Nurungukal...contd..

    Jallikettu in Trichy area is a popular sport. More than a sport people celebrated it as a festival. Rich landlords in the area nurtured and maintained huge Kangayam bulls exclusively for participating them in Jellikettu. There used to exist long standing feuds between families on this sport. So, each of them spent lavishly for grooming ferocious bulls. Similarly a few youngsters or even middle aged men who are strong and agile participated in this sport with the main objective to win the prices.

    Between the horns of the bulls the price money will be secured, which the person subduing the animal can take. It may be a few rupees or gold coins. The value will depend on the ferocity of the bull or the status of the owner. The bulls with the price money between their sharp horns will be locked in a narrow enclosure and will be mercilessly  provoked by smearing chilly powder in their eyes and nostrils and pocking them in vulnerable portions of their boy with sharp pins. The poor animal will be virtually writhing in pain and trying to escape from the torture using all its energy. When it is at its peak, the animal will be let loose and it will jump from the clutches of the torturers into a jeering crowd who will mercilessly start beating to provoke it further. Then it will run for its life smashing,  kicking, hissing and goring whoever confronts it. At this moment the men try gallantly to subdue the animal. We can witness a struggle between the man and the animal which invariably ends in either the animal shackling from the clutches, or the man snatching the price money or an injury, some time fatal to the intruder. There had been many cases of deaths when the ferocious animal charge into the jeering crowd. Muniyandy’s father was such an adventurer who used to regularly participate in Jellikettu and win the price money , but.............contd.