Teikirzi
Toda · deity · Toda traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Teikirzi, in the Toda phonemic spelling Tökisy, is the foremost goddess of the Toda pastoralists of the Nilgiri Hills. By their own account the Toda and their long-horned buffalo were created on the high massif of the Nilgiris by Teikirzi, who while she dwelt among living men ordained the institutions of Toda society and the elaborate ritual of the sacred dairy. She is paired with her brother On: where she governs the living and their herds, he reigns over the dead. Together they are reckoned the two most important beings of a vast Toda pantheon that also includes the gods of particular hills and rivers.
Domains
- law and custom
- creation
- sacred buffalo
Powers
- to establish the social and ceremonial law of the Toda
- to bring forth the first Toda and the sacred buffalo
Epithets
- Tö·kisyMurray B. Emeneau, Toda Grammar and Texts (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 155, 1984) (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: OnAs Teikirzi rules over the living Toda and their buffalo, so her brother On reigns over the dead; the pair are named together as the two chief Toda divinities and as joint creators.W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (Macmillan, 1906) (secondary); Anthony R. Walker, 'Toda', in Paul Hockings (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. III: South Asia (G. K. Hall, 1992) (secondary)
Sources
- Teikirzi (Tökisy) is the chief Toda goddess, creator of the Toda people and their sacred buffalo and giver of the social and ceremonial law of the tribe.: W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (Macmillan, 1906) (secondary); Anthony R. Walker, The Toda of South India: A New Look (Hindustan Publishing, 1986) (secondary)