With a population of 1.3 billion today, the history of human habitation on the Indian Peninsula began about 55,000 30,000 years ago when Homo Sapiens arrived here from Africa. The earliest known modern human remains in South Asia are dated to around XNUMX XNUMX years ago. [1] According to Michael Petraglia, stone tools discovered under the layers of ash deposits in India at Jwalapuram, Andhra Pradesh, point to a spread before Toba. From there, India has witnessed countless phases and waves of settlement, as well as the immigration of various tribes and communities who traveled to the subcontinent from distant lands and made it their home. Each wave of immigration brought with it its own heritage that India proudly holds, even today. India has been called many names - countries with unity in diversity, a melting pot of races, a marvel of language museums, a biosocial reservoir, etc. Home to over 2,000 ethnic groups and over 19,000 languages, India's rich cultural heritage is certainly a spectacle. to see. The most beautiful part of it, however, is how each and every diverse society continues to exist together despite their differences. Each society brought something new and distinct with its arrival, and India continued to absorb these distinctions in its already rich heritage. As for the process of "Peopling of India", it continues to this day, but at the same pace and ease, thanks to the much-criticized population explosion and land crisis.
India Racial Classification
The people of India belong to different races. Ever since the discipline of anthropology became prominent, many efforts have been made by several anthropologists, such as Risley, Haddon, Eickstedt, etc., to provide a classification of Indian races. BS Guha's classification is the newest as well as the most accepted. During the Indian Census of 1931, he gave a systematic racial classification of the people of India, which is as follows:
1. Negrito
2. Proto-australoid
3. Mongoloid
a) paleo-mongoloid
i) Long haired
ii) Broadhead
b) Tibeto-mongoloid
4. The Mediterranean
a) Palae-Mediterranean
b) The Mediterranean
c) Oriental
5. The Western Brachycephals
a) Alpinoid
b) Armenoid
c) Dinaric
6. Norden
Tribes in India
The Constitution of India recognized tribal communities in India under "Schedule 5" of the Constitution. Therefore, the tribes recognized by the Constitution are known as 'Scheduled Tribes'. There are around 645 different tribes in India which make up around 8.6% of the population. They are geographically spread over the entire length and breadth of the country. "In general, the peoples of north-central and north-western India tend to have ethnic affiliation with European and Indo-European peoples from southern Europe, the Caucasus region and south-west and central Asia. In north-eastern India, West Bengal (to a lesser extent), the higher parts of the western Himalayan region, and Ladakh (in the state of Jammu and Kashmir), much of the population is more similar to people in the north and east - especially Tibetans and Burmese. on the Chota Nagpur Plateau (northeastern Indian subcontinent) are associated with such groups as Mon, which have long been established on the mainland of Southeast Asia. people of East African descent (some of whom settled in historical times on the west coast of India) or from a population commonly referred to as the Negrito, now represented by numerous small and widespread peoples from the Andaman Islands, the Philippines, New Guinea and other areas. »
[2]
Todas - Advent and Settlement
Today I would like to talk about one of the many beautiful indigenous tribes that adorn the Indian heritage with its rich culture - The Todas. They are a Dravidian ethnic group that has lived in the Nilgiri hills for centuries. The current Toda population lives in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, which is part of the Western Ghats. This region was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 for its unique ecology and rich botanical diversity.
Their name is probably derived from the Kannada word 'Tudavar', meaning 'those who live at the top', or alternatively from the Tamil word 'Toran' or 'Toruvan' meaning 'shepherd'. The manuscript written by a Portuguese priest named Finicio in 1602 is the earliest record of Todas. He wrote it after his two-day stay at Nilgiri Hills. In 1934, physical anthropologist Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt described Todas as being of the North Indian division of the indid type, and therefore connected them to the ancient proto-Dravidian population. In a study from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, researchers claim that the community already lived there for 3,500-4,000 years. since a climate change occurred in southern India, contrary to the previous notion that Todas migrated to the Nilgiris around 2000 years ago. [3]
Toda - Appearance and Physical Properties
They are clearly different from the rest of the Tamil tribes or plains. They are an exotic race, whose facial features (blocking of gene mutations) are very South Indian. First, they are generally not dark; they are light-skinned, reddish with constant exposure to sun to rain. The forehead, nose, prominent cheekbones, chin and physical structure are reminiscent of Greek sculptors coming to life. The eyes of most are bright, ranging from brown to gray; the identical Indian black pupil is more of an exception than a rule. [4] The hair on the head is usually curly and abundant, the beard is lush, and a dense hair growth covers the chest and abdomen. The hair is also thick on the upper and lower surfaces of the arms, on the shoulder blades, thighs, knees and the whole end of the legs. Toda women are known for their juicy dark locks, which are curled into ringlets with butter. They have beautiful long hair. [5]
Toda hus
Todas lives in small thatched houses called Munds / Hamlets which are built of bamboo attached with rattan. "These structures, located at a distance of about 5.6 km from the mainland to Ooty, are an original representation of the Toda community that still exists." [6] These houses are so small that you have to bend down to get into the house. Each cabin has only a small entrance in front - about 3 cm wide, 90 cm high. The unusually small entrance acts as a protection against the weather, as well as a sudden attack by wild animals. [7] The front of the small house is decorated with murals showing Toda art.
Interaction with modern civilization has greatly changed the traditional lifestyle of the Toda people, who have witnessed a shift to concrete houses. However, the last two decades have seen a growing movement to return to building traditional barrel-vaulted cabins. Many new cottages have been built and old sacred dairies have been renovated.
Language
The Toda language belongs to the Dravidian family; it differed from tamil-malayalam around the 3rd century BC. "In modern linguistic terms, the aberration of Toda results from a disproportionate number of syntactic and morphological rules, both of early and recent derivation, not found in the other South Dravidian languages." [8]
Profession
Known to be pastors since historical times, and their only occupation was cattle breeding and dairy work for centuries. However, the ecosystem in the region has changed dramatically in the last 200 years due to the introduction of cash crops in Nilgiris. The grasslands have been replaced by tea gardens or other invasive species such as eucalyptus. This loss of pastoral lands means that the Todas are not solely dependent on pastoralism for their livelihood. Today, most Toda families have farmed and maintained large plantations that grow a variety of crops. Although pastoralism has waned, water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are still highly valued in Toda culture. While Toda men tend to buffalo, Toda women make beautiful embroidery work on the shawls worn by both sexes, called puthkuli . [9]
Religion
According to 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. Many rituals include the buffalo, its milk and other products form the basis of their diet. The water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is the sacred animal of Todas and an instrumental element in the Toda religion. Although the Todas have a pantheon of deities, the buffalo dairies are of far greater importance, which along with their content, pastures and water supply are not only seen as sacred, but as divine. The holiest category of dairy is Ti dairy, although the last of these temple dairies disappeared in the 1950s. Toda hill buffalo is a magnificent, large, powerful animal with long curved horns. It is quite different from the slow-moving sloppy buffalo on the plains. It can be violent. These buffaloes fall into two broad classes - those belonging to the holy dairies and the others, that is, the secular ones. Sacred animals are graded according to their ritual status. Todas' religious observations are also largely focused on their buffaloes. Although the sacred buffaloes are attached to the dairies, they are mostly privately owned. Only ghee processed from milk obtained from the holy milk herds can be sold to the public. Milk is considered sacred, but other dairy products have less sanctity attached to them and ghee (clarified butter) has none at all.
Culture
Dancing, accompanied by singing, is an important Toda tradition, which often occurs during holidays or as part of specific Toda rituals. Only men participate in ceremonial dances, although in recent decades women have begun to dance for recreation. The men form an inverted circle, which stands so that their arms are touched. The circle moves counterclockwise, where each step is taken in chorus and accompanied by a shout that marks the beat of the dance. Oral poetry is also an important Toda custom. All aspects of culture are represented in the songs - milk and dairy rituals, care for buffaloes, funerals, the holy names (kvasme) of the Toda world. [10]
Family, marriage and kinship - fraternal and non-fraternal polyandry
They once practiced fraternal polyandry, a practice in which a woman marries all the brothers in a family but no longer does so. All the children of such marriages were considered to be descended from the eldest brother. They practiced historical female infanticide. In the Toda tribe, families arranged child marriages for couples. Todas also indulged in group marriage once, although this practice has now been eradicated.
The most exciting part of the Toda custom is related to their wedding events. Whether they still practice today is a disagreement. However, these customs were largely part of the Toda community not long ago. As described by WHR Rivers in his book "The Todas" [11] , they have a completely organized and specific system for polyandry. When a woman marries a man, it is understood that she becomes the wife of his brothers at the same time. When a boy is married to a girl, not only are his brothers usually considered as husbands of the girl as well, but any brother born later will be similarly considered to share the rights of his older brothers. When the husbands are not their own brothers, the arrangements become more complicated. When husbands live together as if they were their own brothers, there are seldom any difficulties. Offspring of such fraternal polyandry view the eldest brother as the father of all purposes. If, on the other hand, the husbands live in different villages, the usual rule is that the wife should live with each husband in turn, usually one month at a time, but there is a great deal of elasticity in the arrangement. "
Their wedding arrangement is also interesting when sex before the wedding is not considered a taboo. According to Rivers, "when a Toda girl gets married, one night before her wedding, a local well-built boy who is not from her clan is summoned and the girl indulges in intercourse with the man. It completes the process of becoming a qualified woman. After marriage, spouses are allowed to indulge in polyamorous relationships.If a man wants to be intimate with another married woman, he must ask her permission, as if she allows it, they can move on.As for "paternity" to the children in these cases of non-fraternal polyandry, we meet the most interesting thing about Toda's social regulations.When the wife of two or more husbands becomes pregnant, it is arranged that one of the husbands will perform the ceremony of giving bow and arrow. this ceremony is the father of the child for all social purposes, the child belongs to this man's clan if the husbands' clans are different and the family to this man if the families are only different. man perform the pursutpimi ceremony, in which case this man becomes the father of the child; but more commonly the pursutpimi ceremony is not performed at all during the second pregnancy, and in this case the second child belongs to the first man, i.e. the man who has already given the bow and arrow. It is usually arranged that the first two or three children should belong to the first husband, and that in a subsequent pregnancy (third or fourth), another husband should give the bow and arrow, and consequently become the father not only of that child, but of all subsequent children of someone else give a bow and arrow. ”
When it comes to divorce, according to River, Todas' divorce occurs for two reasons. Firstly that the wife is unjustifiable and secondly that the wife refuses to work. Infertility is not considered a reason for divorce. In some cases, the husband's illness has been considered a ground for divorce. Intercourse between a wife and another man is not considered a reason for divorce, but rather a completely natural event.
The above customs, as described by WHR Rivers, have often been a topic of debate among peoples, with some flattering about the kind of freedom that exists in this indigenous society, while others question morality. Whether it is morally right or not is not up to us to decide. There have been many tribes around the world who have followed the practice of polyandry and polygamy. The paradox is that where polygamy is usually considered a norm as well as the natural order of being, polyandry ends up being at the center of everything that is considered immoral. Wonder why ?
PS This article is based on secondary research by referring to various published books and articles written by anthropologists, as well as others who have done significant primary research in the region. With regard to customs, it has not been validated whether these customs continue to exist today or have been eradicated over time.
References
[1] Petraglia, Michael D .; Allchin, Bridget (2007) "Human evolution and cultural change in the Indian subcontinent" , and Michael Petraglia; Bridget Allchin (ed.), The evolution and history of human populations in South Asia:interdisciplinary studies in archeology, biological anthropology, linguistics and genetics, Springer Publishing , ISBN 978-1-4020-5562-1 https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Qm9GfjNlnRwC&pg=PA6&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
[2] https://www.britica.com/place/India/People
[3] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/todas-lived-in-nilgiris-3500-years-ago-study/articleshow/77771591.cms
[4] https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/exotic-race-warms-the-nilgiris/article7945137.ece
[5] https://tamilandvedas.com/tag/toda-customs/
[6] https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/18/toda-huts-the-original-homes-of-the-toda-people-an-ancient-indian-tribe/
[7] https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/18/toda-huts-the-original-homes-of-the-toda-people-an-ancient-indian-tribe/
[8] Emeneau, Murray B. (1984), Toda Grammar and Texts, Philadelphia:American Philosophical Society, Pp. xiii, 410, index (16), ISBN 0-87169-155-8.
[10] https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/todas
[11] RL Rooksby (1971) WHR Rivers and the Todas, South Asia:Journal of South Asian Studies, 1:1, 109-122, DOI:10.1080