Dress rehearsal for bulls: Mock Vadivasal run

Pongal is not only about the harvest festival, but it also about sporting with the bulls. Villages across Tamil Nadu come alive, with intense training imparted to both the bulls and the bull tamers. Although not much is done for bull tamers, bulls receive various forms of training from their owners.

More than 40 breeds of bulls exist at present, but not all of them are used for jallikattu. Only specialised jallikattu bulls are trained for the purpose and are made to enter Vadivasal, the entry point for any jallikattu ground. Most owners raise the bulls as a family member, rear them on a special diet, before imparting advanced training. Speaking to this newspaper, Manirathinam, both a bull tamer and a bull breeder and trainer from Mudakathan in Madurai, said that there are various types of training for bulls; however, most training also depends on the time frame available.

Regular training starts with training in swimming, to enhance a bull’s endurance level and increase its lung capacity.

One of the important drills is getting the bull to scour the soil with its horns. Tamers also train the bulls to attack them with their horns; next, they tie the bulls to a pole and make ferocious movements and noises, in order to familiarise the bulls on what to expect from roaring crowds during jallikattu.

Once the jallikattu event is round the corner, a temporary Vadivasal-like structure would be erected with the help of wooden logs and the bulls would be given a dress rehearsal on coming via the Vadivasal.

Manirathinam, who lost one of his eyes during a jallikattu, also said that during the training days, a regular, protein-rich diet would be fed to the bulls, but closer to the jallikattu, eggs of ‘country chicken’ would be given, in order to increase their stamina.

Like the bulls, the bull tamers too receive training on taming the jallikattu bulls effectively. Karuppannan, from Arittapatti near Melur in Madurai district, who had won the best bull tamer award in Palamedu jallikattu in 2017, said that he has been into bull taming for around 18 years and the important criteria for a bull tamer is to stay fit and healthy and avoid alcohol and tobacco products.

By far the most challenging technique for a bull tamer is to lock the legs of a bull to prevent it from running and holding on to the hump for as long as possible, said tamers.