Photo: BBC.com
I came across this image on BBC’s photo gallery captioned “An Indian teenager tries to tame a bull during an annual festival in the southern town of Palemedu.” and looked it up immediately. Being of South Indian origin (yes Karthik, I’m actually admitting to that), I’ve heard of this but never had the chance to see this event first hand.
From all accounts it vaguely resembles the Spanish running of the bulls.
Jallikattu is a South Indian celebration involving bull taming, somewhat similar to the Spanish running of the bulls. It is held in the villages of Tamil Nadu on the eve of Mattu Pongal, one of the four days of Pongal festival (usually January 15 on the Western calendar). The one held in Alanganallur, near Madurai, is the most popular. This sport is also known as “Manju Virattu”, meaning “chasing the bull”.
In Jallikattu, an agitated bull is set to run in an open space. Several people, empty handed, try to tame it by controlling its horns. The winner gets a prize, which is generally tied to the horns of the bull. On most occasions, the bulls are intoxicated with alcohol. Only men take part in this macho game. Sometimes, more than one bull is loose at the same time. The village farmers take this game as a display of their masculine strength. Betting is also common during the game.
The wiki link has links to a couple of neat picture galleries on that event. Apparently in days of yore, this event doubled up as a match-making service. This makes more sense to me than the online desi matrimony sites that are popping up a dime a dozen these days .
The exact history of the origin of Jallikattu is unknown, but it has been popular for several centuries. According to legend, in olden days the game was used by women to choose their husbands. Successful “matadors” were chosen as grooms.
Update: Local authorities have ruled that the participants in the bull fight both the fighter and the bull must be sober before and during the competition.
Both bulls and bullfighters were breathalyzed at a South Indian bull-taming festival in a bid to quell the bravado of contestants and slash the number of injuries, authorities said. More than 400 people were hurt last year during the ancient sport, known as Jallikattu, when Indians try to tame running bulls by grabbing the animals’ horns or their distinctive hump. The animals and the fighters are often plied beforehand with large amounts of a local brew, known as arrack, at the festival in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu. But the number of injuries plummeted to just 60 this year after authorities introduced medical tests for the first time, district collector T. Udayachandran said late on Wednesday.
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