I am posting here the discussions made on another group whre it was sought to link the buffalo sacrifices in Todas with the myth of Mahisasura mardina by Francesco Brighenti.
1. Harappa link with buffalo wrestling: "A ritual buffalo slaying (witnessed by a deity) is
clearly depicted on a terracotta tablet from Harappa "
2. Language of the Todas "the core vocabulary of the Toda language (found in its most ancient
prayers) is not relatable to any Dravidian language, as Emeneau pointed out
long ago "
msg 1.
<< 1) Dravidian Tribes of the Nilgiri Hills (South India)
Toda — Buffaloes are sacrificed at both primary and secondary funerals. The animal is pursued, dragged by the horns, and finally killed with an axe-stroke (there is no bloodshed). The Toda do not eat the sacrificed buffaloes' meat. There is ritual contact between the dead buffalo's horns and the departed person's corpse (at primary funerals) or the mourners' hands (at secondary funerals). The latter features may be related to similar acts of 'ritual contact' occurring in ancient Vedic funerals with the sacred cows respectively termed as anustaraNI and vaitaraNI in that case replacing water-buffalo.
Kota — Mortuary oblations of buffaloes performed in a fashion similar to those of the Toda. The main difference is that the Kota, unlike the Toda, ritually eat the meat of the sacrificed buffaloes.>>
2. Yet they practice a very elaborate form of buffalo-sacrifice as part
of their mortuary rituals.
Water-buffaloes are sacrificed by the Todas at both primary and
secondary funerals. On both ritual occasions, some buffaloes
belonging to one of the herds that are made to graze outside
traditional Toda villages are isolated by a group of men and boys
who drive them toward the funeral ground. One of the animals is then
pursued, felled to the ground, dragged by the horns before the
funeral hut, and finally killed with a stroke on the head given with
a club or the blunt side of an axe (viz., no blood is shed in this
act of ritual killing). This part of the ritual is possibly meant to
mimic a buffalo-hunting expedition concluded by one hunter's bare-
handed fight with the powerful bovine.
The Todas, however, do not eat the meat of the water-buffaloes they
sacrifice at their funeral ceremonies. They give the carcasses of
the sacrificed animals to members of the neighbouring Kota tribe,
who are normally invited to Toda funerals in order to perform as
musicians. The water-buffalo is, indeed, sacred to the Todas, for
whom it represents a medium between the human and the divine world.
The milk produced by the sacred buffalo herds of the Todas is the
object of an extremely elaborate cult whose seats are the so-called
sacred dairies, and whose main officiants are the traditional Toda
dairymen themselves. This cult is pivoted on the ceremonial
transformation of milk products inside and before such sacred
dairies.
it is my personal conviction that the above
described ritual "fight" of a Toda man with the sacrificial buffalo
(which in the all-India context appears to be peculiar to the Toda
mortuary ritual *only*) is somehow reminiscent of the earliest known
mode of iconographic depiction of the mythological fight of goddess
Durgaa with the buffalo-demon. This iconography, as seen, f.i., in
the Mathura museum (1st century CE), Simla museum (4th century CE)
etc., shows the goddess wrestling with a wild buffalo having his neck
upturned under the pressure of her knee. The goddess has her left
hand around the neck of the buffalo. In this connection, it may be
remembered that the epithet Mahis.aasuramardinii conferred on Durgaa
after she has killed the asura Mahis.a includes the Sanskrit verbal
root mr.d- 'to press, crush, squeeze, trample down, tread upon etc.';
this epithet is seemningly referred to Durgaa's ability to neutralize
the buffalo-demon by means of the violent wrestling action designated
by the Sanskrit verbal root mr.d-.
In my view, the archetype of both the Todas' ritual wrestling with
the sacrificial buffalo and Durgaa's mythological wrestling with
Mahis.a might be a primitive form of wild-buffalo hunt practiced in
the ancient Deccan. Wasn't Durgaa (and her Old Tamil versions), after
all, the goddess of hunters? And, what were the Todas doing before
they became settled buffalo-herders on the Nilgiri Hills?
3. There are numerous theories about the origin of the Todas
and none relies on any solid evidence. Ultimately, genetics alone may be one
day in a position to answer. Also, as I pointed out on this list some years
ago, the core vocabulary of the Toda language (found in its most ancient
prayers) is not relatable to any Dravidian language, as Emeneau pointed out
long ago.
I am not so sure about the element of "fight" or "wrestling" in the Todas'
buffalo sacrifice. As far as I remember, it is more a concept of
companionship: the dead man's hand is joined with the buffalo's right horn
so that they may travel together in the afterworld. (In other words, a Toda,
in this world and the next, would be lost or incomplete without his sacred
buffalo.) However I will check up one of these days with my expert friend.
This does not rule out some connection with the Mahishasuramardini theme,
however. And yes, Korravai (Durga) in Sangam literature is a goddess of the
hill people. Incidentally, ritual buffalo slaying (witnessed by a deity) is
clearly depicted on a terracotta tablet from Harappa. It appears that the
whole mythology is quite ancient.
4. The "wrestling" scene is described in some detail in E. Thurston,
_Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, Madras, Government Press,
1909, Vol. 7, pp. 150 ff. (which I don't have at hand now). In this
connection, A. Hiltebeitel ("Rama and Gilgamesh: The Sacrifices of
the Water Buffalo and the Bull of Heaven," _History of Religions_ 19
[1980], p. 191) writes:
"Among the Todas the wilderness of the buffalo seems to be further
underscored in sacrificial rituals, for the Todas chase the buffalo
and wrestle it to the ground by the horns."
From another book:
"A buffalo is usually sacrificed to conclude a funeral ceremony, at
which Todas from all the surrounding villages [...] have assisted.
Boys are set out to search for the required animal, which is
frequently half-dead and bleeding from the nose when they finally
drive it to the place chosen for the sacrifice" (A. Miles [Gervée
Baronte], _The Land of the Lingam_, 2nd edn., London, The
Paternoster Library, 1937, p. 94).
The peculiar method resorted to by the Todas for killing the
sacrificial buffalo seems to be a very ancient one. I may further
suggest that the narrative of Vaalin's fight with the buffalo-demon
Dundubhi found in the Raamayan.a appears to some extent modeled on
this very archaic visual imaging of a man-animal confrontation
(having perhaps originated in the primitive hunting society), which
essentially consists in wrestling the buffalo to the ground by the
horns with bare hands. Here is a translation of Raamaayan.a,
Kis.kindha Kaan.d.a 11.40-47, where Vaalin grabs Dundubhi by the
horns and the latter is crushed (nis.pis.t.a) until the blood blows
from his ears:
"Then that elephantine monkey Vali took that mountain-similar
Dundubhi by horns, and booming highly he whirled and bumped him onto
ground
Vali while blaring highly with great sound repeatedly whirled him
and thrown onto ground, and while Dundubhi was hurled and thrown to
ground, blood gushed out of his two ears
There occurred a gruesome fight among those two, Dundubhi and Vali,
who by their fury are impetuous and who aspired victory over the
other
[...]
In that life-taking fight when Dundubhi is lifted up and flung to
ground, he is completely pounded out
While he is felled down much blood is flown out from the vent-holes
of his body, nine of them, ears, nose, eyes etc., and on his falling
that mighty one Dundubhi attained the fifth-state
Then the hastiest Vali swayed that dead and inanimate demon with
both of his hands and hurled him a yojana distance in a single flick"
> As far as I remember, it is more a concept of companionship: the
> dead man's hand is joined with the buffalo's right horn so that
> they may travel together in the afterworld. (In other words, a
> Toda, in this world and the next, would be lost or incomplete
> without his sacred buffalo.)
This is correct, yet this kind of "contact" rite is performed this
way only if the deceased is male. In the case of the funeral of a
female, her corpse is laid before the dead buffalo in such a way
that her feet rest on the forehead of the animal (source: Thurston,
see above).
In my Italian essay on buffalo-sacrifice at tribal funerals
available at
http://tinyurl.com/2xklx9
I have argued that the Toda ritual custom of joining the dead man's
hand with the buffalo's horn is reminiscent of the Vedic custom of
joining the dying man's hand with the tail of the vaitaran.ii cow.
In either case, the role of the bovine (the Toda buffalo, the Vedic
cow) as a soul-carrier is underscored through this "contact" rite.
(N:B: There are also other similarities between the funeral ritual
codified in the Braahman.as and the funeral rituals of the Todas and
other neighbouring tribes settled on the Nilgiri Hills. If you can
read Italian, you will find more details in my online paper.)
Finally,
--- In IndiaArchaeology@yahoogroups.com, Ram Varmha <varmha@...>
wrote:
> Personally, I do not think [The Todas' ritual slaughter of the
> buffalo] has any thing to do with Mahishasura Mardini, unless in
> the very distant past there may have been a common practice of
> sacrificing buffalo to some god or goddess(?). We can only
> speculate on this. But, the Todas know nothing about Mahishasura
> Mardini.
I agree, but please note I did not state that the ritual killing of
the buffalo at Toda funerals has anything to do with the
Mahis.aasuramardinii myth. Indeed, there is no buffalo-slaying
goddess in the religion of the Todas, who also have no practice of
sacrificing buffaloes to one or more goddesses (as is the case,
conversely, with the Hindu Durgaa, the slayer of the buffalo-demon,
to whom water-buffaloes are offered in sacrifice). What I wanted to
stress is only that the archaic hunting society's motif of
the "wrestling-with-the-buffalo" may be one of the cultural sources
of both the Mahis.aasuramardinii myth (see the Kus.aan.a images
showing Durgaa wrestling with a theriomorphic Mahis.aasura) and the
Todas' ritual wrestling with the sacrificial buffalo, which is
clearly a relic of the distant past.
5.
here is this story about the deity Ayyappa and "buffalo. The oral fable goes something like this:
Erumely is in Kottayam District in Kerala State ( The God's Own Country), in India.
(Michel, je l'espère, vous n'aurez pas trop d'objection à ce que j'ai cité ce terme, Dieu, dans son pays, qui, d'ailleurs, a été créée par le Dr. Gundert, le linguiste allemand qui a composé la première Malayalam à l'anglais, dictionnaire!).
Erumely, is on the way to Sabarimala, the jungle shrine of the South Indian deity Ayyappa. This place is well known for 'Petta-thullal' a kind of spiritual 'group-dance' performed by Ayyappa devotees. The place name Erumely is believed to be derived from 'Eruma Kolly' (Kill buffalo, in Malayalam) and in turn evolved to Erumely.
Petttathullal is performed by devotees of Lord Ayyappa to commemorate the annihilation of a 'Mahishi' by Lord Ayyappa. The mahishi, (in malayalam Eruma i.e a she buffalo).
This buffalo-demon had an outer skin so thick that no weapon could peneterate it. Only Ayyappa could kill the demon by striking the buffalo-demon on fore-head, with an axe.
After killing the Mahishi at Erumely, Ayyappa performed a dance on her dead body. In order to commemorate this dance of Ayyappa, the devotees perform the ritual of mass spiritual dance, Pettathullal in Erumely.
The barefooted devotees perform this dance, stomping on shrub branches, and smearing their body with colour powders and carrying imitation weapons of sorts and chanting 'Glory to Ayyapppa, Glory to Swamy'.
I wonder if the Toda buffalo kill and the dance of Ayyappa were in some way connected, in pre-history?
6. Francesco's account of the buffalo sacrifice is correct as far as I know
. One thing I do know is
that today, the sacrifice of sacred buffalos by Todas is most of the time
symbolic, i.e. not actually carried out. The purpose of the whole ritual is,
of course, to help the departed soul on his way to the afterworld, which
involves a geographical route through the Nilgiris up to its southwestern
edge overlooking Kerala. Beyond that is the afterworld ("God's Own Country",
as wags would put it, though many Keralites will tell you that their State
is hell
7.