In
1955 Joanne Van de Riet was a bright
inquisitive teenager who was fascinated with the world around her. Two of her
major hobbies were painting and flower pressing. When an anthropologist visited the family
home in the South Indian town of Ootacamund (Ooty) she was offered a
chance to visit some nearby Toda people
who lived in small communities called munds
near the town.
During
that visit Joanne collected and pressed as many plants as she could,
particularly medicinal ones. She then sketched them.
After that she visited the
school library and found the taxonomic name of each plant. Three lines of
writing accompany each sketch: the taxonomic name, in most cases the Tamil name (in script)
and the plant’s use.
All the sketches were scanned in 2013 by our daughter Karen and posted to a website
devoted to endangered languages. I have repeated the scan with only two
examples here as the lettering might be difficult to read on the endangered languages
site.
According
to Wikipedia the Toda people are a small pastoral community who live on the isolated Nilgiri plateau
of Southern India.
Much of the Wiki information is accurate, but not
all of it. Many of the old practises have been abandoned under the constant pressure
of modernization.
At one time the Toda did indeed practice fraternal
polyandry with one woman marrying all the brothers of another family. Missing
from the Wiki report is that all the offspring of this relationship were deemed
to be children of the oldest bother.
Furthermore female infanticide, which is now illegal was once routine.
Polyandry has largely been abandoned.
Another remarkable fact is that the men were so
dominant in society that a morning greeting involved the wife kneeling with
head bowed so that the men could place a foot on her head.
 |
| Kneeling wife and dominant husband in a morning greeting |
The accompanying artwork by an unknown artist,
possibly a Toda man, was made at least 70 years ago and is still in the possession
of the Van de Riet family. It is a 3D piece, which does not show in the photo.
It was sculpted of raw and probably unfired clay that has been coloured and has
a somewhat abstract appearance.
There is also a theory that the Toda, who are very
much taller and robust in stature than any other peoples of South India, are
descendants of men who deserted from Alexander
The Great’s army. His campaign, which only took place in Northern India
began in 326 BC and ended at his death in 321. There is also an account that I
have tried to verify of a visit by Greek nobility, perhaps even King Paul I or his brother George to the area in the 1940s.
As the Wiki site states the Toda built their faith
around the water buffalo. According
to the Todas, the goddess Teikirshy and her brother first created the sacred
buffalo and then the first Toda man. The first Toda woman was created from the
right rib of the first Toda man. The Toda religion also forbids them from
walking across bridges, rivers must be crossed on foot, or swimming and they
can't wear any shoes at all.
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| Toda dogie |
There are interesting pictures of the dwellings,
called dogies, of the Toda on the
Wiki site, including a series showing how they are constructed. This photo taken in 1984 shows one such hut.
In recognition of the huts there is a concrete replica at
one of the main crossroads, known as Charing Cross, in Ooty. The name is
presumably a relic of former colonial days when The Nilgiri mountains (aka Nilgiri Hills or Blue Mountains) in South India was one of two hill stations
much loved by the British as a place to escape the heat. When we visited the
town in 1984 our taxi driver had no inkling of how to find the village and so
Jo had to guide him.
 |
| Modern home and three women |
However not all the villagers used these dwellings. As the
accompanying photo shows some of these huts have been replaced, at least in the
community we visited in 1984 by concrete buildings more like modern ones seen
all over the world.
The other feature that is clearly visible in the
photo is the long black hair of the women that is set in ringlets.
However the Wiki site has it wrong on the matter of
the temples. It states that Toda
temples are constructed in a circular pit lined with stones and are quite
similar in appearance and construction to Toda huts. The temples only resemble the dwellings in
that the upper parts above the rock base are
constructed of bamboo bound with rattan and have thatched roofs. The Wiki site
also makes no mention of the fact that women were not allowed to enter the
temples or even go into the pit.
 |
| Toda temple surrounded by pit |
The
accompanying photo, taken in 1984, shows a temple that only remotely resembles
a dwelling. It does indeed have pit around it, as well as a heavy stone against
the tiny door. The temple also acts as the storage
place for the buffalo milk. The building may only be entered by the priest. No female may even touch a
buffalo and it is only the men who milk them that may do so.
 |
| Temple door and rock |
A quote
from Sir George James Frazer’s Golden Bough (1922) gives an insight into the position of the
priest.
…the holy milkman, who acts as priest of the sacred dairy,
is subject to a variety of irksome and burdensome restrictions during the whole
time of his incumbency, which may last many years. Thus he must live at the
sacred dairy and may never visit his home or any ordinary village. He must be
celibate; if he is married he must leave his wife. On no account may any
ordinary person touch the holy milkman or the holy dairy; such a touch would so
defile his holiness that he would forfeit his office.
The photos
of alleged temple and dwelling in the Wiki piece are oddly similar and are both
of a home, again with a tiny door that is said to be a means of protection from
wild animals. In older times this may well have been true, but decimation of
wild mammal populations, a feature by no means limited to India, has no doubt
reduced the risk from tigers, bears,
panthers and dhole packs the much feared and voracious wild dog of the sub-continent.
Another factor
led to changes in agricultural practices for the Toda. It was the wide-spread planting
of exotic trees well suited to the mountain climate. There were eucalyptus forests,
the trees originally imported from
Australia. Joanne remembers that its gum was a useful mosquito repellent. The gum was prepared by piling up a huge mass of leaves and then starting a
very slow fire underneath so that the oils dripped into pan. Some gardens were
even surrounded by these trees on purpose. Another exotic tree, mimosa, was also grown in the area. It was a vital part of the film industry before
the advent of digital technology.
