When you live in the bowels of nature, as the tribal groups in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu do, religion takes on a tangible form. The deities and gods are associated with hills, stones, waterbodies and groves. Rock shelters and megalithic monuments such as dolmens, menhirs, cairn circles and draw well cairns are the abode of deities.
Many tribes live from the Upper Nilgiris to the slopes and plains of the lower Nilgiris. The Todas, the Kotas, the Kurumbas and the Irulas, each have their unique way of worship.
Take this for example: a Thiv Mana, which translates as God’s house, is a thatched hut that is cleaned every day, and a lamp is lit in the evening. Some sacred items are kept here and, once every year, taken for ceremonies in a temple deep in the forest.
Some like the Mullu Kurumbas allocate a centrally located hut within the hamlet for their deities.
A Kurumba priest explained the significance of a pond known as gangithai. The water from the pond is considered sacred and used to clean the Sedikkal tribal village’s Madappa temple.
The Todas and the Kotas have their temples in the Upper Nilgiris. The main temple of the Todas is at Muthanadmund near Udhagamandalam. The conical temple called Moonboo is the place where all the members of the clan gather at the end of the year or the New Year. The festival begins with dance. Only the priest enters the Moonboo. Toda buffalo milk is used for the purposes of the temple, the ghee made from the milk is used to light lamps.
For the Kotas, the main god and goddess are Ayyanor and Ammanor. At Solur Kokkal village, a grand temple festival is held once in two years.
