Chapter V: The Ti Dairy (1)

The ti is the name of an institution which comprises a herd of buffaloes with a number of dairies and grazing districts tended by a dairyman-priest or priests called palol with an assistant called kaltmokh. Each dairy with its accompanying buildings and pasturage is called a ti mad, or ti village.

In most cases there are two kinds of buffaloes at each ti, and each kind should properly be tended by its own palol and kaltmokh. There is, however, only one ti which possesses two palol at the present time, and they share a kaltmokh between them, though a second is appointed on certain ceremonial occasions. In other cases one palol tends both kinds of buffalo, and in others, again, the dairies are unoccupied for the greater part of the year and the office of palol is only filled for certain limited periods.

Each ti is regarded as the property of a Tarthar clan, but the palol has to be taken from the Teivaliol, the choice being in some cases restricted to one or two Teivali clans; thus, the palol of the Nòdrs ti must belong either to Piedr or Kusharf. The palol is chosen by the Tarthar owners, but the latter do not seem to gain any material advantage from their possession. In fact, it involves them in some expense owing to the necessity of giving certain feasts, and this expense was put forward as one reason why a ti is often unoccupied. Nevertheless the Tartharol are very proud of the fact that the institution of the ti belongs to their division, and whenever I asked a Tarthar man why he considered his people superior to the Teivaliol, the answer always ran that they had the ti and that the Teivaliol who tended the ti were their servants.

The buffaloes belonging to a ti are of two kinds, distinguished as persinir and punir. The former are the sacred buffaloes, and the elaborate ceremonial of the ti dairy is concerned with their milk. The punir correspond in some respects to the putiir of the ordinary village dairy, and their milk and its products are largely for the personal use and profit of the palol and are not treated with any special ceremony. The persinir are usually of various kinds, but the nature of their classification is different at each ti and its consideration may be postponed till later.

I obtained most of my information from people connected with the Nòdrs ti. During the whole of my visit the herds of this ti were at Mòdr, which is only about a mile from the Paikara bungalow. Owing to the restrictions on intercourse with so sacred a personage as a palol, it was not practicable to obtain all my information from those actually in office, and I found it best to work with men who had formerly held the post and had retired. I worked chiefly with Kaners (63), an old man who had been palol at the Nòdrs ti, and with Koboners (58), who had been at the Kars ti. For some time I worked with one or other of these two men every day, paying occasional visits to Mòdr to observe as much of the ceremonial as I was allowed to see. On these occasions I was also able to consult Karkievan, the chief palol, on points about which the ex-officials were doubtful.

Both Kaners and Koboners were trustworthy witnesses, but Kaners was old and had given up his office some time before, and in consequence often committed faults of omission. Koboners was an admirable informant, and the fulness of the account of the ti ceremonial is largely due to him. It must be remembered that I was only able to see for myself a few superficial features of the ceremonial, and that my account is based on the descriptions given by these and other men, but nevertheless I have a considerable degree of confidence in its essential accuracy.

The dairy of a ti is always called poh, whatever its shape may be, and at those places where there is, or should be, more than one palol, each has his own dairy. In these cases the work of one dairy goes on quite independently of the other, each palol being only allowed to enter and work in his own building. In addition to the dairy, or dairies, there is at each ti mad a hut in which the palol and kaltmokh sleep and in which the latter takes his food. When there are two palol, both sleep in the same hut. There is a house for the calves called karenpoh, corresponding to the kwotars of the village dairy.

The milking-place of a ti mad is called pepkarmus instead of irkarmus, as at the ordinary dairy, and is usually enclosed so that the buffaloes are screened from the eyes of ordinary people.

There is always one buffalo-pen, or tu, [29] for ordinary use, and at some places two others, called pon tu, or festival pens, used on the ceremonial occasions of migration from one place to another and of salt-giving.

The surroundings of the dairy are called pül, and there is a special part of the pül to which alone the ordinary Toda is allowed to go, and he may only go there by a special path. Each ti dairy which I visited was by the side of a wood and the place for ordinary Todas was in the wood.

At a little distance from the dairy there is the source from which the water for sacred purpose is drawn. This source is called kwoinir, and at Mòdr, where there was a kwoinir for each palol, it was a spring built in with stones, and not a stream as at most villages. In addition to the kwoinir there is also a stream from which water is taken by the kaltmokh, who is not allowed to go to the sacred spring.

There are various stones and other objects of ceremonial importance at most ti places, but the description of these may be given with that of the ceremonies in which they play a part.

At Mòdr, the dairy place I know best, all the buildings and objects of the ti mad are shut off from the outer world either by walls or by the natural configuration of the ground or forest. Within this screen, partly natural and partly artificial, there is the large milking-ground which may be entered by the buffaloes from two directions, and on one side of this are the three pens, the two dairies, and other buildings.

The more important of the two dairies has situated close to it the sleeping-hut and two huts for the calves, and this small group of buildings, shown in Fig. 27, is surrounded by a wall like that round the ordinary village dairy, leaving little space between the wall and buildings. These buildings, being within the outer boundaries of the ti mad, are already well screened from the world, and in consequence the surrounding wall is low. The other dairy is situated on the boundary, so that it can be seen by anyone outside the ti mad, and the wall around it is therefore high, so that a person standing outside can see nothing of the proceedings of the dairyman. At Mòdr the water springs are at some distance from the dairies and there is a special path by which the palol goes from the dairy to fetch water.

At another dairy, that of Anto, there is one path by which the palol goes to fetch water and another by which he returns, but I do not know if this is so at all dairies.

Although I visited Mòdr on many occasions, I never had an opportunity to investigate the buildings closely. I was never allowed to go within the walls enclosing the dairies, much less to go inside these buildings. If the annual programme of the ti had been carried out, the buffaloes would have left this place before the end of my visit, and I intended to make a thorough inspection after they had gone; but owing to various causes I mention elsewhere (see Chap. VI) the herds stayed at Mòdr till after my departure, and I had no opportunity of ascertaining the exact plan of the dairies and their surroundings.

The dairy of a ti always has two rooms, an inner room, the ulkkursh, and an outer room, the pòrmunkursh. These are divided from one another by a screen, or patun, which stretches about two-thirds of the way across the breadth of the building and is about three feet high. The palol stands in the outer room and performs the dairy operations proper to the inner room leaning over the top of the screen. The object of the screen is to keep the sacred objects of the dairy from the gaze of anyone who may look in, and especially from that of the kaltmokh; but in the only dairy of the kind into which I had the chance of looking, the screen was made of vertical sticks with wide intervals between them, so that I could easily see through. This dairy was, however, unoccupied, and if dairy vessels had been there, it is possible that they would have been screened from view in some way. In this dairy the screen extended from the right-hand wall as one looked in, but at Mòdr I was told that the screen was attached to the left-hand wall, and there were certain facts which make it almost certain that this statement is correct, though I had not the opportunity of confirming it by actual observation.

I did not discover whether there were any differences between the internal arrangements of the conical dairies and those of the dairies of the ordinary form. Breeks has given a description of the conical dairy at Anto, and from this it would seem that the dairy is divided into two rooms by a partition extending to the roof, the two rooms communicating by a door. There are two possibilities as to procedure. It is possible that only one room of this dairy is used for the ceremonial and that it is again divided by an incomplete screen into inner and outer rooms, or it may be that the dairyman churns in the inner room. I have no information on this point, but the general nature of the churning procedure at the ti dairy makes it highly probable that the former supposition is correct and that the inner room is divided into two parts.

In the plan on p. 87, I have adopted the arrangement in which the patun, or screen, is attached to the left-hand side of the building, but this is certainly not the case in all dairies. In some dairies also the fireplaces are on the other side.

THE CONTENTS OF THE POH

{ One mani.
{ Three persin.
{ Two tòrzum.
{ Two kòghlag.
(a) In the inner room. { One persinkudriki.
{ One pohvet or pohpet.
{ One kwoi.
{ One kwoinörtpet.
{ Several tedshk.

(b) Between inner and { Pelk, or lamp.
outer rooms. { Idrkwoi.

{ Two fireplaces { Pelkkatitthwaskal.
{ { Tòratthwaskal.
{ Several alug.
{ Uppun.
(c) In the outer room. { Mòrkudriki.
{ Karpun.
{ Turavali.
{ Guduboi.
{ Unused kòghlag.

Another vessel, the mòrpun, is kept in the sleeping-hut, where two or more horns are also kept which are blown by the kaltmokh every night before going to rest.

The things of the inner room correspond in general to those of the patatmar in the ordinary dairy, and the things of the outer room correspond to those of the ertatmar. The things of the outer room are sometimes called the alugpur, just as those in the village dairy are called ertatpur, but I did not hear of any corresponding term for the things of the inner room. I have no record of the place where the fire-sticks (nirsi) are kept, but they will almost certainly belong to the outer room, since, in the village, they belong to the ertatmar.

The nature of each of the vessels and other objects of the dairy is as follows:

Persin. This is an earthenware vessel containing about five kudi, i.e., 2½ gallons. The freshly churned milk is poured into and churned in three of these vessels. The persin corresponds to the patat of the village dairy.

Tòrzum. This is an earthenware vessel containing two or three kudi. Two of these vessels are kept in the inner room, one, called the karitòrzum, to hold water, and the other to hold the butter added while churning. The latter is called the peptòrzum because it is also used to give buttermilk to the buffaloes on certain occasions. When not in use the two tòrzum are placed on and act as covers for two of the persin. The tòrzum corresponds to the mu of the ordinary dairy.

Kòghlag. This is the churning-stick which corresponds to the madth. Both kòghlag and madth are alike in having the peculiar shape shown in Fig. 18 (see also p. 111). The thong by means of which the stick is turned, ordinarily called palv, is here called poinurs, and consists of a strip of the skin of a male calf. The kòghlag is made by the palol from bamboo growing on the Nilgiris. In addition to two used and kept in the inner room, five or six new churning-sticks are kept in the outer room.

Persinkudriki. This is a small piece of bamboo with a handle called tutth, used to knock against the persin when praying.

Pohvet (pohpet). A wand used when praying.

Kwoi. A bamboo vessel containing about three kudi. It is the vessel taken out by the palol to milk the buffaloes. It corresponds to the irkartpun of the village dairy and is made by the palol from bamboo obtained by the kaltmokh.

Kwoinörtpet. A wand carried by the palol with the kwoi and used to keep away the calves when milking.

Tedshk. Rattan rings used when carrying the dairy vessels.

Idrkwoi. A bamboo vessel containing about one kudi. It is used to transfer butter and buttermilk from the vessels of the inner room to the vessels of the outer room, and is kept midway between the two rooms. There is nothing corresponding to it in the village dairy, except at the kugvali, where the kuvun is used in the same way.

Alug. Earthenware vessels used as receptacles for buttermilk and butter in the outer room. There are at least two of these vessels, usually more. This vessel corresponds to the pariv of the village dairy.

Uppun. A bamboo vessel which is used to hold the buttermilk which the palol drinks.

Mòrkudriki. A vessel used like a ladle to transfer buttermilk from the alug to the uppun or the mòrpun. It corresponds to the majertkudriki or ashkiok of the ordinary dairy.

Karpun. A bamboo vessel used to milk the punir, or ordinary buffaloes of the ti herds.

Turavali. The cooking-pot of which the ordinary name is tòratthadi.

Guduboi. An earthenware pot to hold nei or ghi. Its ordinary name is pathrs.

The mòrpun, kept in the sleeping-hut, is a bamboo vessel used by the kaltmokh to hold buttermilk both for himself and for certain privileged visitors called mòrol.

The earthenware vessels of the inner room are not obtained from the Kotas, like the ordinary vessels, but are made by Hindus, and are procured through the Badagas.

The palol has two garments, one of which, the kubuntuni, he wears when not engaged in dairy-work, while the other, the pòdrshtuni, is worn during the dairy-work or other ceremonial. The latter is kept in the outer room when not in use.

There are usually two kinds of bell at the ti, one kind connected with the more sacred buffaloes and another belonging to the punir. The bells of the first kind, called mani, are kept in the inner room, and are tied on the necks of certain buffaloes for a short time on special occasions. The other bells, called kudrs mani, are kept outside the door of the dairy and are put on the necks of the punir on the same occasions.

There were several points of interest about the lamps used to light the dairies. At one time it seems that every palol was provided with an iron lamp with a number of cavities, each cavity being fitted with a wick. These lamps are reputed to have been as old as the foundation of the ti dairies. One of the lamps which is still in existence at the Nòdrs ti (that of the warspoh) is said to have been brought from Amnòdr. There is some doubt about the exact number of cavities and wicks in these lamps, but in the existing lamp of the Nòdrs ti there seems to be little doubt that there are seven cavities and wicks, and the lamp is called önavpelk, “the lamp of the seven holes.” All the seven wicks are only lighted on special occasions (ponnol), and on most days only one is used. At some dairies these iron lamps have been long lost, and in these cases the palol used to make lamps of the bark of the tudr tree. According to Marshall (p. 141), these lamps have five wicks, and this appears to be still the case at the Kars ti, where there were formerly two iron lamps, one with five cavities and one with four, and in the lamp now used at this ti they still keep up the use of five wicks on special occasions, using only two on ordinary days. It is possible that Marshall derived his information from a man who had been palol at this ti. At one of the dairies of the Pan ti there is an old iron lamp with seven cavities, and at the other, where a bark lamp is used, it has three wicks. At the present time the dairymen rarely trouble to make bark lamps, but are content with earthenware lamps procured from the bazaar. If these are broken and cannot be replaced at once, bark lamps are used during the interval. The wicks of the lamps, for whichever lamp they may be used, are always made of tuni taken from the garments worn by the palol, and the substance used in the lamps is butter.

Of the two fireplaces in the outer room, the tòratthwaskal is used for ordinary purposes, for cooking food, &c. The other, called pelkkatitthwaskal, or sometimes persinkaftthwaskal, is used for lighting the lamp or for any other purpose directly connected with the vessels of the inner room.

THE DAILY LIFE AT THE TI

The inhabitants of the ti rise before it is light, probably about five a.m., and on getting up from the bed some say “ekirzam meidjam.” [30] The kaltmokh goes at once to open the tu in which the buffaloes have been penned for the night. The palol salutes with hand to forehead when he leaves the sleeping-hut and goes to the front of the dairy, where there is water standing in a bamboo vessel called papun, corresponding to the kepun of the village dairy. He washes his hands and face, and then washes out his mouth by taking up water with his right hand, pouring into his left, and taking the water into his mouth from the latter. It is noticeable that the palol uses his left hand for this purpose of personal cleanliness, and not the right hand, which is chiefly used in his sacred work. He then ties up his straggling hair at the back of his head, bows down at the threshold of his dairy and enters, in some cases saying “ekirzam meidjam” as he does so.

When the palol enters the outer room of the dairy, he transfers fire from the tòratthwaskal, where it has been burning all night, to the other fireplace, the pelkkatitthwaskal, and then takes off the kubuntuni, which has been his covering during the night and puts the pòdrshtuni round his loins. He lights the lamp by means of three pieces of wood of the kind called kid, taken from the pelkkatitthwaskal, and while so doing begins to pray, using the prayer of the ti. After lighting the lamp, and while still continuing to pray, he takes up the persinkudriki and knocks with it on the middle of the three vessels called persin, going from one persin to another, when he pauses to take breath. I had the greatest difficulty in finding out exactly what happened in connexion with this prayer, but after I had settled on the foregoing description as correct I was allowed one day by the kaltmokh to go near the dairy while the palol was praying, and was able to hear the beating on the earthenware vessel with each word of the prayer.

The next step is to take up the pohvet and place it against the wall, and then the palol begins to churn the coagulated milk in the middle persin, milk in this state being here called kudabpol instead of adrpars, as in the ordinary dairy.

In those cases in which the mani is ‘fed,’ the palol puts kudabpol on the bell shortly after beginning to churn. This is done three times, the syllable Oñ being uttered each time. When the palol does anything three times in this way, he says that he does it mushtiu. This expression for ‘thrice’ is not used in the ordinary dairy.

The next steps are to pour into the kwoi and karitòrzum most of the coagulated milk which has been broken up by the churning, to add to the milk remaining in the persin some persinpen, or butter especially kept for the purpose in the peptòrzum, to add water, and to churn the mixture of coagulated milk, water, and butter in the middle persin. When the new butter is formed, the palol pours out the buttermilk into the vessel called idrkwoi, keeping back the butter with his hand. The buttermilk is transferred from the idrkwoi to one of the alug in the outer room. Some of the milk which had been put into the kwoi or karitòrzum is then poured back into the middle persin, more water is added, and the mixture is churned, after which the buttermilk is again transferred by means of the idrkwoi to the alug, while the butter is kept in the persin. This procedure is repeated till all the milk of the middle persin has been churned.

The persin on the right-hand side of the palol is then taken, and its position exchanged with that of the vessel hitherto used, and the churning is continued in exactly the same manner. The buttermilk is transferred to the alug, but the butter when formed is transferred to the persin, which had been originally in the middle. When the contents of the second persin have been churned, the third persin is placed in the middle and the same procedure is followed, so that when the churning is over all the butter which has been formed will be in the persin which was originally in the middle. Some of this butter is put into the peptòrzum to act as persinpen on another occasion, and the remainder is transferred to the butter alug by means of the idrkwoi. The two tòrzum are then put on the tops of two of the persin as covers, the peptòrzum being placed on the middle persin and the palol takes the milking-vessel (kwoi) and wand (kwoinörtpet) in his right hand and goes out to milk, having first put some buttermilk, called pep, into the kwoi.

When the palol leaves the dairy, he raises the milking-vessel and wand to his forehead and salutes in the way shown in Fig. 27. The Todas say that he is saluting the sun and the buffaloes. It is probable that, in general, the palol faces approximately east as he salutes, but there is no doubt that, at the present time, his salutation is chiefly to the buffaloes. He salutes in the same direction both morning and evening, and certainly pays no attention to the direction in which the sun lies.

This salutation is now often done in a very perfunctory manner. The vessel and wand may be raised hastily to the forehead for a few seconds only as the palol goes towards his buffaloes, and I am doubtful whether the salutation is ever performed exactly as shown in the figure, for the vessel contains some of the buttermilk called pep, which might be spilt if the vessel were held quite horizontally.

When the palol salutes, he says “Oñ” three times, and repeats two or three clauses of the dairy prayer, usually the kwarzam of the more important gods of the dairy.

When going to milk and when going from one buffalo to another, the kwoi and kwoinörtpet are always held together in the right hand. When the kwoi is filled, it is taken into the dairy. If it is the custom of the dairy to put milk on the mani, this is now done three times, saying “Oñ” each time, and then the milk is poured into the middle persin, the kwoi being held in the left hand, and the palol goes out again to refill the kwoi. When all the persinir have been milked, the milk of the three persin is mixed together by pouring from one to the other. The reason for this is that the buttermilk, called pep, is only taken out in the kwoi on first going to milk, and in consequence the pep would affect the milk of the middle persin only if its contents were not mixed with those of the vessels filled later.

The palol next goes out to milk the punir, taking for this purpose the vessel called karpun and an ordinary wand, the kwoi and kwoinörtpet being only used for the more sacred buffaloes. There was some difference of opinion as to what should be done with the milk of the punir. According to some it may be used to fill the persin if these are not filled by the milk of the persinir; according to others it is wrong to do this, and the milk of punir should on no account be put in the more sacred vessels of the inner room. I think there is no doubt that at the Nòdrs ti at any rate the first procedure is followed. At this ti the punir outnumber the persinir by far, and it is probable that the milk of the former is used to supplement that of the more sacred buffaloes, although it is contrary to tradition that this should be done.

The three persin being filled, the tòrzum are again put on as covers, and the palol takes up the wand called pohvet, and prays, standing in front of the screen (patun) with his hands lying over one another cross-wise on the top of the stick as shown in Fig. 28. He recites the full prayer of the ti, then replaces the pohvet between the persinand the patun and this act of replacing the wand marks the end of the more sacred part of the dairy operations. If a Toda wishes to ascertain if the work of the dairy is over, he asks, “Has he taken the pohvet?”

The palol now unties his hair, sees to anything necessary in connexion with his food, fills the uppun with buttermilk, and then leaves his dairy and goes to sit on the seat called pohvelkars on one side of the door of the dairy, viz., on the opposite side to that on which the mani is placed. At Mòdr he sits on the stone on the right side of the door when going in (K in Fig. 26), and the fact that he does so is one of the reasons which make it probable that the arrangement of the poh of that place is as I have given it in the plan.

When the palol has seated himself on the pohvelkars, he calls out to the kaltmokh “Kaizhvatitva,” “Come here and pour buttermilk!” When the kaltmokh comes, the palol gives the uppun to the boy, who says three times “Kaizhvatkina”, “Shall I pour buttermilk?” and the palol replies each time, “Vat!” The kaltmokh pours from the uppun into a cup made of the leaf called kakuders held by the palol, who drinks after raising to his forehead. This is repeated till the palol is satisfied, when the leaf-cup from which he has been drinking is thrown away, [31] and he goes again into the outer room to get food. He gives food to the kaltmokh, who eats it in the sleeping-hut, while the palol himself eats sitting on the pohvelkars. If any mòrol (see p. 107) are present, they are fed at this stage with buttermilk and food by the kaltmokh, who gives them the buttermilk out of the mòrpun, pouring it into leaf-cups as when giving to the palol.

The rest of the morning is passed in looking after the buffaloes, cutting firewood, plucking leaves used as cups and plates, or doing any other work connected with the ti.

In the afternoon the palol returns to his dairy and goes through the same operations as in the morning, except that he fetches water from the kwoinir early in the proceedings, usually bringing enough for the work of that afternoon and of the next morning. He churns the milk drawn in the morning, and when the time for milking has arrived, the buffaloes will have returned to the milking-place, and as soon as they arrive their calves are let out from the house (karenpoh) in which they have been kept.

When the churning and milking are over, the buffaloes are shut up in the tu for the night. The palol then takes buttermilk as in the morning, and both he and the kaltmokh take their food. The latter eats his food in the sleeping-hut as in the morning, and the palol does not enter till the boy has finished. As the palol enters, the kaltmokh says “Oñ” thrice, takes the horn or horns, and standing at the door blows three times (if there are two horns, three times on each horn), and then re-enters the hut and all go to rest.

In the afternoon the palol prays three times; when lighting the lamp, and after milking and filling the three persin as in the morning, and again after shutting up the buffaloes in the tu for the night, when he stands in front of the entrance to the pen. In each case he uses the whole of the ordinary prayer of the dairy. He also utters a few clauses of the prayer when going out to milk. These prayers will be given in Chap. X.

THE PALOL

The palol, who must belong to the Teivaliol, is chosen by the members of the Tarthar clan to which the ti belongs. He may hold office for as long as he pleases up to eighteen years, and, according to some accounts, he might continue in office even after this period, though there is no case known in which this has happened.

The usual duration of office seems now to be only two or three years, though a man may often be reappointed either to the same or another ti. At the time of my visit, one palol had been continuously in office for sixteen years, another for six years, and the rest for shorter periods. At the present time the office of palol is vacant at several dairies owing to the difficulty of obtaining qualified occupants.

During the whole time he holds office, the palol may not visit his home or any other ordinary village, though he may visit another ti village. Any business with the outside world is done either through the kaltmokh or with people who come to visit him at the ti. All business with the Badagas is transacted through a special man of this caste called the tikelfmav. If the palol has to cross a river, he may not pass by a bridge, but must use a ford; and it appears that he may only use certain fords; thus it is easy to cross the Paikara river just above the bridge, but the palol of the Nòdrs ti was not allowed to do so and had to use a ford nearer to the dairy at Mòdr.

The palol must be celibate, and if married, he must leave his wife, who is in most cases also the wife of his brother or brothers. According to the account given by Finicio in 1603, the palol could send for his wife and meet her in a wood every week or so and might also send for the wives of any other Todas. It is possible that this may still happen, but I failed to obtain an account of it and understood that the palol was really celibate. According to Finicio the restriction to which the palol is subject is that he may not touch a woman in the house. We have seen that in the lowest rank of the dairyman-priesthood intercourse with women in the house is allowed at any time and in the higher ranks only on certain days of the week. It is quite consistent with this that in the highest rank intercourse in the house should be altogether forbidden, but might still be allowed in the forest, and it is quite possible that Finicio is correct. I was unacquainted with his account at the time of my visit, and all other writers had been so unanimous as to the complete celibacy of the palol that I did not press my inquiries on this point very closely.

If a death occurs in the clan of a palol, he cannot attend any of the funeral ceremonies unless he gives up his office. If he resigns he is not again eligible for the office till the second funeral ceremonies have been completed. When a man of one clan gives up his office in this way, his place must be taken by a man of some other clan. Karkievan of Piedr was palol of the Nòdrs ti eighteen years ago and resigned when his wife died, his place being taken by Tulchievan of Kusharf. Two years later Karkievan resumed office and has been palol continuously since that time. Though there have been many deaths among the Piedrol, he has not attended a funeral, and has not, therefore, had to resign his post again.

In old times, it seems probable that it was usual to give up the office of palol when there was a death in the clan. According to tradition, the division of the Keadrol into the Keadrol and Kwaradrol by Kwoten (see Chap. IX) was ordained in order that there might still be men to undertake the office of palol when there was a death in the clan, the men of the Keadrol taking office when there was a death among the Kwaradrol and vice versa.

It has been stated by several writers on the Todas that the palol does not profit in any way by his sacred office. I made most careful inquiries on this point, and there seemed to be no doubt that the palol may often make a considerable income from the sale of the ghi made from the milk of the herd under his charge; one palol was stated to make six rupees a week in this way, and while he has been in office is said to have increased his own herd (i.e., that of his own family) by no less than twenty-five buffaloes. In one recent case, a man has resigned the post of palol to the Pan ti because he found the income was too small.

According to my informant, Kaners, a man used always to accept the office of palol unwillingly. When the offer came to him, he would say, “I cannot leave my buffaloes; I cannot leave my wife and my children.” Then the people would say, “You are born for the ti; it is your birthright; you must not refuse”; and the man would reluctantly consent. Now the Todas are in more need of money than they used to be, and there is no difficulty in obtaining candidates for those dairies at which the pecuniary advantages are sufficiently great, so that people will now beg to be appointed as palol to certain dairies, and it is even whispered that bribes have been offered in order to obtain office. There is no doubt whatever that the pecuniary reward is the chief inducement to people to undertake the charge.

The Nòdrs ti has the largest herd of buffaloes, and I was told that this ti is very much coveted, while others which have few buffaloes are unable to obtain a palol at all. My Teivali friends invariably talked about the ti in exactly the same kind of way that an Englishman talks about a benefice.

At the present time there are several instances in which the office of palol is vacant, and there seems to be a growing difficulty in filling many of these places. There is little doubt that the chief reason for this is that the herds have become very small, so that the resulting profit does not offer sufficient inducement; but there is also no doubt that the exclusion from the home and the limitation of intercourse with the world in general act as deterrents to those who are thinking of becoming candidates for the vacant places.

Another point about which several writers have erred is in supposing that the palol is important in the general government of the Todas and in stating that the Todas go to him for counsel and advice. I inquired into this very carefully, and there seemed to be no doubt whatever that the palol has absolutely no functions outside the management of his dairy and of ceremonies connected with it. He has no place on the naim, or council, and only appears before it as defendant or witness in matters connected with the ti. I could not ascertain that any one ever consults the palol on any business except that of the ti, and outside his office he has nothing whatever to do, and is little thought of by the Todas. The sanctity attaching to the palol and the reverence paid to him are attached and paid wholly to the holder of the office and not at all to the man.

The ordinary Toda may only approach the palol on two days of the week, Monday and Thursday. On other days, if he wishes to communicate, he must stand a considerable distance from the ti—it was said as much as a quarter of a mile—and carry on his conversation from this distance. I had, however, the opportunity of observing that the distance was diminished on some occasions.

On no account may a palol ever be touched by an ordinary person. A palol becomes himself an ordinary person, or perol, if either he or his dairy should be touched by any unconsecrated person. Recently Nòdrners (67) lost the office of palol to the warsir at the Nòdrs ti, because a Tamil man went to his dairy while he was out looking after his buffaloes; he was soon reappointed, but to another ti.

The Toda who approaches the palol must go kevenarut, i.e., with his right arm out of the cloak, and there is a definite form of salutation which is different for Tartharol and Teivaliol. When one of the former approaches, the palol says “Bañ,” and the Tarthar man replies “Ir kaûdâ,” literally “Buffalo, calf, have you?” To one of the Kuudrol, the chief Teivali clan, the palol says the kwarzam, or sacred name of Kuudr, followed by the word idith, i.e., he utters the words Ivikanmokh kûtmeil teu idith. When any other Teivali man approaches, the palol says “Pekein,” but all the Teivaliol reply with the same formula as the Tartharol. If a Tarthar man and a Teivali man approach the palol together, the former will be greeted first. The palol greets the man to whose division the buffaloes belong before the man of his own clan or division.

If a Toda is in the condition called ichchil, i.e., has been defiled in connexion with funeral or other ceremonies, it was said that he might not approach the palol. I had an interesting example, however, of the way in which a regulation of this kind is observed. While Teitnir(52) had ichchil, owing to the fact that the funeral ceremonies of a relative had not been completed, he went with me to the Mòdr ti one day and approached within a few yards of the palol. He had taken off the semi-European clothing he often wore, and had his right arm bare, but no greeting of any kind took place between him and the palol; the latter did not recognise his presence in any way and behaved as if Teitnir were not there. On this occasion Teitnir was ichchil on account of the death of a more or less distant relative. Later his wife died, and then there seemed to be no doubt that he would not under any circumstances have approached the ti or the palol.

There are several regulations concerning the food of the palol. Any grain he eats must be that provided by the Badagas. At the present time more rice is eaten than was formerly the case. This is not grown by the Badagas, but nevertheless the rice for the palol must be obtained through them. The palol may drink milk, but only that from the buffaloes called punir. He must take his food sitting on the seat, or pohvelkars, outside the dairy, and, as we have seen, he uses for this purpose the seat which is not on the same side as the mani. He usually prepares the food himself and cooks it on the fireplace called tòratthwaskal in the outer room of dairy; but there is also a fireplace outside the dairy which is used sometimes, especially when food has to be prepared for many people, and then the palol may be assisted by the kaltmokh. If food is prepared by the kaltmokh, the fireplace outside the dairy must be used.

The only food which the palol is altogether forbidden is chillies.

The palol wears garments of the kind called tuni, of a dark grey material made at Nulturs in the Coimbatore district. They are brought to the palol by the Badaga called tikelfmav. [32] Each palol has two of these garments. One is worn as a loincloth and is called pòdrshtuni. It is only worn when definitely engaged in dairy-work and on certain ceremonial occasions, and at other times is kept in the outer room of the dairy. The other garment is called kubuntuni, and is worn like the ordinary cloak, but always with the right arm out (kevenarut). It is worn when not engaged on sacred business, and on a few occasions is worn together with the pòdrshtuni. The small perineal cloth ordinarily called kuvn is made of the same material as the tuni and is called kagurs at the ti, while the string which passes round the waist and holds the kagurs in place is called kwainur or kwoinur.

I was told that the palol should never cut his hair or his nails while he is in office.

If a palol has held office for eighteen years without a break, he performs a special ceremony. The essential feature of this ceremony is that the palol has intercourse in the day-time with a girl or young woman who must belong to the Tartharol. The woman is chosen by the palol and the matter is arranged by the clan to which the ti belongs. On the appointed day the woman is brought to a village near the dairy at which the palol is living; if he is at Mòdr, for instance, the woman will come to the adjacent village of Perththo. She must bathe carefully and be adorned with all possible ornaments and fine clothing. After the work of the morning is over, the palol gives rice and milk to the kaltmokh and tells him to have food ready for him when he returns at night. He then goes covered with his kubuntuni to a wood near the village, where the woman will be awaiting him. Later the woman returns to the village and the palol remains in the wood completely naked till sunset, when he dresses and returns to the neighbourhood of his dairy, but remains in an adjoining wood till midnight. He then bathes in a stream and going to the dairy calls “Kaltmokhia!” twice. The kaltmokh comes out of the sleeping hut and brings a stone resembling the pohvelkars, on which the palol sits, and the kaltmokh pours buttermilk (kaizhvatiti) for the palol according to the customary ritual. Then the kaltmokh brings the papun, and the palol washes his hands and goes to rest. There was some difference of opinion among the Todas as to whether the palol would continue to hold office after this ceremony. He undoubtedly returns to his work, but it seemed probable that he would retire after a short time and his place be taken by another. In this ceremony the celibate priest after eighteen years of office has intercourse with a woman belonging to the division not his own. This takes place in the day-time, the palol thus committing an act which is ordinarily regarded by the Todas as immoral. [33]

The last occasion on which this ceremony was performed was when it was done by Kodrizbon, who lived before the time of the grandfather of Kaners, who is himself an old man. Karkievan has now been palol of the Nòdrs ti for sixteen years, and there was already at the time of my visit much talk among the Todas about the ceremony which he might be expected to perform two years later.

A man who has given up the office of palol is known as patol. It was quite clear that, on resigning office, he entirely lost his sanctity, and it did not seem that he derived any great social importance from having held the sacred office. I could find no instance of a man who had been palol having any special influence or power either in his clan or among the Todas generally. Only in one way are the patol important, and that is as repositories of the knowledge of the dairy ritual, and any man about to enter on the office of palol will learn the details of the ritual from those who have held office before him.

I could learn of one privilege only pertaining to a patol. He is allowed to go to the ti mad on the day called upkarvnol, after the ponup ceremony (see Chap. VIII), and on that occasion he receives food from the palol.

THE KALTMOKH

The kaltmokh is usually a boy, but he may occasionally continue to hold office till he is about twenty years of age. He must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgarsol. He is a general assistant to the palol, and has also certain definitely assigned duties, such as giving buttermilk to the palol and blowing the horns at night. He also takes part in several important ceremonies.

When away from the dairy and its immediate surroundings he wears an ordinary cloak, but always with his right arm outside. When engaged in his work at the dairy or in the pül of the ti, he must be naked except for the kuvn. When he has been away from the ti he may not return by the path used by the palol, but must use a special path, carrying the cloak folded and hung over his shoulder. At the Mòdr dairy, however, I noticed that the kaltmokh sometimes kept his cloak in a tree just outside the ti mad, and then went in and out by the same path as the palol.

The kaltmokh sleeps in the same hut as the palol, from whom he receives his food. When there are two palol and only one kaltmokh, the two dairymen divide the duty of feeding the boy between them.

The kaltmokh never goes into the dairy, but he may put his hand into the outer room to take out those vessels which he is allowed to touch. He may never touch the vessels of the inner room.

There are two grades in the office of kaltmokh, a lower called perkursol and a higher called tunitusthkaltmokh or full kaltmokh. The latter wears a piece of tuni called petuni on the left side of the string (kerk) supporting the perineal cloth.

The perkursol is allowed to go to certain places and do certain things which are not allowed to the full kaltmokh. Whenever it is necessary that the kaltmokh should do any of the forbidden things, or even if he is likely to be in such a position that he may have to do these things, he becomes perkursol. This he does by throwing off the petuni and dipping one leg either into the pool of water called tarupunkudi (see p. 177) or into the dairy stream (pali nipa) of an ordinary dairy (if he dipped his leg into the ars nipa, or part of a stream used for ordinary household purposes, he would at once lose his office entirely and become an ordinary person). As soon as he has dipped his foot, he becomes perkursol and may do the following things summed up in the general expression tarskwarârkûdthodi. He may pass a village where there is a woman in the seclusion-hut (puzhars), or where the relics of the dead are being kept between the two funeral ceremonies; he may go to a place where the people have been in communication with a village in which either of these conditions exist; he may pass a river by a bridge, and he may go to the wursuli of a Tarthar village. If the full kaltmokh does any of these things, even unwittingly, he would at once become an ordinary person (perol). The kaltmokh degrades himself to the rank of perkursol even when there is merely the danger that he may infringe any of the restrictions; thus, one day when there was a woman at Karia who was in seclusion after childbirth, the kaltmokh at Mòdr, Katsog (55), was going to the hut of the forest guard near Paikara. He would not have to pass Karia, but there was a chance that the forest guard might have been in communication with the people of Karia, and therefore Katsog became perkursol. A perkursol is regarded as of the same rank as a wursol, and the people spoke of perkursol as a ti word for wursol—i.e., a wursol at the ti was called perkursol, just as a madth (churn) at the ti was called kòghlag. In order to regain his rank as full kaltmokh, the perkursol has to perform the same ceremony as that which takes place at the end of the ordination to this office (see Chap. VII).

While the kaltmokh is degraded to the rank of perkursol he may not touch any dairy vessels; he may not pour buttermilk for the palol, nor may he blow the horns—i.e., he may do none of the more important and sacred duties of his office.

THE MÒROL

I have said that no ordinary Toda is allowed to approach the palol except certain days, and then may only go to a certain place in the surroundings of the ti. There is, however, one very remarkable exception to this rule, the members of certain clans having the privilege of going to the ti at any time and taking buttermilk (mòr). Owing to the latter privilege they are always known as mòrol.

The most important mòrol are the members of the Melgars clan, and at the Nòdrs ti they are the only people possessing these peculiar rights. A Melgars man may go to the ti on every day of the week, when he enters the small enclosure in which the dairy is situated, going, however, by a special opening at the back so that he does not actually pass the dairy and sits down in front of or may enter the sleeping hut. He is given buttermilk by the kaltmokh after it has been given to the palol, and he also receives food. At the Nòdrs ti the two palol divide the responsibility of providing food between them; if four mòrol come, each palol gives food for two men.

The rights of the Melgarsol appear to be exercised very constantly. I rarely visited the Mòdr ti without finding several mòrol present, and so far as I could observe they made the most of their privileges and enjoyed themselves well. It was very remarkable to see several Todas making themselves quite at home at the ti, while other Todas were standing outside wholly prohibited from entering into the life of the place. On one occasion when I visited Mòdr, the brother of one palol was standing without at the appointed spot waiting till the business of the morning was over, while several mòrol were within enjoying their privileges to the full.