Toda tribe of The Nilgiris rethatch their sacred temple with a rare grass

Toda males re-thatching the dairy temple
| Photo Credit: SATHYAMOORTHY M

Recently, members of the Toda tribe, the oldest and indigenous tribes of The Nilgiris, gathered at Melgaa(r)sh, an historic Toda hamlet above the Ooty Botanical Garden for a sacred ritual. The Manajakkal Mund, additionally referred to as the Garden Mund in latest instances, is the principal hamlet of the patriclan. The males, dressed within the ceremonial embroidered shawls, bundled swamp grass referred to as avful, endemic to the wetlands of The Nilgiris and located nowhere else on the planet. “A re-thatching ceremony of a Toda temple which happens every 15 years is in progress,” says Tarun Chhabra, a retired dentist and an knowledgeable on the indigenous Toda tradition and native ecology. He can be the writer of The Toda Landscape: Explorations in Cultural Ecology. 

Toda males collect ‘Avful’ swamp grass discovered solely in The Nilgiris
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M

Todas reside on the very best reaches in hamlets referred to as munds made of bamboo-vaulted properties formed like a rainbow and patched with mud and straw, believed to sort out the wind velocity at excessive altitudes. While the Todas  have largely shifted from these conventional properties to fashionable concrete buildings, the  temples are nonetheless constructed with cane, bamboo and avful. Once frequent in swamps in the principle Toda heartland of the Wenlock Downs, this grass has practically disappeared from the moist grasslands of the mountains.

Thin bamboo reeds referred to as theff are bent collectively in bunches, whereas nonetheless inexperienced, to provide the temple the everyday barrel-vaulted form. These are fixed with peeled rattan cane. This bamboo reed, seen in lots of shola pockets of the Nilgiris, is now restricted to some dense jungles on the south-west slopes. Similarly, rattan cane, plentiful on the Nilgiri slopes and a few sholas, has just about disappeared. Todas go into the dense rain forests on the slopes past the western catchment and Mukurthi to collect rattan cane.

A re-thatching of Toda temple occurs each 15 years
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M

“When they decide to rebuild a dairy-temple, there will be a minimum of three ceremonies at different stages. When they bend theff and tie it in bunches, it is known as ‘kwehll (zh) g-vheell- pattyt’ ceremony where only Toda communities take part, especially a particular clan, in this case the Melgaa(r)sh. They understood that the thin theff bamboo has high tensile strength and hence  bent it to give the structure its characteristic barrel-vaulted shape. There is also ‘waadr-ofst’ ceremony where they put horizontal bamboos. And during ‘poll(zh)y-veihhst’ thatching ceremony, they use the avful to thatch the dairy temples. These structures can last for decades provided the occupant has lit the fire within the building regularly, thus exposing it to smoke,” explains Tarun who can be the founder of Toda Nalavaazhvu Sangam that works with preserving the tradition and welfare of the Todas.

The entrance facade of the temple is thatched in an intricate method, a job that’s reserved for aged males of the clan. Before beginning this, they make ‘toott’, a ring-like construction round which they thatch the grass and braid it with stripped cane. This is named ‘podhaarr-thittyt’ and is carried out a few days earlier. “It’s an an important occasion, a prelude to the main ceremony,” explains Tarun.

The priest brings a milk churning stick and a bamboo vessel and the prayers start
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M

Once Toda males begin thatching from both sides, they are going to keep it up singing songs until they meet on the the highest of the half moon construction. “In certain places where the focus of divinity is going to be placed, there will be special kind of cross patterns which I have hypothesised as what evolved into the embroidery and many other things,” says Tarun who, alongside with Ramneek Singh, has additionally established the Edhkwehlynawd Botanical Refuge (EBR) to additional emphasise on conservation and ecological restoration, impressed by conventional Toda information.

The males are wearing ceremonial embroidered shawls
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M

After thatching, additionally they put a pointed ‘kwakhzh-vheell (zh)’ on the ‘toott’ and clamp it. Once the priest brings a milk churning stick and a bamboo vessel, prayers start. The shola forests and the grasslands are intertwined with the lives of Todas as they imagine that a number of peaks, slopes, shola thickets, timber, rivers, swamps, paths, streams and caves are sacred. They sing ‘konn-ezht’, sacred couplets in an impromptu oral poetry type, assemble in a circle and have ‘pochazhky’ balls made with mashed little millet with a dollop of ghee within the center that’s served on ‘kawkwehdd’ leaf. 

After re-thatching they stand in a circle and pray
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M

The Toda custom simply dates again to 4000 years, says Tarun as he elaborates on Avful. “When a study was initiated on this grass, flowering specimens were sent to an expert in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for necessary identification. Todas, on the other hand, can readily distinguish specimens from other similar-looking species even at a distance. Elders can identify and name close to 400 floral species in the hinterland. In the olden days, where Todas lived, avful flourished on the west side of the wetlands. When the dams came in, the wetlands got flooded, and eucalyptus, pine trees, plantations, sprung up on the sides,” he says, including, “Then everything changed.”