Madakulam residents take immense pride in rearing jallikattu bulls

MADURAI: Madakulam, which boasts one of Madurai's largest water tanks, has come alive as Pongal celebrations are around the corner.

Every household in the village of Madakulam is looking forward to the annual bull-taming contest during the festivities, an ancient Dravidian tradition practised several thousand years ago during the Indus Valley civilisation.

According to village head N Muthu Kumar of Madakulam, jallikattu remains an integral part of the Pongal festival. The bull is reared as one of the members in most families in Madakulam, where agriculture is also the main breadwinner.

A car, be it any luxury brand, in front of a house is not a matter of pride, but a jallikattu bull with a majestic horn in each household instilled a sense of pride and identity for the Madakulam residents.

The 30-year-old Muthu Kumar, who is an MCA postgraduate, born of a peasant family, started a craze of bull-taming sport at the age of fifteen. He credited his father Nagarajan as a source of inspiration. During his school days, his father took him to Avaniyapuram to spectate jallikattu.

“While being a first-year undergraduate student, I did a part-time job in the construction industry with the intent to earn money to buy a bull. Now, I have three bulls,” he told DT Next on Sunday.

To uphold the bull-rearing tradition, K Guna from the East Street of Madakulam, a dairy farmer, who is into fifth-generation rearing bulls for jallikattu, said now his two daughters despite studying engineering at a private college and Class 9 at a government school were utilising the scholarship money to rear a bull, which currently has only two teeth.

S Karuppusamy alias Karuppu, who has ten bulls, from Palanganatham, which is adjacent to Madakulam, said he devotes much of his time to training the bulls to swim in Madakulam kanmoi ahead of jallikattu to excel in the sport. With just a week left for the bull-taming contest, the Madakulam kanmoi is abuzz with activities.