Sunday, October 21, 2012

TODAS - The Beautiful People


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.

                                   

                    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.
                                               


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