M. POYIL
manding position regarding funeral ritual related to all the ham-
lets. From the archaeological point of view Todikki acquires a
predominant position because it is from here that reports about
the Kurumba tradition of erecting dolmen-like Megaliths came
first.
Historiography
Historical writings on the living tradition of Megalithic prac-
tice in Kerala are very few. Most of the studies are concentrated
on the typology of monuments, their individual and common
features, comparison with those of other parts of India and the
world, and the belief systems associated with Megalithism. The
first notable effort in this direction was made by L. A. Krishna
Iyer, who studied extensively the Megalithic culture of the
whole region of Kerala. He noticed, for the first time, the simi-
larity between the ancestor worship of the Megalithic people
and the tribal practices. In his two important works, The Pre-
historic Archaeology of Kerala (Iyer, 1948) and Kerala Mega-
liths and their Builders (Iyer, 1967) as well as in his article The
Disposal of the Dead among the Primitive Tribes of Travancore
(Iyer, 1939: pp. 61-62), he pointed out that certain Travancore
tribes like the Mala-Arayans erected dolmens over their graves
like the Megalithic people. In his famous work, Travancore
Tribes and Castes in 3 Volumes, he studied the burial customs
of various tribes of Travancore and found that burial was the
common mode of disposal of the dead and they deposited grave
goods along with the corpse.
In his Early Man in Wynad (John, 1975: pp. 125-131) and
The Megalithic Culture of Kerala, (John, 1978: pp. 485-489) K.
J. John studied the survival of Megalithic culture among the
lower caste Hindus and tribal communities of Malabar. He
pointed out that majority of the tribes who live on the Western
Ghats practice a burial custom which is very close to Mega-
lithism of the ancient days. He argued that the cult of Muthap-
pan and teyyam ritual dance is a cultural relic of the tribal tradi-
tion of ancestor worship.
Dieter B. Kapp in his remarkable article, “The Kurumbas’
Relationship to the ‘Megalithic’ Cult of Nilgiri Hills (South
India)” (Kapp, 1985: pp. 493-534) examined the past and pre-
sent relationship of the Nilgiri Kurumbas towards megalithism.
The most significant features of this article is that it presented
the erection of dolmens, stone circles and various other lithic
remains as a pointer to the cult of megalithism as a living tradi-
tion among them even today.
Megalithic Traits in Kurumba
Burial Practices
Disposal of the Dead
“The onset of death is universally the subject of ritual, and
there is not a single human society that simply throws the body
out as a mass of decaying protoplasm” (Murphy, 1989: p. 211).
And, for the Kurumbas, rituals are very elaborate, complex and
weird. Their mortuary practices had three phases-pre-burial,
burial and post-burial or secondary burial. According to Alek-
shin, the most important component of burial practice is ritual-
the activities sanctioned by tradition that occur before, during,
and after the burial and are considered essential to the transfer
to the other world of deceased members of the community, both
those forming its nucleus and others related by blood (Alekshin,
1987: pp. 137-138). Most important pre-burial ceremonies are
announcement of death, purification ceremonies, funeral dance
etc. Interment and mourning are the most common ceremonies
of the second phase. Through interment the corpse is put inside
the pit dug in the ground and the grave is filled, after inhuming
the body inside it, with earth. Their graveyard, which is located
away from the settlement in the forest, is known as Chodalai
and graves are dug by expert gravediggers from the tribe. The
grave is 6-feet deep and has a side cavity called Allekkuzhi,
where the body of the deceased is placed and well protected
with bamboo mats.
Grave-Goods
The corpse will be interred with a variety of goods including
the personal possessions of two varieties-one domestic posses-
sions of the deceased person like different kinds of food mate-
rials and water, clothes, ornaments, pottery, money, a cane bas-
ket known as tekku which contains different varieties of grains
and second varieties are implements like knife, hoe, axe, spade,
sickle, digging stick etc. Grains such as rice, millet, ragi, kora,
thuvara, etc. also are mainly interred. Money is the token for
the ferry charge to cross the river in the land of the dead for the
spirit. After interment Kurumbas used to fix a stone as a burial
mark at the head. All these grave goods gives us important his-
torical clues like the type of their economy, type of metals used
by them, their dietary pattern, anthropological data, belief in
life after death etc.
Social Differentiation
It has been suggested that the social position of the departed
is one of the important elements of the burial practices. It con-
sists of the collection of material elements—the burial structure,
the a ssemblage of grave goods, and the position of the deceased-
required for a person of a particular age and sex to be trans-
ported to the other world (Alekshin, 1987: pp. 137-138). This
social differentiation is reflected in mortuary ceremonies and
clearly in the deposition of grave goods. The burials of infants
are devoid of grave goods. On the basis of productive activities
grave goods of men and women vary. Being an agricultural and
hunting community, the Kurumba men are engaged in hunting
and fishing and in various agricultural activities like ploughing
while the women are involved in reaping, making baskets for
keeping grains and digging tubers. Hence the most prominent
grave goods deposited in men’s graves are hoe, fish hooks, ar-
rows, axe etc. whereas those in the graves of women are sickle,
digging stick, needle and cane basket. Besides, a Kurumba
woman is buried along with her precious and semi-precious
ornaments. Thus their burial deposits appear to be richer than
those of men.
Secondary Funeral and Erection of Me morial
The secondary burial ceremony of the Kurumbas is popularly
known as Cheeru, (Poyil, 2009: pp. 31-38) which is protracted
and very elaborate. Through this ceremony Kurumbas make
necessary arrangements for the spirit’s journey to the land of
the dead. The Kurumbas called their spirit Nikal or shadow.
The ceremonies connected with cheeru are spread over four
days. This post-burial ceremony is conducted after the death of
101 members in a settlement; hence it took 10 to 20 years or
more between two cheerus. This long interval between two
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