Chapter XIII

are piacular and propitiatory. They are designed to atone

for wrong done and to avert any future evil consequences of the offence which has been committed.

The power of the gods is believed to show itself in various ways. In several cases dairies have been disused because the dairymen have died in office, and this was said to have happened because the gods of those places were severe. It was apparently believed that they had visited infringements of the laws regulating dairy ritual with death.

The various misfortunes which befell different members of the community as the result of my visit were all ascribed to the anger of the gods. Again, the untoward incidents of the funeral of Sinerani (see p. 391) were ascribed to the anger of the gods because there had been an infringement of funeral custom. These and other cases show clearly that the gods are held to be the source of punishment for sins committed by the Todas, and that they may be appeased by offerings.

Each of the ti dairies has connected with it many deities whose names are especially mentioned in the prayers, and it is probable that for infringements of their ritual these gods are the avenging deities.

The attitude towards the gods shown by the formulæ used in the dairy ceremonial has already been considered. Though there is no direct evidence in these formulæ that there is actual supplication to the deities, it is almost certain that this supplication is implied. The formulæ used in other Toda ceremonies have the same general form as those used in the dairy ritual; and here, again, though there is no direct appeal to deities in the words of the formula, such appeal is almost certainly implied. The formulæ of the various ceremonies of the Todas are almost certainly of the nature of prayers in which the gods are asked to give blessings and avert evils. Apart from the formulæ of the definite ritual, there seems to be no doubt that the Todas offer supplications to their gods for help and protection.

In the formulæ used in Toda sorcery appeal to the gods is even more definite than in the prayers of the dairy ritual. In them the names of four most important gods are mentioned, and it seems quite clear that the sorcerer believes that he is effecting his purpose through the power of the gods.

Another definite way in which the gods of the Todas are believed to intervene in human affairs is in divination. During the frenzy into which the teuol or diviners fall they are believed to be inspired by the gods. The diviners are chiefly consulted in the case of misfortune, and they are believed to reveal the reasons for the divine displeasure which has been the cause of the misfortune, and to communicate the ways in which the gods may be appeased. The diviners are believed to be directly inspired by the gods, and their name, teuol, or “god men,” shows how definitely this belief is present in the Toda mind. In this case each diviner is believed to be inspired by a special deity, though sometimes more than one deity may reveal himself by the same man.

In the process of divination men are possessed by gods; and another example of possession by the gods may be mentioned here, as I have not found a suitable place for it elsewhere. If any of the gods should sit on the back of a buffalo, the animal will go to the hill called Kûrâtvan, near Neduvattam, and this is said to have happened to two buffaloes in recent times. A buffalo which goes to this hill is allowed to find its own way back, and, provided the buffalo goes only to etudmad, its course will not be interfered with. One of the two buffaloes above-mentioned travelled back by way of Taradr, a place called Panmtu, Nòdrs, Miuni, and then went to its own village.

In the chapter on divination I have pointed out that many of the deities who inspire the diviners are not true Toda gods, and this suggests that the practice of divination may have been borrowed from surrounding peoples, in which case caution would be needed in drawing conclusions from the beliefs associated with the practice. I believe, however, that the information given to me on this point is based on recent utterances of the teuol themselves when in a state of frenzy. Each teuol was asked by whom he was inspired, and I think it not unlikely that the answers were influenced by the recent associations of the Todas.

At the present time none of the gods are ever seen by mortals. As we have already found, the hills where they are supposed to dwell are, in some cases, regarded with reverence; but I obtained no evidence that the Todas avoid the summits even of those hills where the most important deities are supposed to be, though unfortunately I omitted to put this to the test by asking any of the more scrupulous Todas to accompany me to these places. The god-inhabited hills, however, are, in most cases, the sites of cairns and barrows, and the whole experience of those who have excavated these sites seems to show that the Todas exhibit no special reluctance to visit these dwelling-places of the gods.

I think that there can be little doubt that most of the individual gods of the Todas are becoming very unreal beings to those who talk of them. The stories of the earlier gods are now being forgotten, and the ideas of the Todas about them are very vague. On the other hand, certain gods of obviously more recent origin seem to be replacing, to some extent, the older gods. The lives of Kwoten and Meilitars can be related by many in great detail, but though they seem to inspire more interest among the Todas I cannot say that I observed anything to show that they receive any special worship or reverence. Meilitars is especially mentioned in the Kanòdrs prayer, but this would only put him on a level with many objects of no great amount of sanctity. The attitude of the Todas towards these two beings seemed to me to be rather that of people towards heroes than towards gods, though the mythology has raised them to the level of the gods.

Nevertheless, the idea of “god” is highly developed among the Todas and I am inclined to believe that the most satisfactory explanation of the Toda deities is that the people came to the Nilgiri Hills with a body of highly developed gods; that round these gods have clustered various legends connected with the Toda institutions; that these old gods have gradually through long ages lost their reality; that certain heroes have been raised to the ranks of the gods and that the lives of these heroes, founded to some extent on actual fact, have more interest to the Todas and are remembered and passed on while the legends of the older gods are gradually becoming vaguer in the progress towards complete obliviscence; that the gods as a whole, however, are still regarded as the authors of punishment and that there is a tendency to make an abstraction of the power of the gods.

The Todas, then, show us a stage of religious belief in which gods once believed to be real, living among men and intervening actively in their affairs, have become shadowy beings, apparently less real, invisible and intervening in the affairs of men in a mysterious manner and chiefly in the case of infraction of the laws which they are still believed to have given.

The present state of the Toda religion seems to be one in which ritual has persisted while the beliefs at the bottom of the ritual have largely disappeared. The Todas are an example of a people whose lives are altogether dominated by custom and tradition, and on the religious side this domination has taken a form in which ritual has become all-important, while the religious ideas which underlie the ritual have become blurred and unreal or have disappeared altogether. It seems to me that the Todas have had a religion of a comparatively high order for people living in such simple circumstances. During a long period of isolation there has come about an over-development of the ritual aspect of this religion. Year after year, and century after century, the priests have handed on the details of the ceremonial from one to another. The performance of the prescribed rites in their due order has become the all-essential of the religion and the ideas connected with it have suffered. This is shown most clearly in the prayers, in which we have seen that the prayer proper has gradually come to take a relatively subordinate position, and is even in danger of disappearing altogether, while the importance of the kwarzam by which the sacred objects of the dairy are mentioned has been magnified. The dairy utterances, which were probably at one time definite prayers calling on the gods for help and protection, are now on their way to become barren and meaningless formulæ.

Just as the prayer of the Todas seems to have almost degenerated into the utterance of barren formulæ, so is there reason to believe that the attitude of worship which is undoubtedly present in the Toda mind is becoming transferred from the gods themselves to the material objects used in the service of the gods. I acknowledge that I am here on less sure ground than in the case of the dairy formulæ, but the general impression left on my mind by the study of the beliefs and sacred institutions of the Todas is that the religious attitude of worship is being transferred from the gods themselves to the objects round which centres the ritual of the dairy. If I am right in these surmises, we find the Todas to possess a religion in process of degeneration. I do not suppose that this degeneration has been in progress only during the short time that the Todas have been exposed to the injurious contact of the outer world. The study of the Toda religion makes it seem to me most probable that the Todas came to the Nilgiri Hills with a religion of a higher order than they possess at present, with a developed system of gods who were believed to direct and govern the affairs of men, and that by a long and slow process these gods have become unreal, the supplications of the people for their guidance and assistance have become mechanical, and worship has been transferred from gods, not to stocks and stones, but to bells and dairy vessels.

At the present time it would seem that even the ritual of the Toda religion is often carried out less carefully than of old. Among the former occupants of dairy offices of whom I made inquiries, I found some who gave accounts so full of inaccuracies and omissions that it seemed unlikely that they could have performed the duties of their offices in a satisfactory manner, and when I had the opportunity of observing parts of the dairy ritual it seemed to me that the ceremonial acts were performed by some of the dairymen in a very perfunctory and slovenly fashion. We have already seen that some of the features of Toda ritual have entirely disappeared, and it seems not unlikely that the same fate may overtake the whole at no great distance of time.

In the case of both custom and ritual, the Todas are now often content if they keep the letter of the law, and several examples of the evasion of ceremonial laws have been recorded. We have seen that several of the laws concerning the madnol are certainly not kept in the spirit, and only by a stretch of imagination, in the letter. A woman evades the law that she may not leave the village on the madnol by leaving it before daybreak and returning after daybreak till her work is done. A man takes money out on the day before the madnol and, burying it elsewhere, is able to carry out business which the spirit of the law forbids. In ceremonies, ritual duties which involve discomfort or restraint are assigned to young boys, to whom the restraint is no restraint. A man goes near the palol whom properly he should not approach, but since he does not speak nor is spoken to, he is regarded as ceremonially absent.

Objects of value which should be burnt for the use of the dead are sent to the next world ceremonially by swinging them over the fire, and are then removed. The emblems of womanhood are taken out of the hut when the wursol goes there to sleep, but the women themselves remain. Probably the behaviour of the kaltmokh in the sleeping hut during the ceremony after migration (p. 142) is a sign that he should not be there, and is evading an uncomfortable and perhaps dangerous custom.

The Todas seem to show us how the over-development of the ritual aspect of religion may lead to atrophy of those ideas and beliefs through which the religion has been built up and then how, in its turn, the ritual may suffer and acts which are performed mechanically, with no living ideas behind them, may come to be performed carelessly and incompletely, while religious observances which involve trouble or discomfort may be evaded or completely neglected. The Todas, in fact, show us, in little, the general traits characteristic of the degeneration of religion.

To people living in the simple surroundings and with the simple life of the Todas we might well look for material to help us to understand the evolution of religion, but, if I am right, we must look for this in vain. If the religion of the Todas is a product of degeneration, it is hopeless to seek among the customs of this people for evidence of the mode of growth of religious ideas and practices. Thus, it is natural that we find among the Todas no clear trace of totemism, or of those ideas connected with animals which are probably allied to totemism. There are several reasons why the Todas should not furnish any clear evidence of this frequent starting-point of religion. In the first place, they are people to whom one animal has become so predominantly sacred that it might be expected that any other relations with animals of a sacred character would have disappeared; the cult of animals in general would have been swamped in the cult of the buffalo. Secondly, if I am right in the supposition I have advanced in this chapter, it is probable that the Todas came to the Nilgiri Hills with the cult of the buffalo or other milk-giving animal already to some extent developed, and if at this time they had customs and beliefs connected with other animals, these would naturally soon disappear if these animals were absent in the new country. At the same time, it is perhaps not without significance that the Todas are allowed to eat the flesh of the sambhar. In their former home, in the low country, it is almost certain that this animal would not have been a totem, and therefore it would be natural that on their reaching the Nilgiris they might be permitted to eat it. [186]

It is doubtful how far the Todas have an idea of a supreme god. At the present time they speak of and constantly appeal to Swami, and they will say that Swami is above all the gods, but I have very little doubt that this is a recent idea. Swami was chiefly spoken of and reverenced by the younger men, and it is quite clear that the name should not properly occur in the formulæ of any Toda ritual. Nevertheless, the possibility cannot be excluded that the idea is old. It is probable that at one time there existed direct appeal to gods in the Toda prayer, and this direct appeal may have been to some supreme being who was addressed as Swami.

Apart from this question of the meaning of Swami, two deities stand out from the remainder of the Toda gods. One of these is Meilitars, whose cunning was able to deceive the gods, and who was able to perform miracles which were regarded as beyond the powers of the other gods. His story seems to show one way in which a god might rise above his fellows, and might become a supreme god, but this has certainly not happened in his case. There is not the slightest evidence to show that Meilitars is in any way worshipped as a supreme god. There is a much stronger case for the supremacy of the goddess Teikirzi. Teikirzi is said to be the foundress of many of the Toda institutions; the final explanation of all things in the Toda mind is that “it is the will of Teikirzi.” She is said to be all-pervading, and is regarded as the ruler of this world; she is mentioned in many of the sacred formulæ, and of the occasional kwarzam uttered by the Todas on various occasions by far the most frequent are those of Teikirzi Tirshti.

Teikirzi is undoubtedly the most important Toda deity, and yet she is not so pre-eminent that she can be said to be in any way a supreme god. Though she is the ruler of this world, it is Ön who rules the world of the dead.

INFLUENCE OF OTHER RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS

The Todas show undoubted signs of the influence of Hinduism on their religion. It would be quite easy for a visitor to the Todas to talk to some of the younger and more sophisticated men and to go away believing that the Todas differed little from the surrounding tribes in their religious beliefs. In my first conversation with the Todas on religious matters I was told that they worshipped the following six gods:—Nanjandisparan, whose temple is at Nanjankudi in Mysore; Petkon or Betakarasami, whose temple is at Gudalur; Punilibagewan, whose temple is called Punilikudi and is near Cheirambadi; Mari, a female deity, with a temple called Marikudi near Pokapparam; Magòli, another female deity, with a temple near Kodanad on the Nilgiris, and Karmudrangan, [187] whose temple is near Mettapollayam.

Four or five of these gods are probably Hindu deities, while Magòli may be a deity of the Kurumbas or Irulas. At the present time there is no doubt that their temples are visited by the Todas and offerings made to them. The most frequent motive for these offerings appears to be the desire for children. The Todas now pray to these gods, most commonly for this purpose to Nanjandisparan, Magòli or Karmudrangan, and if a child is born it is taken when one year old to the temple, its head is shaved, and an offering, usually in the form of an image of the child, given to the priest. Rice is also given, sufficient, it is said, to feed 101 men, and the proceedings are said to cost the Todas from 40 to 100 rupees. They have a rule that, however much money they take away with them from their villages, all must be spent and none brought back.

If the Todas wish to obtain more buffaloes they offer silver images of these animals to the temples.

I do not know how long these Hindu gods have been worshipped by the Todas, but my informants were emphatic that Nanjandisparan and Petkon had been worshipped by the Todas for very long, and that annual offerings of small sums were made to them by every Toda family.

This worship and appeal to Hindu deities appears to me to have gone on side by side with the proper religion of the Todas, but to have influenced it little. It shows how people of low culture make use of the gods of other races as well as of their own, and in the same way I believe that the Todas reverence the gods of Badagas, Kurumbas, or any other of the tribes with which they have dealings, and if asked point-blank if the gods of these people are their gods they will assent.

It is probable that Hinduism is now having more influence on the Todas than ever before, and, as I have already pointed out, I believe that the reverence to Swami and the frequent utterance of his name is a sign of the increasing influence of Hinduism, perhaps combined with that of Christianity.

Christianity has so far had no appreciable influence. The Church Missionary Zenana Society has for some years employed two catechists to work among the Todas, and one of them, Samuel, who by the kindness of the Society was allowed to act as my interpreter for a large part of my stay, ought to have been successful if earnestness and honesty are of any avail, but his efforts, carried on for ten years, had borne very little fruit.

In the whole of the mythology and ceremonial there are few features which suggest the probability of Christian influence, and the chief of these is the incident in the legend of the origin of mankind where woman is created from a rib taken from the right side of a man. It is very unlikely that this is a recent accretion to the legend, and, if it is due to Christian influence, I think it must have arisen long ago. We know that, three centuries ago, priests visited the Todas and preached to them, and it is stated (see p. 720) that one chose the Hebrew story of the creation for his lesson, and it may be that the incident, striking the fancy of the people, was incorporated into their own tradition of the origin of man. The resemblance between the Toda madnol and the Sabbath may also excite the suspicion that the former institution is founded on ideas borrowed from Christians or Jews. I think we may be confident that, if this has been the case, the borrowing took place very long ago. I hope to show in the last chapter that it is probable the Todas came from Malabar, and it is possible that their migration to the hills took place after the settlement of Christians or Jews in that district. If Christianity has affected the religious beliefs or practices of the general body of the Todas, I think it is certain that this influence has not been recent.

MAGIC AND RELIGION

A word may be added, at the end of this chapter, on the relation between the magic and the religion of the Todas. I have already pointed out reasons for believing that the Toda religion is one in process of degeneration, and we must not therefore expect to find among this people material for the study of the evolution of religion from magic or for the method of divergence of the two from some original stem which was neither magic nor religion.

The chief interest of the Todas from this point of view is that they show how side by side with a relatively high form of religion there may exist a body of beliefs crystallised in magical formulæ which bear a very close resemblance to the formulæ of the religious ritual. Their aim and their general nature leave no doubt that the formulæ given in the later part of Chap. XII are magical in nature, and yet they show more distinct evidence of appeal to deities than is to be found in the definitely religious formulæ of the dairy. These magical formulæ of the Todas seem to show us a stage of magic in which religion has been called to its aid. The sorcerer does not endeavour to effect his purpose merely by the belief in the efficiency of like producing like, or other ideas which dominate the lower forms of magic, but has called to his aid the power of the gods and uses a form of words almost identical with that used in the religious ritual. Magic and religion are here closely allied, but it is possible that this alliance is but one of the products of the degeneration to which I believe the Toda religion is subject. It is possible that we have here evidence that during the process of degeneration of religion, religion and magic may approach one another—an approach which recalls their common origin from those low beliefs and ideas of the savage to which the name of neither magic nor religion should perhaps be properly applied.

##