TODAS – The beautiful People:
Todas are the tribal people living in Nilgiris, popularly
known as the Blue Mountains of Tamil Nadu, India. They are the original
settlers of Nilgiris. They believe that they are the worthy descendants of the
Pandavas of Mahabharata.
Their main occupation is gazing Buffaloes. They move from
place to place to find fresh pastures for their buffaloes during seasons and
they come back to their original place. Even this movement was restricted to
only two taulks of Coonoor and Ooty.Todas use to play drums and pipes during
funerals. They carry buffaloes to the funeral ground and they shatter them.
No one till now knows what the language of Todas is. An
analysis of vocabulary of Todas shows that the language they speak was as
common as Dravidian Language. The settlement or villages of Todas are known as
Munds, Munds are located near forests, pastures and streams. Each Mund has a
buffaloes Pen. Each Mund consist of 4 huts.
The huts are wagon shaped, the roof of which and one side
wall forming one continuous curve made of split bamboos, reeds and thatch. Each
hut has a raised platform which is used for sleeping. The hut is mainly to
protect their people from weather and rain. Each household is under the care of
a headman who is the oldest in the family. Only the sons inherit the property
of the father and no share for the daughters.
The costume of Todas is called are Poothukulli, made of
thick white cotton cloth having one or more strips in red, blue or black. The
Toda women are often seen curling their locks of hair by applying ghee. Now a
day the Toda women are involved in embroidery works on their costume. Todas are
strictly vegetarians. Their main diet consists of Milk and Milk products,
cereals, millets, etc. They never use each other’s vessel to drink and
eat. They have their own vessels used
for dinning, because the vessels used by a person will be burnt along with his
dead body.
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The Todas principal Gods – a brother called “ON” and a
sister called “THEKKERSHI”, rule the worlds of dead and the living. They
worship Light, Fire, Mountain, Tree, River, Sky, Sun and Moon which are
believed to be the major creations of their Goddess Thekkershi.
New generation Todas are seen working as Labours in Gardens
in Ooty. They also receive education in nearby schools. Their costume changes
as normal people do.
