Video: Beautiful good wizards: the mystery of the ancient Toda tribe, lost in the Blue Mountains
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
They say that for 10 girls, according to statistics, there are 9 guys. But in the mysterious Toda tribe the opposite is true - there are a hundred men for 20 women. An amazing people live in the Blue Mountains in the south of India. Its origins, language and culture have not yet been solved by anthropologists. The Toda themselves believe that their distant ancestors came to Earth from the constellation of the Bull, worship buffaloes, keep magical knowledge and still preach the cult of women.
For the first time, the Toda tribe became known in the 17th century; Portuguese navigators were their pioneers. The second time they were discovered by the British already in the 19th century, and since then, scientists have begun to unravel the secrets associated with the origin of this unusual ethnic group. Toda's appearance is not typical for India, their skin is lighter in color, and their eyes are often green or brown. The blood formula is also different and indicates that this people is alien. Anthropologists have several versions regarding their origin: the ancestors of the Todas could have been the ancient Sumerians, who once founded a "colony" in India, the Dravidians, Scythians and even the Lemurians, whose mainland sank to the bottom of the ocean in prehistoric times. During ritual acts, the Toda use a special language, "kvorzha", which could not be attributed to any of the linguistic groups known to science. Colloquial speech is close to Tamil and Malayal (Dravidian family).
A buffalo is considered a sacred animal in the Toda tribe. The animals are bred solely for the sake of milk (the Toda are vegetarians), each person has his own buffalo, which is kept in a special tiriri pen. On the territory of the corral there is a secret temple, which can only be entered by priests, here they take turns conducting services (each service lasts about three months, during which time the priest does not leave the temple). Toda believe that at birth, the soul of a person settles in his body, and the spirit in the body of a buffalo. After the death of the owner of the buffalo, the animal is also killed, the head is cut off, the carcass is buried in the ground, and the body of the deceased is burned above it. It is believed that the spirit of the buffalo will take the soul of the deceased to the constellation of the Bull. The ashes are collected in a special pot, which is then stored in the house, and at the cremation site they leave the head of a buffalo and never come here again.
Toda have a special attitude towards women. Before marriage, girls are given complete freedom, before polygamous marriages were commonplace, when several brothers had one wife. It is noteworthy that the decision on marriage is made when the woman is pregnant, but if the child's father does not meet the criteria for an ideal husband, then at the 7th month of pregnancy the young lady can change her chosen one, while the man does not dare refuse her marriage. Girls "in position" are considered the most enviable brides. A husband can ask for a divorce only in two cases: if the wife is stupid or lazy, although the stronger sex does most of the housework. Divorce proceedings are simple: if the wife leaves for another, the "lucky man" pays compensation in the amount of 6 buffaloes to the abandoned husband.
It is believed that representatives of the Toda tribe have special healing abilities, they can heal with a touch of the hand or with charmed milk. In their community, there are isolated cases of theft, there is practically no self-interest and envy, and they do not know weapons. In a word, these are "beautiful good wizards", as the writer Helena Blavatsky called them, who visited the Blue Mountains in 1852.
From a short Russian-language film, one can find out why the Toda society, which has never known hypocrisy, war, hunger and injustice, is now doomed. Another ethnic mystery that anthropologists are struggling to solve is Kalash - Pakistani people with a Slavic appearance, "Heirs" of Alexander the Great, pagans who managed to survive in the very heart of the Islamic world.
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