206 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRT DISTRICT. 



CHAP. IX, 

 PART II. 



Ethnology. 



Rites and 



Ceremonies. 

 —Birth. 



-Marriage. 



— Fauerals. 



Kama, the god of love. It is noteworthy that a town of the 

 KurumlDas in Tondarmandalam was called Kamakottam, and that 

 the goddess Parvati was worshipped in the temple there (Winslow) . 

 If liowever the correct word is Kambata, then the worship may 

 be the same as the Badaga worship of the " Pillar god.^' And this 

 view seems to derive support from the story of the new deity, 

 Magale, (-Ma/<a + Jial,hig stone) represented by an upright stone, 

 of the establishment of which Mr. Bi'eeks speaks. Their temples 

 are mere pent-houses of thatch, opea at both ends, and supported 

 by square stone pillars sculptured after much the same fashion 

 as the pillars of their verandahs, but on a larger scale. There is 

 no image of any kind it is said. There are two or more of these 

 temples in each village. 



Of their two great annual festivals one is in honor of Kamata- 

 raya. It lasts for a fortnight and gives them an opportunity for 

 decorating themselves in any dresses, ornaments, &c., that they 

 can borrow and of performing their national dance to the music of 

 their drums and horns accompanied by singing. Occasionally a 

 Kota becomes possessed by a god. He yells, dances, rolls aboutj- 

 aud performs the most frantic gestures until at last he falls down 

 in a kind of fit. This phase of the worship recalls the demonology 

 of Southern India. The other feast is in honor of the dead who 

 have died during the year, and answers in some respects to the 

 Toda gTeen funeral. 



Immediately after the birth of a child, it is removed, with its 

 mother, to a temporary hut, made of boughs, and called Vollu 

 giidu, from vollu, inside, gudu, a nest. After thirty days they inhabit 

 one or two permanent huts set apart for women when they are 

 considered unclean. When they leave these huts to return home, 

 after the third mcmth has passed, it is the custom for the women 

 to take seven steps backwards among seven kinds of thorns. The 

 Kotas can give no explanation of this ceremony, it is simply 

 mdmid. On the seventh day, after the return of the mother and 

 child, a feast is given to all the relatives- The child is fed with 

 gruel, " congee," and named. 



The Kotas marry only one wife, unless she has no children, in 

 which case a second is permissible, and both women live in the 

 same house. 



It is usual for boys of fifteen or upwards to be betrothed to girls 

 of six or eight. When the girl becomes of age, she is sent for to 

 the house of her future father-in-law. A feast is given with 

 mr;sic and dancing, and the ceremony is concluded by the bride- 

 groom's mother tying the tdli round the bride's neck. Among 

 the Kotas the tali is a silver necklace of Kota workmanshiji. 



The Kotas seem to have borrowed some of their funeral rites 

 from the Badagas and some from the Todas. The Tcru or scaf- 



