Last year, a good friend of mine visited Nilgiri - translated as Blue Mountains - in southern India in the state of Tamil Nadu. He brought photographs of beautiful people and said a little about them, namely, they are light magicians, who obey the little ugly dwarfs mulu-kurumba, evil sorcerers who kill with a glance. If the person who looked at the kurumba with hatred during the day, they will be able to cure him, but only if the bewitched person does not drink alcohol … No one can cope with the kurumba mulu, only they obey the Todds unquestioningly. Well, and a couple more strange phrases - Todds have no religion, but they worship their own buffaloes. Nilgiri has huge flowers and fruits, mild warmth - the most favorable climate in comparison with the South Indian heat …
Previously, kurumbas met quite often and often clashed with ordinary people, as a result of which the latter died on the 13th day after meeting with an angry kurumba. Now the kurumbas (possibly at the direction of the Todds) have hidden deep in the forests. A group of ethnological scholars, whom my acquaintance met in Nilgiri, said that during 8 years of research here, they only saw the Kurumbas once. This is now - in the 21st century.
Todds with kurumbas interested me and I turned to the book, which I advised - "Mysterious tribes on the Blue Mountains" by Blavatsky. And she was shocked.
A lot of amazing stories about Todds, Kurumbas and other tribes have been described - these are facts told by local Anglo-Asian farmers and facts seen by Blavatsky herself and attempts to research both English ethnologists and historians, and the author of the book.
The facts of witchcraft, perhaps, are not so surprising due to the fact that in India, in general, the people are a lot of witchcraft. Another thing is surprising.
But first, I'll tell you a little about these tribes. Thanks to Indian traditions and beliefs, the Nilgiri have long been a book with seven seals for centuries. Hindus simply did not go there out of sacred fear. No one knew if anyone lived there at all. The place was inaccessible due to its sacredness and divinity. Anyone who dared to go there was waiting for death - according to the ideas of the Hindus - the place of the gods, where mere mortals are prohibited from entering. Nobody has ever been there. Until the English appeared, laughing at Indian beliefs, they went there, forcibly dragged two Hindu drivers there. The latter really died very soon, not even reaching the foot. One was killed by a tiger, the other got sick because of something, it seems …
Promotional video:
The Angians, half-dead, hungry, wounded, reached the top along almost vertical rocks. And for the first time, ordinary people saw beautiful giants-todds and terrible dwarfs-kurumbov. The Todds immediately cured the British - literally with a wave of the magic wands that some of them had in their hands.
This is how the development of Nilgiri by Europeans and Asians began. Gradually the Todds were displaced from their lands to the very top of the Nilgiri. Kurumbas were hired to work for European farmers - for the sake of money - they safely stole, hypnotized the locals (in order to steal), killed with a glance those Indians who did not want to give them part of their salary, and those Englishmen who refused to give them the killed elephant. Todds lived and did not touch anyone, missionaries tried in vain to Christianize them, but at the same time priests in churches cited Todds as an example in sermons. The Todds have no words in the dictionary that mean "false, not true" - they are always honest and straightforward. They had no weapons for centuries. They have lived here for centuries, not knowing the Indian epic Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc. and not recognizing the Indian gods. They don't tell anyone much about themselves, and nobody knowswhat kind of rituals they hold teralli in small temples, because no one is allowed there. They talk to buffaloes, who warn them (for example, about the arrival of Europeans on their land) and teach them what and how to do. From time immemorial, their population and the number of men and women have not changed. However, they do not kill anyone. “Why should we kill a little mother? - they say in response to the questions of Europeans - If we can give birth to them as much as we need "… and so on. Yes, girls, girls, women - they all call mothers, adding only the definition of" small "," young "…" old " … They are larger than ordinary people and are very beautiful, stately. From time immemorial, their population and the number of men and women have not changed. However, they do not kill anyone. “Why should we kill a little mother? - they say in response to the questions of Europeans - If we can give birth to them as much as we need "… and so on. Yes, girls, girls, women - they all call mothers, adding only the definition of" small "," young "…" old " … They are larger than ordinary people and are very beautiful, stately. From time immemorial, their population and the number of men and women have not changed. However, they do not kill anyone. “Why should we kill a little mother? - they say in response to the questions of Europeans - If we can give birth to them as much as we need "… and so on. Yes, girls, girls, women - they all call mothers, adding only the definition of" small "," young "…" old " … They are larger than ordinary people and are very beautiful, stately.
Before ordinary people appeared in Nilgiri, the mulu-kurumba did not really quarrel with anyone and did not kill anyone, except for the animals, which they fascinated with their eyes and fed on them. This is how the scene of the kurumba hunting for birds is described: the kurumba takes a cane and attaches it to a tree branch. Seeks out a bird nearby and begins to stare at it. At the same time, the gaze of the kurumba is like the gaze of a snake bewitching its victim. Sometimes - extremely rarely - the bird manages to escape from this magical gaze and not look the kurumba in the eyes. But usually the bird looks at the kurumba and piteously tweets quietly to the cane tied to the branch - as if not even though, but limply. When she is on the cane, she can no longer move from it - and finds herself in the hands of the kurumba.
Seeing Todd, the kurumbas fall down in fear before him, as if before an unknown force, crawl away in fear.
Todds live in small houses with a low entrance - you can only crawl there.
In their houses they only spend the night, spend the whole day in the open air, herding their buffaloes. Todds are at least 6.2 feet tall (about 190 cm). Mullu-kurumba - about 90cm. Having no weapons and spending whole days in nature, Todds are never attacked by wild animals, which were very numerous in Nilgiri in the 19th century (I don’t know how now). When Indians and Europeans settled in Nilgiri, not a week passed without human casualties, and their herds often returned home only two-thirds of the animals. At the same time, the Todd buffaloes always remained untouched, there were still extremely rare cases when animals carried away small buffaloes, but still …
The Todd buffaloes were huge, to the envy of the new inhabitants of Nilgiri. They asked the Todds to cross animals or sell a buffalo - the Todds would not agree. Buffaloes are sacred to Todds, buffaloes know and say a lot to Todds.
Todds do not work - “they don’t sow, they don’t reap, but the Heavenly Father feeds them”)) Herbs and roots are often brought to them by other tribes, some will be honored to do the work entrusted to them for free. All the Todds do (in terms of work) is graze their buffaloes and take their milk. Only a few male Toddas can milk the buffalo.
In addition to the Todds and Kurumbas, the British discovered three more tribes on the Blue Mountains - all very different. The most civilized among all the Nilgirian tribes were the Baddags. They are engaged in agriculture, believe in Shiva, are divided into clans, have brahmins.
Brahmins are the highest caste of initiates.
Here - for me - the fun begins.
Brahmins are a proud caste, for whatever money they will not agree to work either for the British or for ordinary Hindus. The Brahmins consider it humiliating to transfer for themselves a simple knot from house to house. Every year, at the celebration of the last harvest, the Brahmins are required to present evidence of their Brahminism - to prove that they are the descendants of the initiates, “born twice.” To this end, they slowly walk barefoot on brightly burning coals or a red-hot iron. They walk calmly, stand as if on a parquet floor. And this proud caste - for Toddov works completely free of charge, not giving up even the "lowest" job. Brahmins can be bricklayers, dishwashers, and Todd tanners. And yet - they regard the Todds as gods, sometimes superior to Shiva.
“Todds don't even recognize your gods! - the researchers are surprised. “Todds are gods themselves! - the baddags answer. “Our ancestors served the Todds many centuries ago in the time of Rama!” The mullu-kurumbas say that they served the Todds in Lanka.
And what is amazing is how the Toda told their story to the Baddagam. Not knowing anything about the sacred Indian books, they seemed to retell the story of the Ramayana - just not on behalf of Rama and added new pages, which seemed to have fallen out! Perhaps there are many allegories, but everything seems surprisingly accurate. I would very much like to understand how science today relates to both the Ramayana and the todes that ethnologists have discovered today, whether anyone has done a genetic analysis of all dissimilar tribes in Nilgiri. After all, they study them to this day - have they advanced somewhere?
But I will tell you what I read in a book about Todas, written over a hundred years ago.
Describing their past, Toda say that it was 199 generations of Toda ago, i.e. about 7-8 thousand years ago.
"This was when the king of the east, without the monkey people, went to kill Gavanna, the great but evil demon, the king of Lanka" compare with Ramayana (I will tell first the story of the Ramayana, then the history of the Toda) - in the Ramayana, among other names, the king of the east was called Rama (the incarnate god Vishnu), he went to war with the evil demon Ravanna, who reigned in Sri Lanka. He went with an army of monkeys and bears. Demons - Rakshasas lived in Lanka then. According to the Indian epic, the evil Ravanna stole his wife from Rama, yes and in general, evil demons then greatly bothered the honest Indian people, killed, tortured, etc. Rama went to free the earth from evil. But even in the midst of evil, everything was not so simple - Ravanna had brothers the giant Kumbhakarna, who was awakened after many years of sleep for a war with Rama, and Vibheshana,who in every possible way persuaded Ravanna to free Rama's wife and in general to change his mind and not torment honest people. Ravanna got angry and drove his brother away. Vibheshana, along with four good demons, came to Rama and asked him to join the army: "I offer myself to you as your allies, oh hero of great wisdom, and I will lead your brave armies to conquer Lanka and to the death of evil Rakshasas." As a result, of course, they won the Rakshasas. After the death of the evil Ravanna, Rama appointed his good brother Vibheshana as king of Lanka, and returned safely to his home. This is the story of the Ramayana. After the death of the evil Ravanna, Rama appointed his good brother Vibheshana as king of Lanka, and returned safely to his home. This is the story of the Ramayana. After the death of the evil Ravanna, Rama appointed his good brother Vibheshana as king of Lanka, and returned safely to his home. This is the story of the Ramayana.
And here is the story of the Toda who do not know the Indian epic and do not believe in Indian gods: “It was when the king of the east, without the monkey people, went to kill Havanna, the great but evil demon, the king of Lanka. His people consisted of demons, giants and powerful sorcerers. Lanka is a land surrounded by water everywhere. King Gavanna was the heart of the kurumba (i.e. evil sorcerer). He had two brothers: Kumba - a giant of giants who, having slept for hundreds of years, was killed by the King of the East, and Vibya - a kind and beloved demon "(compare with Ramayana - Ravanna and his brothers the giant Kumbhakarna and kind Vibheshana)" Vibya - say the Toda - he was forced to abandon Havana because of his crime against the East, from which he stole his wife. Vibya crossed the sea with 4 faithful servants and helped the East to win, for which the King of the East made Vibya king over Lanka."
Further, the Toda tell a story that is not in the Ramayana: 4 good demons that arrived with Vibya were peaceful and refused to fight even with evil demons. During the war, they practiced spells for the success of good and Vibya, and after the war they asked for peace. Wishing to reward them, the King of the East created the Blue Mountains on a barren plane and gave them and their descendants for eternal possession. The good demons took with them from Lanka seven other good demons - anchorites and a hundred human-demons - laymen (todes) with their wives and children. Seven good demons, wanting to feed the Todas, instruct them and disarm the spells of evil demons, turned into buffaloes. Four servants of Vibya remained forever to live in the Blue Mountains - they can only be seen and heard by initiates of the Toda - teralli. Buffaloes and demons made up lawyers and determined the number of future Todas and Buffaloes - which has never changed since then. One of the demons returned to Lanka in order to get the Toda (up to the required number, or what?))) And saw King Vibya there. Vibya meanwhile killed all the evil demons and lived happily for himself. He honestly tried to retrain the demons and somewhere he even succeeded. But the gift of expensive magic “is obtained only as a result of personal qualities, purity of morals, love for all living things, that is, both to people and to the dumb creature, and, finally, through communication with invisible good sorcerers who, having left the earth, live in a country under the clouds where the sun sets. land. However, the monkeys and bears from the army of Rama, for joy and out of their bestial stupidity, got drunk - or rather went into a binge for several days. And we went on a spree there with local demons. As a result, many vile and spiteful and stupid dwarfs were born in Lanka - the ancestors of the modern Kurumbas. The demon who arrived from the Blue Mountains to Lanka took several, not the most spoiled, with him with a promise that they would obey the Toda in everything. So they still obey, showing their demonic inclinations with wild animals and ordinary people who recently appeared in Nilgiri. As for the baddags, they obeyed and worshiped good demons even during the war of Rama, being in the army of Rama. The demon who arrived from the Blue Mountains to Lanka took several, not the most spoiled, with him with a promise that they would obey the Toda in everything. So they still obey, showing their demonic inclinations with wild animals and ordinary people who recently appeared in Nilgiri. As for the baddags, they obeyed and worshiped good demons even during the war of Rama, being in the army of Rama. The demon who arrived from the Blue Mountains to Lanka took several, not the most spoiled, with him with a promise that they would obey the Toda in everything. So they still obey, showing their demonic inclinations with wild animals and ordinary people who recently appeared in Nilgiri. As for the baddags, they obeyed and worshiped good demons even during the war of Rama, being in the army of Rama.
What makes me not dismiss this legend as a fiction is the absolute honesty of the Toda, in whose language there are no words with the meaning of false, untrue, fiction. Although there is one BUT Toda never say anything special about themselves to Europeans. Only rare cryptic phrases. This whole story was told by baddag - baddagam toda and it was told. Whether they will lie and compose / complete baddags - I have no idea. However, for some reason I would like to believe - a wonderful story!
There are strange ancient burial grounds in Nilgiri - and the Toda honestly say: "We do not know what it is - when we came here, there were already burial grounds." They did not invent legends for these burial grounds. The Baddags did not invent them either.
The magical abilities of the Toda, the uncontrollability of Christian missionaries, firmness in their own knowledge, way of life, and the consciousness that they are different - or rather, that ordinary people are different: “You are not from our mountains. - said the Toda Blavatsky - Our Sun is not your sun, and our buffaloes are not known to you. You will be born as baddags are born, not us. Who are they?
Toda tribe - a living shard of antiquity
One of the most mysterious tribes on Earth is the Toda tribe, lost high in the mountains of India. Unlike other Indian tribes, neither in customs nor in appearance, they speak an ancient language that has no analogues in modern Indian languages and in general, Toda is a continuous mystery for both anthropologists and ethnographers, and for historians and linguists.
To begin with, Toda's appearance is closest to European: striking relatively light skin, reddish hair, straight "Roman" nose and greenish or brown-green eyes. Against the background of other dark chocolate Indians, Toda simply "shine".
This is a very small tribe - only about one thousand people. First discovered in the 17th century by Portuguese sailors, then forgotten for two centuries and again "discovered" by the British in the 19th century, this number has remained practically unchanged since the time of the Portuguese.
This striking demographic constancy and an astonishing and also unchanging sex ratio (per 20 females - 100 males) baffles scientists. They believe that such a fact can indicate only one thing - the ritual murder of "extra" children, especially girls.
However, the Toda deny such accusations and assure that they have no reason to kill newborns, since their women give birth to as many and as many as they need and who are needed, according to the ancient laws of their distant homeland. How they do it - they do not intend to reveal this secret to any newcomers.
As for the distant homeland of Toda, everything here is completely covered with impenetrable darkness. The tribe's blood formula does not correspond to the modern biological environment. Therefore, they are an alien people. Only from where? The Toda themselves claim that their origin is in Sri Lanka, and they came to it from … the mysterious constellation of the Bull.
Scientists, of course, are not considering this "star" option, but are trying to look for the homeland of Toda on earth. And one of the main assumptions, not devoid of sensation and logic at the same time, is that the ancestors of Toda are the ancient Sumerians. Say, the Sumerian seafarers sailed in ancient times to the coast of India and founded a colony here. After some time, the connection of the colonists with the "metropolis" was cut off, and they had to become "Indians" against their will and forever.
Well, part of this assumption is supported by real facts. So, the Toda tribe calls the main luminaries of the sky, the sun and the moon, by the same names as the ancient Sumerians - Uttu and Sin. Their clothing is very similar to the Sumerian robes, in style somewhat similar to the Roman togas. Toda has mysterious tales of seven great kingdoms across the great sea, dominated by a mighty "lord of ships." As for ships, this is very interesting, because Toda live high in the mountains, there is no sea next to them, they do not build boats, and even more so ships, and there are stories about sea ships that have been transmitted over the centuries.
Other researchers put forward a hypothesis about the Dravidian origin of the Toda. However, their opponents immediately point to serious differences between Dravidians and Toda: first, the Toda language has no analogues among the dialects used by the inhabitants of southern India. And secondly, the Dravids are farmers, while the Toda is exclusively a pastoral culture.
There is also a version that Toda are descendants of the Scythians. Supporters of this version speak of the similarity between the wagons of the Scythian nomads and the Toda huts; find similar elements in the Scythian religion and religious views and customs of both peoples; and see the similarity of clay figurines among the Scythians and Toda.
And there are some researchers who claim that the Toda are direct descendants of the Lemurians, whose mainland sank to the bottom of the ocean in prehistoric times. And the stories about the seven overseas kingdoms are nothing more than miraculously survived and passed through the centuries data about the long-disappeared Lemurian civilization.
Perhaps much of the history and origins of the Toda would have been discovered by their ancient language called "kvorzha". It is not for nothing that some scientists are trying to unravel the secret of the Toda, operating precisely with linguistic data. But the trouble is - kvorzha is unique, and it is not possible to comprehend it.
Like all ancient (very ancient) languages, kvorzha is extremely simple. There are only two times in it: the mysterious - present-future and the past. The cases are the same in form, and the plural is not indicated in any way.
They tried to study Quorja from a "swoop" back in the 19th century, trying to "tie" it to the Dravidian group of languages. But it was not there. Thus, one of the enthusiasts, a missionary, the Reverend Schmidt, who, in principle, had a good understanding of Dravidian linguistics, having worn out with an incomprehensible language, in the end admitted: "I cannot attribute about a third of words from the Toda dialect to any of the languages with which I am familiar." …
Another enthusiast who compiled a geographical description of the Toda Mountains of the Nilgiri also admitted: “The Toda language has a unique accent and a strange original style. Apparently, it has no analogy with any of the spoken languages used by the natives of South India. " And the famous English ethnographer Rivers generally emphasized that Toda speaks a "secret language" incomprehensible to the Dravids.
In the XX century, other hypotheses were put forward, which were "diversion or" towards the Sumerians. In particular, Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark, who had a degree in anthropology and twice visited Toda, suggested that words from kvorzh are similar to words from the Sumerian language. It was he who pointed to the same sound of the names of the sun and moon among the Sumerians and Toda.
This bold hypothesis was later defeated by the American anthropologist and linguist M. Emeno, who pointed out and proved that such a similarity of names can be easily explained if we proceed from the laws of the Dravidian languages. His proofs, however, could not completely and completely refute the arguments of the supporters of the non-Dravidian roots of the Kvorzh, including the Sumerian ones, and the question remained open. Until now, none of the representatives of the scientific world can intelligibly explain the origin of the ancient Toda language and clearly attribute it to any language group or family.
Kvorzha is a ritual and archaic language. It is spoken exclusively by priests. All other inhabitants of the tribe communicate with each other in another "dialect", colloquial, and this one can easily be attributed to the southern Dravidian subgroup of the Dravidian family. This language (spoken language) is closest to Tamil and Malayalam. But this language is the result of late history.
Toda is an interesting tribe both in terms of customs and beliefs. They are herders, but … vegetarians: they breed buffaloes exclusively for milk. Buffalo is everything to Toda. Each of the Toda has his own personal buffalo, which he worships. Toda believe that at birth, the soul settles in the human body, and his spirit - in the buffalo.
The tribe has a special buffalo - "tiriri". On its territory there is a special paddock for personal buffaloes and a secret temple, which cannot be approached by women and unmarried men.
Only terral priests can approach the temple's untouchable door. On it, in addition to buffalo horns parallel to the horns of the moon, there are also images of the stars of the mysterious ancestral home of Toda - the constellation of the Bull. From time to time, one of the priests leaves for a secret temple to perform a secret service there. It lasts for 3 months hopelessly, and no one knows what is happening at this time in the temple.
The main goddess for Toda can be called Giryu-deva. Its symbol is a bell on the neck of a buffalo. They also worship the sun, believe in evil spirits and reincarnation.
Despite the fact that Toda do not eat buffalo meat, the practice of ritual killing of these animals exists. This usually happens when the buffalo owner dies. The head of his personal bull is cut off, and the carcass is buried in the ground. Above it, the body of the deceased is burned: it is believed that with the smoke of the sacred animal, the spirit from the buffalo delivers the soul of the deceased to the constellation of the Bull. Then relatives collect the ashes of their relative in a pot and take it home, and the buffalo head is placed on the cremation site. This place is located in the forest, each deceased has his own, and is never visited by anyone later.
The Toda are not afraid of anyone, they have no weapons for war or defense, they do not keep guard dogs and live in complete merger with nature
The neighbors have a special attitude towards Toda, respectful, almost reverent. Neighboring peoples firmly believe that Toda have mystical and supernatural powers, for example, they can heal with their hands or with the help of spell milk. And each of the Toda also has a "magic wand" - a bamboo cane, which they do not release from their right hand. Also, all neighboring neighbors are sure that Toda have power over elephants and tigers and can themselves transform into them.
Well, maybe that's how it is. After all, it was noticed that Toda are not afraid of anyone, they have no weapons for war or defense, they do not keep guard dogs and live in complete merger with nature, without disturbing its harmony and tranquility.