Note 21 — Chapter XXIII · SOCIAL ORGANISATION

The Todas regard with some reverence a Hindu temple at Nanjankudi in Mysore, and visit it to pay vows, and there is little doubt that they have done this for a long time. Further, Nòdrs, one of the oldest and most sacred of the Toda villages, is close to the present road from Mysore and may have been near the most convenient route from Mysore in ancient times. I think, however, that, though not recent, the relations with the Hindu temple at Nanjankudi are not of very great antiquity, and I am inclined to ascribe the Toda reverence for it to their association with the Badagas, who almost certainly came from Mysore. I have not been able to find many parallels to Toda customs in Mysore. In one case, however, the resemblance is very close. Among the Gollavalu of Mysore21 a woman after delivery is turned out into a leaf or mat hut, about 200 yards from the village, and on the fourth day a woman of the village pours water over her. In this case the woman lives in the hut for three months, her husband also living in a special hut. Again, among the Kadu (or forest) Gollas of Mysore22 the mother and child remain in a small shed outside the village for seven to thirty days.