The Scenario of Religious Practices Observable at the Tribal Nilgiris

The Nilgiris (which is popularly known as the ‘Blue Mountains’), a district in Tamil Nadu, has been identified as an integral part of the great Deccan Plateau that occupies a signifi­cant place within the ‘Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve’ (NBR) and is located at the tri-juncture of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

As the ‘Tribal Nilgiris’ provides traditional habitats to its various indigenous tribal groups cited above, the tribal communities concerned revere its unique landmarks as their ‘sacred spaces’, namely, ‘sacred sites’, ‘sacred peaks’, and ‘sacred repositories’ on the belief that they are the ‘ancient abodes’ of their ancestors and/or ancestral spirits. For instance:

(i) the Thalaimalai Peak located at ‘Mael Seeme’¹³ and the ‘Malleswaran Mudi’ (Lit. The Tamil word mudi means peak) situated at Attapadi are known respectively as ‘Kotru Baoli’ and ‘Kwatteihn (Literally meaning cliff; cf. Tamil kuvadu) and revered by the Toda tribes as their ‘sacred sites’;

(ii) the Rangaswamy Pillar is designated as ‘Kotter Vikeen’ by the Kota tribes and treated by them as their ‘sacred peaks’;

(iii) the Catherine Falls and the Buffalo Sacrifice Site which are noted respectively as ‘Uli Mande’ (a sacred site) and ‘Kaona Undho Bare’ (an ancient ancestral boundary by the tribal Alu Kurumbas); and

(iv) the Rangaswamy Bettu is called as the Giri Bettu by the Irular tribes and is treated as their ‘sacred site’

Apart from the aforementioned ‘sacred spaces’ the PVTGs of Tribal Nilgiris are observed to possess a unique tribal religion of their own.

(i) the Toda tribes are observed to possess a buffalo-centred culture wherein the entire stock of buffaloes is dichotomised into the ‘sacred buffaloes’ (which are maintained by the Toda priest in the vicinity of ‘sacred space’) and the ‘ordinary buffaloes’ which are maintained by the Toda people in general. The priest associated with the Toda temple is observed to upkeep the sacred buffaloes, starting from ‘pouring of salt dissolved water’, ‘milching the sacred buffaloes’ up to ‘safe keeping of associated sacred objects’ such as ‘bamboo vessel’ for storing milk, ‘earthen vessel’ for storing the curd, butter, and the ‘cane churning stick’ for churning the curd. That is why the sacred shrine of Toda is referred to as the ‘Dairy Temple’ by the etic researchers (Maheswaran 2012)

(ii) the Kota tribes observe ‘Kambat’, the blacksmithy site, as the sacred enclosure within their traditional ‘habitat’, namely ‘Kaokkaal’, apart from their twin sacred shrines for ‘Ainaor’ and ‘Amnaor’ and utilisation of pair of a megalithic dolmens located side-by­side as the ‘transit temples’ during refurbishment of their sacred shrines (for ‘Ainaor’ and ‘Amnaor’) (Maheswaran 2012)

(iii) the tribes of the Alu Kurumbas believe in the existence of ‘double soul’ and their set­tling in on the river worn stones after the death of a person, and upkeeping of such spirit stones ‘Dheva-Kotta-Kallu’ (Lit. ‘God given stone’) within the enclosure of mega­lithic dolmen, ‘Naalu Paadi’ (meaning Abode of spirit) or ‘Gove Mane’ (place with stacked stones), and observe a secret ceremony by the name ‘Kumba Dhevaru Abba’ (deification of pot deities) (see Maheswaran 2017)

(iv) the Paniyan tribes are found to observe ‘Puthari Chadangu’ (Lit. Festival of New (Paddy) Sheaths, a harvest festival) wherein other PVTGS like the Toda, the Kota, the Betta Kurumba, the Mullu Kurumba, and the Irular also take part in it along with the non-tribal Mountadan Chettys (who happen to be the owner of paddy fields) (see Maheswaran 2016).

(v) tribes of the Mullu Kurumbas are observed to upkeep the ‘Dheyva Pere’ (Lit. Deity Chamber) which is used as the ‘sacred repository’ to store the relics of mortal remains of deceased persons; the first offering of harvested paddy stalk is observed here. Interestingly, this sacred site is also used to conduct the nuptials for newly wedded couples

(Maheswaran 2012)

Thus, we could observe that the different tribal groups inhabiting the Nilgiris have identi­fied certain natural landmarks such as ‘peaks’, ‘waterfalls’, ‘boulders’ located in and around the traditional habitats as the ‘sacred spaces’ of their own. Accordingly, these tribal peoples regard these sites as the significant sites that have been occupying primordial places within their indigenous religion(s).

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