MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



187 



The following is a list of the Toda population in the Nilagiri CHAP. IX, 

 District according to the final censua of 15th November 1871. P ART I. 

 Particulars will be found in Chapter II. Ethnology. 



Census. 



The number of mands has decreased since 1847.^ There were 

 then in 



Todanad 74 



Mekanad ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 



Perangandd ... ... ... ... ... 8 



Breeks into two classes, who Divisions. 

 2, Tarserzhdl. The first consists 



The Todas are divided by Mr, 

 cannot intermarry : 1, Devdlydl ^ ; 

 of the Peiki clan, corresponding in some respects to the Brah- 

 mans ; the second, of the four remaining clans, called respectively 

 Pehkans, Kuttans, Kennans and Todis. Mr. Breeks states that the 

 Peikis do not intermarry with the other clans, but Mr. Metz 

 asserts that none of the clans intermarry. 



The Todas are essentially a pastoral people, and, in a measure, Mode of life, 

 nomadic, that is to say, the inhabitants of each mand or village 

 possess one or two other mands, and^ move from one to the 

 other as they may find it convenient or necessary to do so, either 

 to secure pasture for their herds or shelter from the monsoons, 

 which are more felt in some localities than in others. 



They never make any attempt to cultivate their lands. The 

 gudil, which they levy in kind from the Badagas and Kotas, 

 supplies them with grain, and beyond this they depend entirely 

 upon their large herds of buffaloes for support. Mr. Breeks 

 humorously remarks : — 



" Labor of any kind they hardly attempt ; indeed, so entirely 

 incomprehensible is the notion to them, that when, on one occasion, 

 an unlucky mistake about the ownership of some bufialoes committed 



' Ouchterlony's Report. 



* Devdlyil signifies " A man of God's house" from D^vA'ayam, a temple, and 

 dr, a person. Tarserzhdl seems to signify servant, from Tdsan, a servant or slave, a 

 man of the fourth caste. Mr. Mctz does not mention these names ; possibly they 

 are modern descendants of the high and lowr caste sections of the Toda tribe. 

 This caste distinction in an isolated and unbrabmanized race is suggestive. 



^ They also leave a mand for a time when one of their number dies. 



