Toda people of the Nilgiri Mountains

A carte-de-visite showing three Toda people of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.

An inked inscription verso in a period hand reads: 'A group of "Toda's" a Hill tribe who live in mud huts and worship the Buffalo. Upon the milk of this animal they subsist, they cut no meat, and except herding cattle do no work, the women have beautiful teeth, eyes & hair, & are splendid figures.'

According to Wikipedia, '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, which 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.'

During the 20th century, the Toda population hovered in the range of 700 to 900.

Photographer unidentified.