Toda Hut Community
Toda people are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the State of Tamil Nadu.
Before the 18th century and British colonisation, the Toda coexisted locally with other ethnic communities, including the Kota, Badaga and Kurumba.
During the 20th century, the Toda population has hovered in the range 700 to 900.
The study of their culture by anthropologists and linguists proved significant in developing the fields of social anthropology and ethnomusicology.
The Toda traditionally live in settlements called mund, consisting of three to seven small thatched houses, constructed in the shape of half-barrels and located across the slopes of the pasture, on which they keep domestic buffalo.
Their economy was pastoral, based on the buffalo, whose dairy products they traded with neighbouring peoples of the Nilgiri Hills.
Toda religion features the sacred buffalo; consequently, rituals are performed for all dairy activities as well as for the ordination of dairymen-priests.
The religious and funerary rites provide the social context in which complex poetic songs about the cult of the buffalo are composed and chanted.
Fraternal polyandry in traditional Toda society was fairly common; however, this practice has now been totally abandoned, as has female infanticide.
The Toda lands are now a part of The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-designated International Biosphere Reserve; their territory is declared UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Toda language is a member of the Dravidian family.
Linguists have classified Toda (along with its neighbour Kota) as a member of the southern subgroup of the historical family proto-South-Dravidian.
Registrar of Geographical Indication gave GI status for their unique embroidery, a practice which has been passed on to generations.
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