It was Madurai’s answer to the bull run at Pamplona in Spain, and if not as famous, it still drew hordes of foreigners and natives alike. The Jallikattu at Alanganallur, with an angry bull testing its strength against local matadors, has excited spectators for centuries with its risk-strewn twists and turns. But this year, there was a strange, lethargic feel to what is usually an adrenaline-doused event. With two-tier barricades surrounding the spectator’s galleries in the village square, and breathalysers screening not only the contestants but also the bulls, there was no robust forays on narrow streets of Madurai’s villages, with drunken spectators pressing in from all sides. Onlookers often were among those who were gored to death during Jallikattu.Before the annual bull carnival, Madurai Collector T Udayachandran, putting up a spirited defence before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court disposing of a batch of petitions against the contest, had pleaded he would ensure there were no deaths, either of the bull tamers or of spectators this time. He put in place an elaborate security arrangement which took the machismo out of Jallikattu. “I have been watching Jallikattu for more than 20 years. This time I was not allowed into the area by the police. It looked like the event was being held for the VIPs and the police,’’ said a glum T Rajendran, who had come with friends from Vallallapatti village.Dating back to several centuries, Jallikattu or “taming of the bull” is held during the Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu’s southern districts. It was originally meant to test the strength of one man against a frenzied bull. A kattu (bundle) of salli (coins) is tied between the horns of the bull and the contestant grabs it after “taming” the furious animal. The veeran (the valiant) also wins the hand of the most eligible woman watching the event. These days, it is one bull against a hundred young men, who grab at its hump and horns, virtually battering it into submission. This is perhaps what the activists were protesting against. This and the custom of feeding the bull stimulants and then torturing it to get its tail up.It not always humans who are victors. “If the bull wins, then all the prizes go to its owner. The bull’s market price shoots up. The winning bulls can fetch prices of Rs 1 lakh or more,” said R M Ranganathan, a local DMK functionary and one of the organisers. And the prizes now range from gold coins, cots, cupboards and electronic appliances to even FM radios.Having assured the court that the bulls would not be put to undue harm, Collector Udayachandran had set up a makeshift veterinary hospital in Alanganallur for the first time. Twenty surgeons and five veterinary staff did clinical and lab checks of the bulls, analysing their saliva for cocaine, nicotine and strychnine besides sniffing their breath for the tell-tale odour of alcohol.The Madurai Bench permitted the sport to be held on Udayachandran’s fervent plea that Jallikattu was an intrinsic part of the social life and that it would be “an uphill task” to deprive the people of this one grand finale to the Pongal celebrations. But in the final count, it was not the bull that was tamed; Jallikattu 2007 was a tame version of its vigorous self.
