Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7Thurston, Edgar
General
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The religious institutions of the Todas, including the elaborate
dairy ritual, and their religion, are described in full detail by
Dr. Rivers. The Todas have been to some extent influenced by Hinduism,
and some visit the temples at Nanjengod in Mysore, Karamadai in
the Coimbatore district, and other shrines, whereat they worship,
present votive offerings, and pray for offspring, etc. Writing in
1872, Mr. Breeks remarked that "about Ootacamund, a few Todas have
latterly begun to imitate the religious practices of their native
neighbours. Occasionally children's foreheads are marked with the
Siva spot, and my particular friend Kinniaven, after an absence of
some days, returned with a shaven head from a visit to the temple
of Siva at Nanjengudi." A man who came to my laboratory had his hair
hanging down in long tails reaching below his shoulders. He had, he
said, let it grow long because his wife, though married five years,
had borne no child. A child had, however, recently been born, and,
as soon as the second funeral of a relation had been performed, he
was going to sacrifice his locks as a thank-offering at the Nanjengod
temple. The following extracts from my notes will serve to illustrate
the practice of marking (in some instances apparently for beauty's
sake) and shaving as carried out at the present day.
(1) Man, aged 28. Has just performed a ceremony at the ti mand. White
curved line painted across forehead, and dots below outer ends thereof,
on glabella, and outside orbits. Smeared with white across chest,
over outer side of upper arms and left nipple, across knuckles and
lower end of left ulna, and on lobes of ears.
(2) Man, aged 21. Painted on forehead as above. Smeared over chest
and upper eye lids.
(3) Man, aged 35. White spot painted on forehead.
(4) Man, aged 30. Hair of head and beard cut short owing to death
of grandfather.
(5) Boy, aged 12. Shock head of hair, cut very short all over owing
to death of grandfather.
(6) Girl, aged 8. Hair shaved on top, back and sides of head, and in
median strip from vertex to forehead.
(7) Boy, aged 6. White spot painted between eyebrows. Hair shaved
on top and sides of head, and in median strip from vertex to
forehead. Hair brought forward in fringe over forehead on either side
of median strip, and hanging down back of neck.
(8) Male child, aged 18 months. White spot painted between
eyebrows. Shaved on top and sides of head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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