Madurai: In Avaniyapuram, where the first jallikattu is held every Pongal season on Pongal day itself, the bull sport is a carnival that brings people of all castes - Brahmins, OBC and Dalits - together.
Even as the village is gearing up to hold the event on Sunday (Feb. 5), 21 days behind schedule, Sampath Ganapathi Iyer said that the first bull that passes through the vadivasal will be from a Brahmin home. As per tradition, this bull will be allowed to run through and not tackled by bull tamers.
The setting up of the Vadivasal (the entry point of bulls into the arena) is the duty of Dalit community. “We have been following this tradition without any break till the event itself was stopped in 2014 on Supreme Court order,” said S.Irulan, a Dalit and member of the village festival committee, which is organising the jallikattu event in Avaniyapuram village located near Madurai Airport.
The jallikattu, held for the Manthai Amman temple, is an annual offering to a subaltern deity which is believed to bring prosperity in agricultural production and safeguard communal harmony in the village, said 48-year-old Ganapathi Iyer, a Mirasu Nanathamai (one among the five village heads) of Avaniyapuram.
The religious significance of jallikattu has been effectively handed down from generation to generation, even though it remained oral throughout centuries.
“My grandfather Suburaiyer, who worked as the village munsiff, played a crucial role in safeguarding this religious tradition by conducting jallikattu every year without break. In fact, we had 300 heads of cattle, including 20 jallikattu bulls, in our house till recently,” recalled Ganapathi Iyer, pointing to the statue of a marble bull kept in the pooja room.
It was in remembrance of the Brahmin community's role in preserving this tradition that a bull from Gapapathi Iyer's house would pass through the vadivasal first.
It would be followed by three other bulls belonging to other communities which also play an equally important role in shaping the sport in the village, said M Ramasamy, secretary of the festival committee.
Lakshman (53), from Arunthathiyar community which is a sub-group of Scheduled Caste, said that for generations people from his community have been participating in jallikattu. “My bull had won many events not only in Avaniyapuram, but also in Palamedu and Alanaganallur,” said Lakshman who has been busy preparing his bull for Sunday's event.
It was a sport between bulls and men, not between communities, said G. Shanmuganathan, a famous Dalit bull tamer from Avaniyapuram. He said jallikattu actually helps the communities to forget their differences and celebrate in unity.
As the students' movement in support of jallikattu helped the villagers to organise the sport after a two-year gap, many textile companies and corporate hospitals have come forward to offer costly gifts, including gold and silver coins, TV sets, silk saris and trousers and shirts for the winners.
“It was for the first time these companies volunteered to sponsor the sport to honour the fact students participated in the jallikattu protest and made all this possible,” said KR Murugan, a jallikattu enthusiast from the village.
