Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 8.djvu/116

TODA MEN.—TODA WOMEN. to the rising sun (Birsh), and at some seasons to the moon (Tiggal), and fast at eclipses, and occasionally they may prostrate themselves at the door of the paitchi (dairy house); but no one, except the pujari, attempts anything beyond this. 'May all be well! may the buffaloes be well!' is the only form of prayer. What their idea of a god is it is not easy to say. Except the bells, to which the pujaris occasionally offer libations of milk, they have no material object of worship. They do not appeal to their mund god by name, nor do they seem to expect that he will show them special favour. In fact, the names of their gods, like some of their funeral ceremonies, seem more like the fossil remains of an extinct religion, than parts of a living creed."

It would be impossible for us to describe at a length, which, with reference to our space, would make them intelligible, the funeral and other domestic ceremonies of the Todas, which are given at great length, and with very interesting details, by Mr. Breeks. We can only state that the dead are buried within a circle of stones, and that, in proportion to his or her importance, numbers of buffaloes are sacrificed to the dead, their flesh being the perquisites of the Kotas, who attend as musicians. Finally the ashes of the dead are put into a pit at the entrance of the circle, and covered with a stone, a pitcher of water is broken over it, and a buffalo calf let go; and a miniature bow and arrows, with the articles necessary for the dead in a future state, are burned or passed through the fire, and buried with the ashes. "Thus," writes Mr. Breeks, "the Toda funeral, like the Badaga song which describes a future state, ends in a note of despair—a mournful suggestion that, after all, their cares for the dead may be in vain. Surely those who instituted these remarkable ceremonies must have recognized the significance of that time-honoured symbol, the 'broken pitcher,' a type of immediate destruction and of usefulness gone by for ever, contrasting pathetically with the hope of immortality implied by the previous elaborate provision for the future welfare of the dead. Such a recognition, however, implies a widely different religious life from that of the modern Toda. It is startling to contrast the respect for the dead, to which this ritual testifies, with the utter indifference shown by the present race not only to the disposal of the buffaloes, but even to the fate of old azarams (stone circles). Many of them are to be found in different parts of the hills; but the Todas do not always even claim them, and in no case object to their being examined and destroyed. The sacrifice of the buffalo, the sprinkling of blood, the loosing of the calf, and all the striking semblance of these funeral rites, have no meaning for the present generation. Like the numerous gods who are never worshipped, and the preparatory penances of the priests who perform no priestly offices, are not these strangely suggestive relics of a bygone faith?"

Mr. Breeks also remarks that the Toda rites suggest the idea that bodies were once buried, not burned, and that their stone circle was the original burying place,