Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 109

ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES.
APRIL, 1874.]
out and eyes shut, gasping out broken words at intervals. Presently three or four others, touched with the same afflatus, joined him, and all flounced up and down, waving their arms, panting, and occasionally breaking out into words which were eagerly caught up by the surrounding Tod â s, who regarded the proceedings with great gravity; one grey-bearded old To dâ, standing in front, addressed questions to the inspired men, and listened eagerly to their incoherent answers, which he passed on to the bystanders, who in their turn spread them around as oracular responses. About four o'clock the end approached. A Todâ brought red clay and daubed the side-posts and bars of the entrance to the kraal with red stripes: then a party, preceded by two or three with children, who seemed especial mourners, probably near relations of the deceased, went down the hill below the kraal, and after a little time returned bearing two clean cloths, such as they commonly wear, folded and carried tray-wise each by two Toḍâs, with some fresh earth strewn on each. These contained the "kerd," i. e. the bores, hair, and skulls of the deceased. They carried these round in a sort of procession, and then went down into a patch of wood hard by the hut, where a small hole was dug in the ground, into which the Toda children bowed their heads, and some babies were put and lifted out again. Earth was then taken out, some thrown aside and some sprinkled on the folded cloths which were laid by the hole, recalling the solemn "dust to dust" of English burials. During all this a long incessant wail we:t on and rolled mournfully along the valley. The cloths, with the earth strewn on them, were then brought up to the kraal and laid at its entrance, before which another hole was dug, into which heads were again bowed, and a small black rod set up and presently taken away. The wearied and subdued buffaloes were then seized each by the horns and head, the bars at the entrance removed, and an animal dragged out to a small pyramidal rough stone rather like a lingamstone, called karáni kal, set in the ground a short distance up the hill-side. Here the buffalo was held down, and a young boy struck it behind the head with the back of a narrowbladed axe, dropping it, and whilst it was dying the boy bowed his head upon its frontlet between the horns. It was then rolled over, and
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its head, with the horns uppermost, placed fronting the stone: a cloth full of earth was put behind the stone, and the boy, who was a son of one of the deceased, bowed his forehead or to it several times, and so did some others. The remaining buffaloes were then dragged out and knocked on the head, and their quivering carcasses laid round the two folded herdcloths with their heads turned inwards, and a number of Todâs bowed their foreheads on the animals' frontlets, and on the earth on the cloths, amid great weeping and lamenting. The Todâ women sat in couples by the hut with forehead pressed to forehead, sobbing, crying, and uttering broken exclamations. This stage of the ceremony, which again impressed one with a sense of utter remoteness and separation from the present epoch, then came to an end, and I retreated to the Paikâra 'Bungalow' some four miles distant, there to wait till the final rite, which was to take place about two hours before daybreak.
At 2 A.M. I sallied forth and rode again to the spot the night was cloudless, the stars glanced out with the diamond brightness seen only on the Nilgiris, the half-moon had passed her mid-height, and the wild many-folded hills stretched around silvered with her light or steeped in black shadow; over all brooded thedeep silence of the mountains, and the grass underfoot was crisp with frost. Arrived at the place, I was directed to a higher hill at a short distance, on a shoulder of which, near the top, there was a tuft of trees with a circle of stones near its edge. I much regret not having ascertained whether the circle was ancient or of recent construction, as the rite that took place within is an important instance of the connection of stone circles with existing observances, and, if the circles were ancient, would presumably connect the Tod â s with the other allied "prehistoric" monuments of cairns and cromlechs scattered over the Nilgiris, to none of which do the Toḍâs pay any regard. I am inclined to believe the circle was not ancient, but I only saw it in the dim uncertain light, and it did not occur to me to investigate the point, the importance of which did not present itself till long after, and I never visited that spot again. Be it as it may, this use of stone circles in funeral rites by an existing race is a fact to be ranked with the use of miniature kistvaens by the mountain tribes