Ootacamund in the Nilgiris: Some Notes

Abstract

THE TOWN OF OOTACAMUND in the Nilgiri Hills in South India was a foundation of the English early in the 19th century. The hills are in fact a mountainous plateau, some 40 miles long by 15 miles broad, at the junction of the ranges of the Eastern and Western Ghats, and higher than either of the ranges at that point. The Nilgiri summits go over 8,000 feet, high above the plains to the north and east. The plateau is excessively rugged, composed of many small ranges and many peaks, with many steep, narrow valleys between them. The eastern and northeastern part of the plateau is in general some 1,000 to 1,500 feet lower than the remainder. Ootacamund is roughly in the middle of the plateau, just to the west of the short Doddabetta-Snowdon range which is part of the line of demarcation between the higher and lower levels and which in Doddabetta contains the highest of the Nilgiri peaks (some 8,640 feet). From shortly after its foundation Ootacamund was the most important of the health-restoring and playground hill stations founded by the English in South India for the use of the governing classes of the Madras Presidency, Mysore State, and even more distant parts of South India. Since Independence also, it has retained some of its usefulness for some governmental activities and as a playground. Its early history has been recorded in a number of books, especially H. B. Grigg (and others), A Manual of the Nilagiri District in the Madras Presidency (Madras, Government Press, 1880) and Sir Frederick Price, Ootacamund, a History (Madras, Government Press, 1908).1 Both of these are based in part on early government files, government gazettes, and Madras journals, and probably there is little more to be gleaned from such sources. However, even yet, not everything that might be gained from aboriginal oral sources has been put on record. The present notes on several small points come from such sources and in one way or another supplement the large accounts. They are based on linguistic and ethnological fieldwork done on the Todas, one of the aboriginal communities, in the years 1935-1938. What is presented here was recorded only incidentally to the chief interests, and it is evident that at some points inquiry was not pushed far enough. It is evident, too, that inquiry among the Badagas, another of the communities of the area, would add something-in fact, would solve completely the second point examined.