The Todas are a small pastoral tribal community inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu in South India. Traditionally buffalo-herders, they have lived in close association with nature, depending on their sacred buffaloes for milk, ghee, and ritual offerings, which form the center of their economy and culture. Their settlements, called munds, consist of distinctive half-barrel-shaped huts made of bamboo and thatch, with small doorways for protection and symbolic significance.
Toda society is organized around clans, and they practice unique customs, including polyandry in earlier times and elaborate rituals connected to dairying. Religion plays a vital role, with temples dedicated to the buffalo and nature spirits, reflecting their animistic beliefs. They are also renowned for their fine black-and-red embroidered shawls, known as pukhoor, which are highly valued.
Although modern influences have altered their lifestyle, the Todas remain a significant symbol of South India's indigenous heritage.
In the course of a furlough I took in the year 1870 to the Madras sanatarium of Utacamand, in the Nilagiri mountains, I heard much of an 'aboriginal race' living in the neighbourhood; which, infanticidal and polyandrous, was said to be fast dying out.
I had long been curious to understand the mysterious process by which, as appears inevitable, savage tribes melt away when forced into prolonged contact with a superior civilisation. But, ignorant of all the languages of South India, I should have relinquished attempt to study the Todas, had I not the great good fortune to make the acquaintance of the Reverend FRIEDRICH METZ, of the Basel Missionary Society, who had spent upwards of twenty years in labours amongst the primitive tribes forming the inhabitants of the Nilagiris; and who, in addition to being skilled in several Dravidian dialects, was exceptionally practised in High Kanarese and Tamil. Above all, he was the only European able to speak the obscure Toda tongue.
Mr. METZ most readily agreed to co-operate with me in strict enquiry into the condition of the Todas, and henceforth became my sole associate in all expeditions amongst them-save one or two.
It is the more proper and just that I should in this place render Mr. METZ the warmest acknowledgment of the very disinterested and important share he had in the undertaking, that there is so little in what I have written in these pages to recall his name. It was not only that his knowledge of Toda dialect was invaluable for minute and truthful investigation, but the personal respect in which he was held by the people, and the confidence they placed, in his fidelity to them, obtained for us a more friendly welcome and complete exposure of their minds than would have been accorded had we been mere strangers. I must state, however, that my friend is not, even in the slightest degree, responsible for any opinions I have expressed.
A small Vocabulary, compiled and carefully revised by Mr. METZ, will be found as the groundwork of the last Chapter. It may be said, more entirely to consist of actual Toda words than any other existing.
Our operations began with a census of a portion of the tribe, combined with an examination of each of the families that came before us. But in proportion as our work advanced, so did interest in the subject develop, until the scheme was entertained of enlarging the topic from its original design, so as to embrace 'a study of the manners and customs of a primitive race of man.'
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