Chapter XIII
, these divisions become of the greatest importance in
connexion with the irnörtiti ceremony, the whole regulation of which is dominated by the division into kudr. So far as I could ascertain, the kudr has now no other significance, and I do not know whether the division is one which formerly possessed a social significance which it has now lost, so that the kudr only persists in ceremony, or whether it is a mode of division of the clan which has arisen purely in connexion with the irnörtiti and other allied ceremonies.
In one or two cases there was some doubt as to whether a certain division of the people was a clan or a kudr. This was especially the case with the Kwaradrol, now extinct, who were said by some of my informants to have been a clan, but it seemed clear that they only formed a kudr of the Keadrol, and were not properly a distinct clan. This is one case in which a kudr has a distinctive name, and another example occurs in the Panol where the kudr have separate names, one the Panol or Pandar, the other the Kuirsiol or Peshteidimokh. In general, each kudr is named after its leading man, thus the two kudr of the Nòdrsol are spoken of as the kudr of Mudrigeidi (1) and Kerkadr (2). The man who gives his name to the kudr is probably responsible for the general management of the ceremonies in which the kudr is concerned.
In a few cases a clan was said to have more than two kudr, but on cross-examination it turned out in each case that the statement was due to the fact that the clan contained a section which had no part, or only a subordinate part, in the irnörtiti ceremony and that this section might sometimes be spoken of as a kudr. Thus, in the Kuudr clan there are three sections, two which have reciprocal relations in the irnörtiti ceremony, and a third consisting of the family of Tövoniners (61) which lost certain privileges owing to a dispute many generations ago (see p. 675). This family could perform the irnörtiti ceremony, but in such a case the buffalo would go to the members of the two other divisions and Tövoniners would receive nothing if either of the other divisions performed the ceremony. Another example of a clan said to have three kudr is that of Piedr, where the family of Nongarsivan (62) stands in the same relation to the other divisions as is the case with the family of Tövoniners in the Kuudrol. In this case Nongarsivan’s exceptional position is probably due to the fact that his family lives at Kavidi in the Wainad.
When a kudr becomes extinct a new division of the remaining kudr may take place, but, as a rule, this is not done till an occasion for the irnörtiti ceremony arises. There are several cases in which one kudr of a clan has now been extinct for several years, but though the re-division is often a subject for discussion, it is not probable that a new kudr will be instituted till the necessity arises. Occasionally, however, it would seem that a new kudr may be decided on apart from an occasion for the irnörtiti ceremony, for about the time of my visit the people of Keadr, who had lost one kudr by the dying out of the Kwaradrol, decided that the family of Karem (69), of which the sole living representatives are three boys, should form a new kudr. I could not learn what had been the motives for the decision. Some unimportant clans which have arisen by fusion from other clans, such as those of Kidmad and Kulhem, have no kudr, and do not appear ever to have possessed these divisions.
THE PÒLM
The word pòlm means ‘portion,’ and is the name of the section of the clan by means of which is regulated the sharing of any expenses which fall on the clan as a whole. Any expenses which the clan may incur as a whole are not equally divided among the individual members of the clan, but are equally divided among the pòlm. The chief occasion on which such expenses arise is in the repair or rebuilding of a dairy.
When a clan owns a ti and a dairy of the ti needs to be rebuilt or repaired, the expense also falls on the clan, and is equally divided among the pòlm, as in the case of the village dairy.
The outlay is equally divided among the pòlm, however much they may vary in size. Thus in the Kars clan one pòlm has sixteen adult male members, while another has only one, but this one man would contribute exactly the same amount as the other sixteen.
Occasionally a pòlm is so poor that it cannot pay its share, and in one such case at the present time the pòlm, in this case consisting of two boys only, has been incorporated into another.
The number of pòlm in a clan varies greatly, from ten in the case of Kars to one only in the Pedrkars clan. There is no definite relation between the kudr and the pòlm as regards numbers; thus, one kudr of a clan may consist of one pòlm only, when the other kudr is divided into many pòlm. When there is a great degree of inequality in the sizes of different pòlm, a redistribution may take place, and this is probably the more likely to happen the more influential are the members of the smaller pòlm.
I believe that redistribution in the case of both pòlm and kudr is usually decided by the members of the clan itself, but in cases of doubt it is probable that the general council may have a voice in the matter.
Each pòlm has a headman and is spoken of as the pòlm of this man. He is responsible for collecting the amount due from it, but as the pòlm often consists of a number of brothers, who hold much of their property in common, the collection is not usually a matter of difficulty, and I never heard of any disputes arising from this source.
The Todas recognise the existence of the family (kudupel or kudubel) within the clan, meaning by this a group of people bound together by near blood kinship. As a general rule, the family corresponds with the pòlm, but sometimes there may be more than one pòlm in the same family. It seemed to me that the term kudupel had not the same clear meaning as the pòlm. The family has no important function in the social organisation except in so far as it corresponds with the pòlm, but it is taken into account when the pòlm and kudr are readjusted.
The term was chiefly used when the Todas were speaking of certain families as being noted in certain ways or as having certain privileges. Thus, some families are noted for their powers as sorcerers, and these are called pilikudupel; others are known as manikudupel, or chief families, whose members are important in government and can hold the office of monegar and serve on the naim. Other families important in government whose members can serve on the naim or council are called tinkaniputitth kudupel or tinkani kudupel and palutth kudupel. The members of certain other families have certain duties of a lower order in connexion with the naim. They take messages and act generally as servants at the meetings, and the families with these functions are called kavòdiputipol kudupel, or servant families. They are also sometimes called armanol or palace people, because at one time the Rajah of Nelambur in the Wainad put his buffaloes into their charge.
LAWS OF DESCENT
Descent among the Todas is always reckoned in the male line. A man is always of the same clan as his father, if by his “father” we understand the man who has given the bow and arrow to his mother at the pursütpimi ceremony. In the case of the offspring of a mokhthoditi union, there is at first sight an appearance of female descent. The child of a Teivali mother and a Tarthar father belongs to the Teivaliol and vice versâ, but on further inquiry it is found that the child does not belong to his mother’s clan, but to that of her legal husband. The child of a Teivali mother in such a case is not Teivali because his mother is of this division, but because a Teivali man only is allowed to perform the pursütpimi ceremony with a Teivali woman and become the legal father of her child. If, in such a case, the pursütpimi ceremony had not been performed, the child would belong to the division and clan of neither father nor mother, but would be a padmokh, of no division and of no clan. [223] I did not definitely inquire into the point, but from my general knowledge of the position of such an individual, I have little doubt that he would not be allowed to perform the pursütpimi ceremony, and could therefore never become the legal father of a child.
In this as in all cases the clan to which a child belongs is determined entirely by the pursütpimi ceremony. If in a polyandrous marriage the husbands belong to different clans, a child belongs to the clan of the husband who has last performed this ceremony, and, as we have already seen, in the case of the death of one of the husbands, the dead man may become the legal father of several children, if the surviving husband does not perform the ceremony of giving a bow and arrow to the wife.
Again, in the case of a woman becoming pregnant while still unmarried, the father of the child is the man who is called in to give the bow and arrow, although he may have had nothing to do with the woman before the ceremony. Further, if for any reason the husband of a woman should be prevented from performing the pursütpimi ceremony, some other man is called upon to give the bow and arrow and he becomes the father of the child. Lastly, in the numerous cases of transference of wives from one man to another by the terersthi custom, one man may be the real father of a child, but another will become the legal father if the transference should take place in time for him to perform the essential ceremony.
The Todas show few traces of mother-right. In some communities there is little reason to doubt that such acts as are performed by a Toda towards his sister’s son are survivals of a condition of society in which the mother’s brother was responsible, largely or altogether, for the welfare of the child. Among the Todas, however, the mun stands in two relations to a child. He is the mother’s brother, and he is also the prospective or actual father-in-law, and we have no means of telling in which of these two rôles he performs his duties. If the duties of a man towards his sister’s son among the Todas be a relic of mother-right, there can be little doubt that this condition must have been very remote.
The Todas have a special name for the village of a man’s mother—viz., karuvnòdr, or “honoured place,” and when a manmokh gives a buffalo or other contribution on the occasion of a funeral, he speaks of it as a gift to his karuvnòdr. When a man visits his karuvnòdr, he goes to the door of the dairy and bows down with his head to the ground at its threshold, and then goes to the huts, where he is greeted with the appropriate greeting, but this differs in no way from the procedure of a visitor to any etudmad.
Marshall in his book [224] on the Todas has suggested that the existence of female succession among the buffaloes of the Todas may be a relic of female descent among the people themselves. He suggests that at one time the scheme of descent and kinship was the same for the Todas and for their buffaloes, and that with the introduction of polyandry there came in inheritance through males among themselves, while they continued to reckon the descent of the buffaloes in the female line.
We have seen (see p. 471) that the method of reckoning descent among the buffaloes is due superficially to the absence of names for male buffaloes and more deeply to the lack of interest in paternity. Nevertheless, Marshall’s suggestion, wild as it may seem, should not be utterly scouted. The Todas regard their buffaloes so much as fellow creatures that any of their ideas concerning the relations of their buffaloes to one another should not be without interest to the student of social regulations.
If one may speak of social organisation among buffaloes—and in the case of the Toda herds we are justified in doing so—we have a state of society in some ways analogous to that which many sociologists suppose to have existed at one time in the early stages of human society. We have various groups of buffaloes, and each buffalo—certainly each female buffalo—belongs to the same group as its mother. There is complete promiscuity, and the buffalo belongs to its mother’s group because paternity is unknown or disregarded.
It is true that this condition is artificial, but it is this very artificiality which gives it its interest, for it shows that people like the Todas, whose whole lives are devoted to the buffalo, to whom the breeding of the buffalo should have the deepest interest, have allowed this state of things to come about. If they had attached importance to paternity nothing would have been easier than to regulate breeding, to record paternity, and even to have developed a system of male descent among their buffaloes such as exists among themselves.
The nature of what may be called the social regulations of the buffaloes shows that the Todas take little interest in the part played by the male in the process of mating, and, as we have seen, this lack of interest is almost as great among themselves. Side by side with the strictest regulation of marriage as a social institution, such great laxity prevails in regard to sexual relations that the Todas may almost be said to live in a condition of promiscuity, though, as I have endeavoured to show, the degree of promiscuity is in practice perhaps hardly as great as their statements would lead one to expect.
ADOPTION
It is clear that the custom of adoption of children is not practised by the Todas. They denied its existence emphatically, and I met with no instance which led me to suspect its presence in compiling the genealogies.
If a child is left an orphan, it is looked after by the people of its clan, but it is always clearly recognised that the child retains the father’s property, and belongs to the madol and pòlm of the father.
There is, so far as I could ascertain, no religious custom which makes it necessary that a man should have children. The duties of a child at the funeral ceremonies can quite well be performed by some other member of the clan.
There is a social reason which makes it inconvenient in some cases that a man should die without male issue. If a man is the only representative of his kudr, and has no children, the kudr will become extinct, and the clan will be put to the trouble of rearranging the families of which it is constituted. If such a man is childless he may take another wife in the hope of having a son to carry on the kudr, but the adoption of a child for the purpose is never thought of. A good case is that of the two brothers Mudrigeidi and Odrkurs in Table I. They are the last two representatives of one kudr of the Nòdrsol. They have had two wives, one of whom has had a daughter and a boy who died, and in the hope of having a son, one of the brothers had recently married a young girl, Obalidz, as his third wife, the others being still alive, though one had been taken by another man.
GOVERNMENT
The most important feature of Toda government is the naim, or noim, [225] a council having a definite constitution. The naim proper has to do with the affairs of the Todas in general, and, in addition, more informal councils, [226] consisting of the chief members of a clan, may be held to settle matters arising within the clan. It seems, however, that the supreme naim may sometimes be called upon to settle the internal affairs of a clan.
The naim of the general body of Todas should have five members, or, if more than five members, they should be drawn from five sources. Four of these sources are the Tarthar clans of Kars, Nòdrs, and Taradr, and the Teivali clan of Kuudr. The fifth source is the Badaga village of Tuneri, from which a Badaga man may be sent to take part in the naim. He is only called upon to sit, however, on special occasions; and in the many councils which I saw during my visit a Badaga was rarely present. He probably only sits, as a rule, when questions arise which involve the relations between the Todas and Badagas.
The Toda representatives should be drawn from certain families of their respective clans. The Kuudr representative should belong to the family known as the manikudupel, and the representatives of Kars, Nòdrs, and Taradr to the families known as tinkanikudupel. A few years ago the Toda representatives were Kuriolv of Kuudr (52), Parkurs (8) and Piutolvan (10) of Kars, Kudòdrsvan (3) of Nòdrs, and Ircheidi (20) of Taradr, though there was some question whether Ircheidi was on the naim, or whether his place had not been taken by Piutolvan, the second Kars representative. All these men are at present living, but, with the exception of Kuriolv, they are too old or infirm to serve. Kuriolv is still on the naim, and his influence is entirely predominant, and it appears that he has been instrumental in altering the constitution of the council very largely. The number of representatives has been increased, and the following were the members in 1902:—Kuriolv and Ivievan (52) of Kuudr, Perner and Tebner (68), of Keadr, Parkeidi (21), Paners (23) and Siriar (20) of Taradr and Pidrvan (9) of Kars. Thus several members of the Kuudrol and Taradrol are serving, while there appears to be no representative of the Nòdrsol; and I was told by several Todas that Perner and Tebner are on the council because they are friends of Kuriolv, though, as members of the Keadr clan, they have no right whatever to the position.
On the slopes below the hill called Mirson, near Paikara, there are the remains of ruined walls marking a place where the naim used to meet. This place is called Idrgûdipem, and seems to have been at one time the chief meeting-place.
At the present time the naim meets anywhere. I have seen the council sitting in the compound of the bungalow at Paikara and on one occasion, when I was working in a bungalow at the Ooty Club, the naim sat in the grounds of the club. In general, they now meet at the places which happen to be most convenient for the chief members.
The members usually sit in a semicircular row. If they are considering a dispute between two parties, representatives of the parties take part in the sitting, and in these cases the members of the naim sit in the middle of the row while the representatives sit on either wing.
During my visit the council was chiefly occupied with the various complicated transactions which are always arising out of the custom of transferring wives from one man to another. This custom is the chief source of disputes among the Todas, and at times the naim may sit for several days before one case is settled.
I am doubtful whether the naim should have a definite head, but at the present time it certainly has such in the person of Kuriolv of Kuudr. He is the senior representative of the manikudupel of Kuudr, and is therefore the natural representative of this clan on the naim. He is highly intelligent, and gave me the impression that he might have risen to a high place in any community. He has the reputation among the Todas of being very eloquent and of having great persuasive powers. When persuasion fails, there is very little doubt that he resorts to intimidation of some kind, though I could not discover what his means of intimidation are.
On one occasion the naim spent a whole day discussing a marriage case in the compound at Paikara. On the following day they met in a distant part of the hills to continue the discussion of the case, and I was told that this was arranged by Kuriolv because he hoped to enforce his wishes in some secluded spot more effectively than in the publicity of Paikara where the evidences of the ‘government’ probably lent moral support to his opponents.
However Kuriolv effects his purpose, there is no doubt that he almost entirely dominated the Toda people at the time of my visit. We have already seen that he has succeeded in altering the constitution of the naim, and several examples are given in this book of his interference in the normal course of Toda affairs; interference usually in favour of his own family or friends. In at least one case (see Chap. XVI) during my visit he considered himself superior to ceremonial laws.
He seemed to me to afford an excellent example of the process by which one man may bring about considerable changes in the laws and regulations of a community; though I was told in several instances that the Todas would revert to their old customs as soon as Kuriolv died.
I did not obtain a full account of the duties of the naim and of the affairs which come under its jurisdiction. There is no doubt, however, that it is largely concerned with the settlement of civil disputes arising between individuals, families, and clans. As I have already mentioned, it seemed to me that it was almost exclusively engaged during my visit in the regulation of the disputes arising out of the terersthi custom. In one such case the question of funeral contributions was involved, and I have no doubt that the settlement of any dispute arising from this source would come within the province of the naim, and probably any doubtful point in the working of the social regulations would be submitted to it.
In addition to its functions in disputes between individuals, the naim has wide functions in connexion with Toda ceremonial. It decides when many ceremonies take place, and has the chief word in regulating the affairs of the ti dairies. Thus it appeared that the various arrangements and alterations of arrangements in connexion with the migration of the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti which were made during my visit were the work of the naim, or, at any rate, of its chief members.
CRIME
I have no knowledge about the power of the naim in criminal as opposed to civil matters. I never heard of inquiry by the naim into any criminal offence committed by one man against another or against the community. It is, however, doubtful whether crime can be said to exist among the Todas.
Acts such as infanticide are committed which would be regarded as crimes by others, but since these are the outcome of custom they are not crimes from the Toda point of view. Again, we have seen that the Todas have a code of offences against the dairy, but these must be regarded as sins rather than as crimes, for they are neither investigated nor punished by the civil authority, the naim, but are punished directly by the gods, and the various ceremonies described in
##