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The Todas

Chapter 32: The Five Ti
By W. H. R. Rivers
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Archaeology & Anthropology

About This Book

An anthropological study that combines meticulous ethnographic description with an explicit account of method, recording the social organization, ceremonial life, and dairy-based institutions of a pastoral community. It explains the structure and ritual roles of herd-centred units (the ti), the offices of dairyman-priests and their assistants, distinctions between sacred and ordinary animals, and the spatial arrangements and rites associated with dairies. The author details sources and informants, assesses degrees of evidential reliability, and keeps descriptive material separate from theoretical interpretation presented in later chapters.

[Contents]

The Five Ti

At present there are only five ti in existence, belonging to the clans of Nòdrs, Kars, Pan, Kwòdroni, and Nidrsi. The Keradrol are said to have had a ti at one time which was spirited away by the god Kwoto (see Chap. IX) and the name of one of its places, Tîkîrs, is still preserved.

The most important ti belongs to Nòdrs and this is one of the original institutions, the ti of Kars and that of Kwòdrdoni being the others. The Pan ti is derived from that of Nòdrs (see story of Kwoten), and the Nidrsi ti is an offshoot of the Kwòdrdoni institution.

Of these five ti, that of Nòdrs is the only one which still has two palol. The Kars ti has only one palol, and similarly that of Pan. The ti of Kwòdrdoni and Nidrsi are at present unoccupied. At the Kwòdrdoni ti the office is filled once a year for a limited period in order to satisfy certain requirements of the Kotas.

No ti is allowed to be vacant when the final funeral ceremonies are performed for any member of the clan to which the ti belongs, and it is only on the occasion of these ceremonies that palol is now appointed to the Nidrsi ti.

Each ti has certain features of organisation and procedure peculiar to itself. There are certain differences of ritual and differences in the names and kinds of the buffaloes and sacred objects. The history and special features of each ti will now be considered. [111]