz., Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday—and on these days he must, like the tarvalikartmokh, [[68]]avoid touching anything in the hut except the sleeping-place and the floor on pain of losing his office. He is allowed intercourse with any Tarthar woman, but must have nothing to do with the women of his own division, the Teivaliol.

While in office, the kudrpalikartmokh is not allowed to visit the bazaar,[3] and if he does so he becomes an ordinary person at once. One afternoon when I was working with Parkurs (8), one of the elders of the Kars clan, Sakari (7), who had been kudrpalikartmokh at Kuzhu, came to announce that he had visited the bazaar at Ootacamund. He was therefore no longer palikartmokh, and he came to tell Parkurs that a successor must be appointed. It seemed to me in this case that Sakari had visited the bazaar because he was tired of office and wished to become free. I had a suspicion also that he wished to become acquainted with my proceedings, for he came straight to me from the bazaar and was one of my most regular attendants for some time after his deprivation. The kudrpalikartmokh is prohibited from entering a tarvali, though the tarvalikartmokh may enter a kudrpali.

The milk of buffaloes connected with a kudrpali is more sacred than that of buffaloes milked at a tarvali. Any one may drink milk from a tarvali, but the milk of the kudrpali may only be drunk by the palikartmokh. If any one else drinks the milk of the kudrpali it is believed that he will die. I could learn of no case in which a man had taken this milk, but Kòdrner (7) had seen a cat die on the day it had drunk milk of the martir, the buffaloes of the kudrpali of Kars. Kòdrner was somewhat of a sceptic in connexion with many of the beliefs of his people, but he was very much in earnest on this occasion, and when my interpreter said he should like to drink some of the milk, Kòdrner offered to give him one hundred rupees if he drank the milk of martir for four days and remained alive.

The buffaloes tended at the tarvali and kudrpali are of several named kinds. According to tradition, each clan at the original distribution of buffaloes by Teikirzi (see p. [186]) was given a certain kind. To Kars were given the buffaloes [[69]]called martir; to Nòdrs were given nashperthir; to Pan, pineipir; to Melgars, persasir; these buffaloes originally given being called in general nòdrodvaiir; lit. “buffaloes who rule.”

In various ways the buffaloes originally given to one clan have passed into the possession of other clans. This has happened when buffaloes have been purchased, but is chiefly due to the existence of several customs which involve gifts of buffaloes. The tradition also runs that soon after the buffaloes were originally given, the Nòdrs people built the kudrpali with seven rooms to which I have already referred and begged the Kars people for martir to milk at this dairy. Similarly the people of Kanòdrs borrowed martir from Kars to milk at their conical dairy, and similar transferences of buffaloes may have occurred between other clans. In these and possibly in other ways buffaloes have passed from one clan to another, and as the buffaloes have in many cases kept their original names, most clans now possess buffaloes of several kinds.