362
tribe that had renounced “gain” and “thrift”? A people whose attributes suggested
some antediluvian, “primeval race” inhabiting a dubious paradise and for whom
“the products of the buffalo” meant everything.
2
For at least a millennium if not longer, the Todas have been lacto-vegetarians,
even though the four surrounding communities—indigenous Nilgiri cultures, along
with the Todas, the Kotas, Kurumbas, Irulas, and Badagas—are largely meat eaters.
3
The endogamous Todas, known to themselves as Awll(zh) (translated by Dr.
Chhabra as “the men” or “the people”), have numbered between 1200 and 1500 for
the last 25 years. Their world comprises an erstwhile pastoral paradise marked by
3 See. p. Todas of The Nilgiri Hills – Anthropological Reflections On Community Survival, Dr.
Jakka Parthasarathy, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005, p. 14.
Fig. 41.1 Members of the Toda hamlet of the Kerrir Patrician. (Photo © M.C. Tobias)
41 The Conical Temple of Konawsh
tribe that had renounced “gain” and “thrift”? A people whose attributes suggested
some antediluvian, “primeval race” inhabiting a dubious paradise and for whom
“the products of the buffalo” meant everything.
2
For at least a millennium if not longer, the Todas have been lacto-vegetarians,
even though the four surrounding communities—indigenous Nilgiri cultures, along
with the Todas, the Kotas, Kurumbas, Irulas, and Badagas—are largely meat eaters.
3
The endogamous Todas, known to themselves as Awll(zh) (translated by Dr.
Chhabra as “the men” or “the people”), have numbered between 1200 and 1500 for
the last 25 years. Their world comprises an erstwhile pastoral paradise marked by
3 See. p. Todas of The Nilgiri Hills – Anthropological Reflections On Community Survival, Dr.
Jakka Parthasarathy, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005, p. 14.
Fig. 41.1 Members of the Toda hamlet of the Kerrir Patrician. (Photo © M.C. Tobias)
41 The Conical Temple of Konawsh