CHAPTER XI

THE DAIRY RITUAL

In the preceding chapters I have given an account of an elaborate ritual wholly connected with the buffalo and with the dairy. This ritual is certainly of a religious character, and, though there is much in the nature of the dairy formulæ which is uncertain, there can be little doubt that they are intercessory and that they bring the dairy operations into definite relations with the Toda deities.

It seems most probable that the general idea underlying the dairy ritual is that the dairyman is dealing with a sacred substance, the milk of the buffaloes. This sacred substance is to be converted into other substances, butter and buttermilk, which are to be used by the profane. At the present time much of the butter goes to those who are not even Todas and are regarded by the Todas as inferior beings.

It seems most probable that the elaborate ritual has grown up as a means of counteracting the dangers likely to be incurred by this profanation of the sacred substance, or, in other words, as a means of removing a taboo which prohibits the general use of the substance.

Similarly the migration ceremonies have the general underlying idea of counteracting any possible evil influence which may accompany the passage of the buffaloes through the profane world from one sacred place to another. During the migration, objects may be seen by the multitude which under ordinary circumstances are strictly screened from the general gaze, and objects may be touched, or be in danger of being touched, by people who ordinarily may not even see them.

Again, the ceremonies connected with entrance upon any dairy office are intended to purify the candidate and make him fit to see and touch and use the sacred objects.

The purpose of some of the other ceremonies is less obvious. The irpalvusthi ceremony seems to be of the nature of a thanksgiving, one of its most important features being a feast, but in this feast people may partake of the milk of sacred buffaloes, which is not ordinarily used by them, and there is a suggestive resemblance to those religious ceremonies in which communion is held with the divine by eating or drinking the divine.

The salt-giving ceremonies seem to point to a time when salt was difficult to procure. According to the Todas the object of these ceremonies is to ensure a plentiful supply of milk. There is a belief that salt is beneficial to the buffaloes, and the occasions on which the salt is given have become religious ceremonies which at the ponup of the ti have reached a high degree of elaboration with very special relations to the chief gods of the dairy. The ceremonies of making new pep are especially mysterious, and I will reserve some speculations as to the general idea underlying them till later (see p. 242).

COMPARISON OF THE PROCEDURE OF DIFFERENT DAIRIES

One of the most striking features of the ritual in all its branches is its increasing elaboration and complexity from the lowest to the highest grade of dairy.

One of the details of the ritual which runs through the whole series of dairies is the separation between the vessels and objects which come into contact with the buffaloes or their milk, and those which come into contact with the outside world, or with the products of the churning which may go to the outside world.

In the proceedings with the milk of the ordinary buffaloes in the huts where the people live, there is, so far as I know, no distinction of this kind.

In the lowest grade of dairy we already meet with the separation. All the vessels are kept in the same room, but in different parts of the room, the patatmar and the ertatmar, and this distinction between the two sets of objects is kept up in the migration ceremonies where they are carried by different men.

There are no striking differences in this respect between the lower grades of dairy, whether tarvali, kudrpali, or wursuli; in all, the two sets of vessels are separated, but no strict measures are taken to prevent a vessel of the patatmar from coming into contact with a vessel of the ertatmar during the dairy operations. It is only on reaching the kugvali of Taradr that we find an intermediate vessel, the kuvun, used to transfer substances from a vessel of the more sacred to one of the less sacred kind, and to prevent possible contamination of the former by the latter.

It is in the ti dairy that these precautions reach their highest degree of development. Here the two sets of vessels are kept in different rooms, separated by a screen, and the dairy products are never transferred directly from a vessel of one kind to a vessel of the other, but always by means of an intermediate vessel. The butter and buttermilk produced by the churning operations in the inner room are transferred to the vessels of the outer room by means of the idrkwoi, which is kept on the dividing line between the two compartments. Similarly the vessels into which the butter and buttermilk are received are never allowed to come into direct contact with objects from the outside world, but their contents are transferred to vessels used outside the dairy by means of intermediate vessels, the uppun or the mòrpun.

In the migrations of the ti buffaloes this strict separation between the two kinds of vessel is still kept up. The things of the inner room are carried by the palol himself, while the things of the outer room are carried by others. The idrkwoi, though carried by the palol on the same staff as the things of the inner room, is kept apart from the rest, and is not allowed to touch them.

The fires of the ti dairy furnish another interesting example of the principle by which sacred objects are prevented from coming directly into relation with objects which may have been contaminated by contact with the outside world. The lamp is not lighted directly from the tòratthwaskal, which is probably sometimes touched by the kaltmokh, but fire is transferred from this fireplace to the pelkkatitthwaskal, from which the lamp is lighted. Here, again, the use of an intermediary object is limited to the ti dairy.

The principle of management by which the palol prevents the contamination of the sacred by the profane in the dairy is adopted by him in other ways. Whenever I paid any money to the palol at Mòdr, I placed it on a stone from which it was taken by the kaltmokh and handed to the palol. A similar procedure is generally adopted whenever anything is brought to, or taken from, a ti dairy. The kaltmokh in the above instance acts as the intermediate link between the palol and the unclean.

In the ordinary procedure of the village dairy, except at the kugvali of Taradr, no example occurs of this use of intermediate links, but there is such an example during the ordination of the wursol. When the palikartmokh gives the candidate milk from the ertatpun (p. 149), he does not pour it directly into the leaf-cup from which the candidate drinks, but first pours it into another leaf-cup and then from that into the cup used by the candidate.

Other features of the ritual in which there are differences in different grades of dairy are in the ceremonial touching of dairy vessels, in the avoidance of turning the back towards the contents of the dairy, in lamp-lighting, in the ritual connected with the bell, and in the frequency with which the prayer of the dairy is recited.

At the tarvali and kudrpali, the dairyman touches ceremonially the majpariv and the patat at the beginning of the afternoon churning, while at the wursuli this is done both morning and afternoon. At the ti, however, this ceremonial touching does not occur, or, at any rate, I failed to obtain any account of its performance.

The method of carrying out the dairy procedure kabkaditi, in which the back is never turned on the sacred vessels of the dairy, is not followed in the tarvali, except at the irpalvusthi ceremony. I have no record of it in the kudrpali, except on the same occasion, and it is only followed regularly in certain dairies of the wursuli grade, viz., Nòdrs, Nasmiòdr, Òdr, and Kozhtudi. The first has a conical dairy, and Nasmiòdr and Òdr are especially ancient and sacred places. At the kugvali and the ti dairy, on the other hand, the dairy ceremonial is always performed kabkaditi. At one ceremony, that of irpalvusthi, the work of the dairy is performed kabkaditi in every dairy of whatever grade.

The lamp-lighting is another feature which becomes more frequent and more ceremonial in the higher grades of dairy. In all the village dairies, including the kugvali of Taradr, [78] the lamp is only lighted ceremonially at the afternoon churning, the lighting being made the occasion of prayer. If the morning is dark, the lamp maybe lighted, but it is clear that this is not done ceremonially, and the lighting is not accompanied by prayer. At the ti we have already seen that the lamp is lighted in a more ceremonial manner and in the morning as well as in the afternoon.

Some of the details of the ritual are definitely associated with the mani, and since the presence of a mani implies a higher grade of dairy, this leads to an increase in the elaboration of the ritual. The mani is treated in much the same way in all the grades of dairy which possess this sacred object.

Another feature in which the increasing sanctity of the dairy is shown is the frequency with which prayer is offered. At all the village dairies the dairyman only prays at the afternoon ceremonial when lighting the lamp, and when shutting up the buffaloes in their pen for the night. As already mentioned, there is a definite association between prayer and the ceremonial lamp-lighting.

In the ti dairy, prayer is offered both morning and evening; at the morning ceremonial twice and in the afternoon three times. On both occasions the first prayer begins when the lamp is being lighted and is continued while the palol knocks on one of the persin with the persinkudriki. The second prayer in each case is offered at the conclusion of the milking, and the third prayer of the afternoon corresponds to the second prayer of the village dairy, being offered when shutting up the buffaloes for the night.

The increasing sanctity of the different grades of dairy is shown very clearly by the increasing stringency in the rules of conduct of the dairyman. The tarvalikartmokh may sleep in the living hut on any night in the week, and there are no restrictions on his intercourse with women. The kudrpalikartmokh may only sleep in the hut on Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and is prohibited from intercourse with Teivali women. The wursol is limited to two nights, Sunday and Wednesday, and, though himself a Teivali man, is prohibited from intercourse with Teivali women. The kugvalikartmokh has similar restrictions, but the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs must avoid women altogether, and this is almost certainly the case with the palol also.

The tarvalikartmokh takes his buttermilk and food without any ceremony. The kudrpalikartmokh must hold his food in his hands throughout his meal and must not put it on the ground.

In the case of the wursol we meet first with the ceremonial drinking of buttermilk, which must in this case be poured into the leaf-cup from the vessel called ertatpun. The kugvalikartmokh drinks buttermilk sitting on the seat outside his dairy and pours from the ertatpun, drinking three times only and saying “Oñ” each time.

The pohkartpol of Kanòdrs has to take his food with very special precautions. He sits on the wall of his dairy and his hand must not touch his mouth nor the leaf-cup his lips. At the ti the drinking of buttermilk has become a definite ceremony in which the kaltmokh pours out drink for the palol with prescribed formulæ, but, strangely enough, the palol does not suffer from the same restrictions against touching his mouth as the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs, though the latter holds an office which in most ways is distinctly less sacred than that of the palol.

The clothing of each grade is also regulated. Perhaps the most important feature here is the use of the garments called tuni. These are made of dark grey cloth of a quite different kind from that of the ordinary clothes worn by the Todas. The garments are procured from the Badagas, and cloth of the same kind, called än, is used to enwrap the corpse in the funeral ceremonies. It is mentioned as the ordinary clothing of a woman in the legend of Kwoten, and is almost certainly the ancient clothing of the Todas still persisting in ceremonial in connexion with the dead and in the dairy ritual.

The tuni is only worn by the higher grades of the dairyman-priesthood and by the palikartmokh of the Teivaliol. The palol wears tuni only, both his loin-cloth and his mantle being of this material. The kaltmokh has no need for a tuni, for when he is engaged in his work at the ti he has to be naked, and when away from the ti and in the sleeping hut he wears a small piece of tuni, the petuni, in his girdle, the piece of cloth marking the difference between the full kaltmokh and the perkursol.

The wursol, the kugvalikartmokh, and the Teivali palikartmokh only wear the tuni when actually engaged in the dairy work and leave it inside the dairy at other times. I am doubtful whether the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs resembles the palol or the lower grades in this respect.

Although the palikartmokh of the tarvali and the kudrpali never wear the tuni, a small piece of this cloth is put in the girdle during the ordination ceremonies, and this may be a relic of a time when every dairyman wore the tuni. [79] In the secret language (see Chap. XXV) the word petuni is used in one place as the equivalent of ‘uniform,’ and this seems to indicate that the petuni is regarded as the badge of a dairyman.

The use of the leaves and bark of the sacred tudr tree is another feature which distinguishes different dairies. In the tarvali it is, so far as I know, not used at all. In the kudrpali it is only used in the pepeirthti ceremony. The wursol uses tudr in his ordination ceremonies, but not in the ordinary ritual of his dairy, nor is it used in the daily ritual of the ti dairy, though largely used in the purification of the dairy and of the dairy vessels, and in the ordination ceremonies of the palol.

The use of tudr in the ordination ceremonies is only allowed to the members of the Teivali division and of the Melgars clan of the Tartharol.

Special kinds of dairy or special dairies may have features peculiar to themselves; thus the pepeirthti ceremony, in which the dairyman beats on the patat with a piece of tudr bark, is only performed at the kudrpali; the prescription of nakedness when milking is confined to the kudrpalikartmokh; the special method of wearing the putkuli open in front when going to the buffaloes is only practised by the wursol, and the method of taking food sitting on the wall of the dairy and throwing the food into the mouth is peculiar to the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs.

One feature of interest in the dairy organisation is the existence of different names at different dairies for the dairy products, and for the various objects used at the dairy or in connexion with the dairy ceremonies. The chief differences are found on comparing the village dairy with the ti, nearly every object having a different name in the two places, though occasionally a peculiarity of nomenclature may be confined to one dairy, as at Kanòdrs, where milk is called persin, the name of the churning vessel of the ti. As a general rule it seems that the name used in the village dairy is the same as that in ordinary use; thus, the dairy vessels used in the house for the milk of the ordinary buffaloes are known by the same names as those of the village dairy.

The use of special names in the more sacred dairies is probably connected with their high degree of sanctity. The names of the dairy vessels of the village are in common use, and it would doubtless seem sacrilegious that the names of the vessels of the ti should be thus in everyone’s mouth. Consequently nearly every object used in the ceremonial of the ti dairy has a special name, and in the ordinary life of the Todas these words are probably never uttered.

One striking feature of the dairy ritual is the use of the syllable Oñ. With one exception (p. 177) this word is always uttered thrice, and it seems to be especially connected with the act of putting curds or milk on the bells. It has a suggestive resemblance to the mystical syllable Om of the Hindus. It is also possible that it may be a form of the name of the god Ön, or, again, it may be a corruption of the word mani, of which the initial letter has been dropped, a process of which other examples have been given.

It is doubtful how much significance is attached to the right and left sides in the dairy ritual. There is no doubt that in the most sacred acts of the ritual, such as saluting the buffaloes and the sun, or feeding the bell, it is the right hand which is used. This preference of the right hand is emphasised by the action of the palol in washing out his mouth, when he takes the water into his mouth from the left hand, because it is his right hand which has most to do with the sacred objects. In the migration ceremonies the dairy vessels are carried on the left shoulder, but at the ti the choice of this shoulder by the palol is obviously due to the fact that either the mani or churning-stick is carried in the right hand, and in other cases it is probable that the choice of the left shoulder is due to the necessity of leaving the right hand free. When the candidate drinks in the ordination ceremonies he holds the cup in the right hand, and this hand certainly has the preference throughout the dairy ritual. On the other hand, the petuni is worn on the left side of the waist-string, both by the kaltmokh, as a sign of his full rank, and by the palikartmokh during his ordination ceremonies.

In the ordinary dairy the side which is on the right hand in entering seems to be the more sacred, and the platform on this side is the meitün or superior bed. In the ti dairy, on the other hand, there was some doubt as to the more sacred side. At Mòdr it seemed that the mani is on the left hand side of the palol as he is performing his duties, but it is doubtful whether this is so at other places, and it may be that my account of the Mòdr dairy is wrong in this respect.

THE SANCTITY OF MILK

The different degrees of sanctity attaching to the different dairies are associated with differences in the rules regulating the use of milk, and these rules seem to show clearly that the milk of buffaloes belonging to the more sacred dairies has a higher degree of sanctity than that churned in the lower grades.

The milk of ordinary buffaloes may be drunk by anyone, man, woman, or child. The Todas do not ordinarily sell milk, but if they do so, they may only use the milk of ordinary buffaloes for this purpose. I have a note that anyone may also drink the milk of buffaloes belonging to the tarvali, but I suspect that this only applies to men who must drink it at the dairy.

The milk of the kudrpali may only be drunk by the kudrpalikartmokh himself. It is believed that any other person or animal who should drink milk from this dairy would die.

At the wursuli milk may be given to men at the dairy, but it must be mixed with buttermilk. At the kugvali of Taradr the milk of the kugvalir themselves is not drunk by anyone, the dairyman having certain ordinary buffaloes for his own use, and this is also the case at the ti. I believe that not even the palol would drink the milk of the persinir, the sacred buffaloes of the ti.

There is one exception to the rule that ordinary people may not use the milk of the sacred buffaloes of the village dairies (except in the form of butter and buttermilk). At the irpalvusthi ceremony at all the village dairies, including the kugvali, food is prepared with the milk of one of the sacred animals and this food is given to the people of the clan to which the dairy belongs and also to members of other clans.

In the case of the wursuli, I was especially told that this is the only occasion on which the milk of wursulir is used by people in general. At the kugvali, people of other clans are only given this food on the second day of the proceedings, and the distribution of the food is preceded by a ceremony in which some of the food is thrown into the fire. The milk used on this occasion is the milk of the buffalo which has recently calved, the ceremony being in celebration of this event.

At the wursuli it is noteworthy that the food is cooked by the wursol himself, the ceremony of irpalvusthi being the only occasion on which a dairyman of this grade prepares food. Thus, when the milk of the wursulir is used ceremonially as a food by ordinary people, the food is prepared by the dairyman-priest. One feature of the irpalvusthi ceremony is that the work is performed kabkaditi in every dairy, and it is possible that this sign of increased respect is intended to counteract the desecration which is about to take place in the use of the milk by the profane. As I have already pointed out, the irpalvusthi ceremony has a strong resemblance to a sacrificial feast, in which people partake of the sacred animal, but in this case it is the milk of the animal and not the animal itself which is taken.

A further indication of the sanctity of milk is given in the prohibition against the drinking of milk by a widower or widow during a period which, as we shall see later, may extend to many months.

The restrictions on the use of the milk of the sacred animals have the general characters associated with taboos, and the whole daily ritual of the dairy would seem to be designed to remove the taboo. It is possible that at one time the milk of the sacred buffaloes was not used at all, and that these animals only suckled their calves. If then the Todas had begun to milk the sacred buffaloes, it is natural that the milking and churning should have been accompanied by ritual designed to counteract the evils to be expected from the profanation of the sacred substance and the breaking of the taboo. In certain circumstances even now the Todas do not milk their sacred buffaloes, but allow them to suckle their calves only. If a ti dairy, or even one of a lower grade, has no dairyman, the buffaloes are not milked, though they are still tended by some unsanctified person and are kept ready to take their

## part in the dairy ritual if a dairyman should again be appointed.

SPECIAL DAIRY CUSTOMS

The general method of treating the milk in the dairy procedure seems to be the same as that generally followed in India and other hot countries. The milk is allowed to coagulate and the curd is churned. The butter so obtained differs from that of European countries in containing the proteid as well as the fat constituents of milk. This butter is then clarified, but in this respect there is an important difference between the ordinary Hindu procedure and that of the Todas. The usual Hindu method is to heat slowly over a fire without the addition of any other substance. The Todas add grain or rice to the butter before clarification, and this sinks to the bottom of the vessel and forms a substance called by the Todas al, which is one of their chief foods. This deposit of grain or rice will carry down with it some, possibly all, of the proteid constituents, and the al will, therefore, be a nourishing food.

The only other detail in which the Toda procedure is peculiar [80] is in the addition of buttermilk from a previous churning to the newly-drawn milk, the buttermilk or pep being put into the vessel before milking. This addition probably hastens the process of coagulation, but its chief interest is derived from the fact that it has become the nucleus of some of the most interesting features of the dairy ceremonial.

This addition of buttermilk seems to be regarded as forming a thread of continuity in the dairy ritual, and the ceremony of pepkaricha, or making new pep, is held whenever this continuity is broken. The pep is connected with a dairy vessel of the kind called mu, which is buried in the buffalo pen, and if any evil befalls the mu, it is held to be a cause for making new pep—i.e., the usual course of the dairy procedure will be interrupted, in some cases for months.

The buried dairy vessel seems to be linked in some mysterious way with the fortunes of the dairy, and especially with the buttermilk which forms the element of continuity in the dairy procedure. The buried dairy vessel, or mu, is not one which is now generally used to hold buttermilk. There are two kinds of mu in the dairy, one which contains the butter added during the churning, while the other is used, partly as a receptacle for the milk which is about to be churned, and partly to fetch water from the stream. It is highly probable that there was at one time a third mu in the dairy, which was a receptacle for the buttermilk added before milking.

At the especially sacred dairy of Kanòdrs, where ancient procedure is likely to have lingered, the buried mu is still used as a receptacle for buttermilk. When this dairy is unoccupied, a certain amount of buttermilk is kept in the buried mu, and when the dairy is again occupied, this buttermilk is used to add to the milk. In this case the continuity of the dairy procedure is directly kept up by means of the buried vessel, and this procedure of the Kanòdrs dairy is strongly in favour of the view that the buried vessel was formerly a receptacle for the pep.

There are other indications that the mu is the most sacred of the dairy vessels. It is this vessel which is touched by the wursol the kugvalikartmokh of Taradr and the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs, as the final act which gives them their full status at the ordination ceremonies, and we shall see later that in the funeral ceremonies at Taradr a temporary building is made to represent a dairy by placing in its inner room a mu. In this last case, it would seem that the mu is regarded as the emblem of the dairy, and that placing a mu in the inner room of the temporary building makes it a dairy.

The representative of the mu at the ti dairy is the peptòrzum, but it does not seem that this vessel is specially distinguished from the rest, and it does not appear to have the sanctity and importance which attaches to this kind of vessel at the village dairy.

There seem to be two chief possibilities in explaining the existence of the buried mu. It may be that it was at one time the custom to bury the pep while the village was unoccupied, and that this custom now only persists at Kanòdrs, the mu at other places being no longer used for this purpose, though it has continued to be of ceremonial importance. The other possibility is that, as the pep acquired increased importance in the dairy ritual, the sanctity of the buttermilk was transferred to the vessel which contained it, and the sanctity of the vessel became so great that it was not thought right to leave it exposed to the dangers it might incur in the dairy, especially in the various migrations, and it was therefore buried in the buffalo pen of the chief village of the clan. It is probable that the custom arose in the way suggested by the procedure of the Kanòdrs dairy, but that the full development of the custom has been largely due to the belief in its special sanctity.

The obscure observance of having a ball of food larger than can be eaten at one sitting occurs twice in the various dairy ceremonials. It is a feature of the ceremonies which the kaltmokh has to undergo on the day after the migration of the Nòdrs ti to Anto, and the superabundant portion of food has also to be eaten by the candidate for the office of palol in the preliminary ceremony called tesherst. In each case the food is of the ceremonial kind called ashkkartpimi. I can offer no suggestions as to the meaning of the observance, nor do I know of any parallel for it.

PURITY AND IMPURITY

The idea of ceremonial purity is one running through the whole of the dairy rites. Many of the details of the ritual, the purification of new vessels and of dairies revisited after a period of disuse, the ordination ceremonies of the dairyman, the elaborate ceremonies accompanying the making of new pep, all show a very deeply engrained idea that men and things have in themselves some degree of impurity, and that in order to be made fit for the service of the gods, they must be purified and sanctified by appropriate ceremonies.

As regards man two grades of impurity are recognised: (i.) the impurity of the ordinary man which is perhaps an absence of ceremonial purity rather than actual impurity; and (ii.) the special impurity which is the result of certain events and especially of those accompanying birth and death.

The impurity of the ordinary man does not prevent him from visiting the dairies of the lower grade, but it prohibits him from taking any part whatever in the actual dairy operations. With certain exceptions, he is rigorously excluded from actual contact either with dairies or dairymen of the higher grades. He is perhaps regarded as unsanctified rather than impure. The definite impurity which is the condition of those who have attended funeral ceremonies or have been in relation with a woman in the period of seclusion after childbirth is something very different. Such a man is not merely unsanctified, he is unfit to hold any sacred office; even the prolonged ceremonies of ordination would not fit him to hold office in the dairy or to perform any part in the tendance of the sacred buffaloes, and he is not allowed even to approach the members of the higher grades of the dairyman-priesthood.

WOMEN AND THE DAIRY

Women take no part in the dairy ritual, nor in the milking and churning operations which are carried on in the hut. It is said that at one time the women took charge of the buffaloes at the time of calving, but this is not the case at the present time.

Women go to the dairy to fetch buttermilk, using an appointed path and standing at an appointed spot to receive it.

Females enter, dairies under two conditions only. They may enter the outermost rooms of those dairies which are used as funeral huts while the bodies of men are lying in them. Here they may sit only on one side of the room, and only when the dairy operations are not in progress. Women also enter the temporary funeral huts of men, which are called pali, or dairies.

The other condition under which a female enters a dairy is at the migration ceremony of the village, in which a girl, seven or eight years of age, is given food in the dairy of the village which the buffaloes are leaving, and sweeps the front of the dairy of the village to which they are going. This ceremony is one in which a girl seems to take a definite part in dairy ceremonial, but the girl chosen for this office must be below the age of puberty.

The relations of women with the different grades of dairymen have already been considered; a point which may again be mentioned is that the emblems of womanhood, the pounder, sieve, and broom, may be removed from the hut while the dairyman is present, though the women themselves remain.

During certain dairy ceremonials, women must leave the village altogether, and during the passage of the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti near the village of Kiudr, the women leave the village, taking with them the pounder, sieve, and broom.

Although women are thus excluded from all participation in the dairy ceremonial, we shall see later (