Toda Community 25/04/2019 – Posted in: Daily News
Toda buffalo
For: Preliminary
Topics covered: Toda Culture, Toda festival, Toda buffalo, Lack of grazing ground
News Flash
The population of the Toda buffalo at Muthanadu Mund near Udhagamandalam or popularly known as Ooty, is being limited due to lack of grazing grounds.
The population of the buffaloes had seen a slight increase over the last few years. Better immunisation campaigns for the cattle had resulted in a slight rebound in the population of the buffaloes. But the overall population of the Toda buffaloes in the Nilgiris is estimated to not exceed a few thousand animals.
Toda buffalo
Toda buffalo is a semi-wild breed of buffalo, it is a unique breed and forms a genetically isolated population. The Toda breed is known after its herdsmen. This is an important breed of buffalo, which thrives well in high rainfall and high humid area. It is mainly used for work, socio-cultural & religious ceremonies.
Toda People
Toda people are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the Nilgiri Mountains of Tamil Nadu. Before the 18th century and British colonisation, the Toda coexisted locally with other ethnic communities, including the Kota, Badaga and Kurumba, in a loose caste-like society, in which the Toda were the top ranking. During the 20th century, the Toda population has hovered in the range 700 to 900. Although an insignificant fraction of the large population of India, since the early 19th century the Toda have attracted “a most disproportionate amount of attention because of their ethnological aberrancy” and “their unlikeness to their neighbours in appearance, manners, and customs.
Toda Culture
The Todas’ most important festival of the year, known as Modhweth.
According to local village elders, Toda men from 14 different clans living in different villages in the upper slopes of the Nilgiris come to the “mund” or Toda village during the last Sunday of December or on the first Sunday of January to celebrate the festival. On Sunday, hundreds of Toda men from more than 60 small hamlets came to the Moonpo Temple in Muthanadu Mund, said to be one of the oldest Toda temples still in existence.
The Moonpo temple is unique in that it is one of the last of the Toda temples with a similar design left in the Nilgiris.
As part of the celebrations, the Todas offer prayers to the deity, Thenkish Amman, and perform a dance outside. They pray to the deity to give them good health, rains and harvests during the coming year. They also pray for the well-being of their buffaloes, fast for the entire day and drink only milk mixed with jaggery and salt
Source: The Hindu