The Toda Tribe : Craft and Culture

CRAFT DOCUMENTATION

THE TODA TRIBE Craft and Culture

Guide : V. Sakthivel

Ann Mary Cherian Neha Rao UG 5th sem Textile Design National Intitute of Design

LOCATION:

Situated at the Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu, South India.

The Nilgiri District with the total area of of 800 sq miles.

The district headquarters in Ootacamund which stands at an altitude of 7500ft above sea level. It is situated at the junction of the two ghat ranges of Sahyadri Hills, overlooking the borders of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

2549 kilometers. The height of the hills varies from 2280 to 2290 meters, with the highest peak, Doddabetta being at the height of 2623m. The average rainfall in the district is 965.84mm falling on a average of 74 rainy days in a year.

The district covers an area of

CLIMATE:

In terms of climate the Nilgiris, like the rest of South India are subjected to four clearly identifiable seasons. Begins with the

north-east monsoon, a period of 4 months from December to March. North-east monsoon is relived in April with the coming of the so called “Blossom Showers�.

South-west monsoon

seldom arrives gradually. Average June to September rains exceeds to 3,800mm. Humidity is also high during the south-west monsoon season (80-90% is normal).

As the District is highly elevated, it has a low temperature. The temperature is furture lowered due to14

excessive moisture content

of the atmosphere. It has seasons of extreme difference between day and night.

VEGETATION:

The Nilgiri district has a magnificent forest area with a variety of plants. Its enormous forest area spreads over nearly

56.2% area

of the district.

Major variety grown are Red cedar, Iron wood and Ebony.

TRIBES :

Toda, Kota, Irula, Kurumba, Panya are the native tribe living in Nilgiri , but they form only 3% of The

the populationof the district. While the Badaga are a major community of the Nilgiri.

Toda Tribe are the original

settlers of Nilgiri, who live on the produce of their long- horned hill buffaloes

and gift of grains from the other tribe and consist of around

1600 people.

The Kotas, another tribe of the Nilgiri engaged themselves in agriculture and handicraft and also performed all the menial work for the Todas. The Kota used to supply most of the things

burnt at the funeral of the Todas. Exchange clay pots and jewellery with honey. On the occasion of the funeral of the funeral of the Todas they played the pipes and drums.

In return they were allowed to carry the bodies of the buffaloes which were slaughtered at the funerals.

The Kurumbas had settled on the intermediate

slopes and were know for their witchcraft.

Irulas occupied the lower slopes and jungle that skirt the base of the Nilgiris.

The

Toda

They gather fruits, roots, honey, herbs, etc and exchange

them for food and clothers with the Badagas (people of the plains).

The Badagas are an agricultural community and acted as the

intermediaries between the Todas and others.

The Badagas belong to backward community while others are tribals.

As per our information collected the interrealtionship does not exist doesnt

exist anymore.

Irula

Paniya

Badaga

Kota

The Todas :

Todas are known as the buffalo people and considered to be the highest tribe in the hierarchy.

Origin: One theory says that they are the worthy descendants of the

Pandavas of Mahabharata.

lost tribe of Israel. or the purest reminants of Vedic-Aryan pastoralist and many other Another says they are connected to the theories.

We may never discover of number of researches.

the precise origin of the Todas, inspite

The toda settlement or villages are known as Munds. All of them are situated in the valleys in the midst of mountain ranges. The munds

Settlements:

are located invariably near forests,

streams, and pasture lands in picturesque landscape. A Mund comprises of three or four typical Toda huts. Near the huts inhabited by the todas, there will be another hut which is considered the sacred place or temple of the Mund. In addition to these in every mund there is a large circular enclosure which is used as the buffalo pen. The calves of the buffaloes are usually kept separate in a smaller hut.

The typical Toda huts are wagon shaped , the roof of which and the side walls forming one continuous curve made of split bamboo, reeds, and thatch. The huts have one small low opening and that serves as the entrance. This entrance is so small that one has to crawl on all fours to enter or leave the hut, respectfully.

1890’s

hut is about fifteen feet in length and twelve feet in breadth. The inside of the hut is The

sufficiently high to enable any one to move about freely. One side of the hut there is a raised

platform of two feet in height. This platform is used as the sleeping place. On the opposite side is located the kitchen. Near the fireplace at a slightly elevated

ground are stored the such as the brass plates and utensils and bamboo measures and milk cans. You feel

Modern Toda hut todaay.

Dairy temple.

smooth surface.

kitchen

Modern settelments.

stone wall to a height of three to four feet with a single opening which serves

as the entrance and exit. The buffaloes are herded in the pen during nights. The pen

there is not enough air and light inside the hut. This type of huts are admirably suited to

protect the inmates from the rain and the chill weather on the mountains.

The floor inside the huts is smeared with buffalo dung periodically to give a

The buffalo pen is known as the UNDI, it is a circular enclosure surrounded by a

has no

roof and is open to sun and rain.

PEOPLE Custom Each household is under the care of the head man who is the oldest of the family. On the death of the head man the eldest son succeeds to the headship. Only the son inherits property of the father and daughter has no share in it. Women inherit only those given as dowry at the time of marriage.

The todas have immense respect for their elders. It is a custom amongst the elders

to lift their foot one after the

other and the youngsters will touch the palm of their foot with his or her head as a mark of salutation. This kind of salutation is shown to women too if they happen to be elders.

It is a custom amongst the toda to name

LANGUAGE

the boy after The study of the toda culture has been a puzzle and analysts of the vocabulary of the toda language would show that many of mountains, river, etc. while the girls are the words in toda language are common to the Dravidian named after flowers, jewels, etc.

Their names carry the suffix “kuttan” for boys group of languages. The toda language has no written and “puf” for girls. or unwritten matter i.e. they have no script.

JEWELLERY Jewellery is worn by both men and women that of the women being more elaborate male ornaments include silver and iron finger rings and gold earrings, although younger men seem less included than their elders to wear always and some boys now do not even have pierced ears. Besides a variety of silver,

bran, iron and gold

finger rings and silver earnings women traditionally adorn themselves with bracelet of silver, copper and iron and wear, above the elbow, heavy iron ornaments from which bunches of cowine shells are sometimes suspended. They also wear silver chain necklace. In pre-British times most Toda jewelry seems to have been made by kota smiths whom could work gold and silver as well as iron. More recently , ornaments have been purchased from Tamil jewelers in the Nilgiri towns .Unfortunately, when Toda strike hard times they frequently pawn their jewellery , and many traditional pieces of fine craft membership have been lost to the community when the owners could not redeem their property.

Authentic Toda jewellery are not made anymore.

TATTOO

Another form adornment, the tattooing of women was , until some 15-20

years ago, mandatory at maturity. The chin, chest above the breasts , back arms backs of the hands legs and feet were all tattooed in pattern of rings and dots.

The Tattooer might be any female friend or relative of the woman concerned. Using a paste of soot from the cooking pots, mixed with breast milk, she would draw on the skin with a particular kind of thorn (beriberi’s aristae) This resulted is minor bleeding and afterwards the woman’s wounds would be loosely bandaged with cloth. A lapse of a week or so was allowed between sessions of the tattooing, for the operation was extremely painful and frequently led to high fever lasting several days. A woman could be tattooed any time after puberty, but it was

considered extremely unfortunate for her to

die untattooed. Even today, in such an event, a few soot marks an drawn on an untattooed female corpse before cremation. The traditional tattoo has, in general fallen out of fashion with the younger women, although some now patronize an itinerant non – Toda tattooed who after her service for a fee.

Toda men

Flower Motif

are not tattooed.

House name and Husbands name

Patterns

DIET Todas are strictly

vegetarian. Their diet mainly consists of milk product and preperations made of millets and cereals. They drink the milk without boiling or heating. Bamboo vessels are used for milking, churning, storing, etc. One strict habit found amongst the todas is that they do not use each others vessel for drinking or eating. The vessels used by a person will be burnt along with his dead body.

HAIRSTYLE Toda Women have a traditional way of tieing their hair. After bath, when the hair is wet. sections are made in the hair and twisted by hand. Two twisted locks are then twisted together and tied for a while. After a while, the two are seperated, the twist remains because of the tension and the oil and ghee applied. Nowadays coconut

oil is used where as in earlier times ghee was used.

Ceremony The Bow and arrow Ceremony * show video* The brake used to make the bow is Ko.s (shrufcalled pif ).

Funeral

CRAFT The toda ladies engage in embroidery work on their

traditional costume, the Poothukuli. The only tool they use is an ordinary long sewing needle and the technique employed is that of darning and counting the treads of the woven material to form the design.

The origin of the craft is unknown till today but regarding the clothing certain toda legends suggest that at one time the

community dressed in skin clothing but woven

cloaks have been worn for centuries. The embroidery is mainly done on poothukuli, a traditional toda garment, worn by both

men and women.

A plain

unbleached cotton fabric, of mat weave is used as the base fabric. It is woven specially for the toda embroidery at karoor, tamil nadu.

The embroidery is generally done using wool available at the local market. Some organizations prefer to use embroidery thread instead of wool

as it wears out faster when done in wool. The price increases if embroidery thread. The motifs used are geometric but the inspiration is usually from nature

Poothukuli Poothkuli is worn on ceremony like mariages and funerals by both men

and women. Its 4.5 X 0.7 Meters. For women the poothukuli should reach just above the ankles. and for men just below the knee.

Kefehnaaar ( kefina:r) Where you keep the right shoulder exposed. The cloak goes under the right armpit and then over the left shoulder.

Besides covering both shoulders is also popularly seen.

Maddaarr Mhic ( mada.rmiic)

Cloak is worn in the regullar manner with both shoulders covered but with that wearer’s head is now covered.

Wearing the cloak in this manner symbolisies mourning. A widow or a widower dresses in this way throughout the formal mourning period.

Pehshoott.yt

When a Toda is lying down, the cloak is always draped with the sparsely decorated end close to the head.

lengthwise,

For a Corpse, on the other hand, the position of the cloak is reversed in order to symbolize its’s passage to the afterworld.

Economy and Market As mentioned before the embroidery was used only on Poothukulli but after the entry of the

Birtish, there has been major

commericalization and the embroidery was done on the products too. This became a major source of income for the toda women.

Black (kaag) and red are the two major colours used on the off white base which seems to be the usp of the craft but nowadays different colours are also used.

A number of self help groups and NGO’s help these women take there products into a larger market.

Trying out different colours.

Few Products.