Toda
names 7objects 7ISO 639-3 tcx
Spoken in Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu.
tribal 7
See the Toda sky on the chart →
The sky in Toda
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keirt | Figures with no secure modern identification | Feared above all after childbirth; its evil influence is keirtpudrtviti, and the whole seclusion-hut procedure is designed to avert it. Said to be always near the sun, and never in the same part of the sky as the Pleiades. | tribal |
| Pŏdimīn | Orion | porcupine star The sword stars are a porcupine, and the three stars of the belt are trying to escape from it. | tribal |
| Ishtkati | Sirius | Corresponds to the Badaga etukadichi, 'bull deceiving': a Badaga once saw a star so bright he took it for the morning star and let his bulls out of the pen; when day did not come he said, let the star be called etukadichi. | tribal |
| tudrvalmokh (with a companion star) | The Hyades | the young of the tūdrval bird A bird with young was left by its mother while she went for food; a snake climbed the tree, and the nestlings called to Kudursami, who took them up into the sky. The tūdrval still sings 'Kudursami trrrrrrr'. In another version the bird had offended Swami, who took its young as a punishment. | tribal |
| Kadsht | The Pleiades | Held to be six stars, not seven: Kadsht had six men and Keirt only one, and Keirt broke the leg of one of the six, so that five now stand close together and one lags behind. Because of that quarrel the god ruled that Kadsht and Keirt must never be in the sky together. At one funeral the setting of Kadsht and the appearance of Keirt was the sign that the azaramkedr might begin. | tribal |
| Katikālmin | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | — | tribal |
| Pili | Venus | — | tribal |
Sources
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), pp. 593-594 (and ch. XIV, pp. 269, 326) link
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), p. 594 link
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), pp. 594-595 link
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), p. 595 link
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), ch. XXIV 'Constellations and Stars', pp. 593-594 link
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), p. 593 link