According to Art Historians, this is an age old practice in Tamil Nadu. Certain rock paintings found in Karikkiyur village, in the Nilgiri district show pictures depicting men chasing the bulls. Another such painting has been found out in a cave at Mattuppetti, a small rural area in the Madurai-Dindigul route. That shows a single man trying to control a raged bull. As per the Art Historians, these paintings had been done with red ochre and white kaolin in the style of x-ray painting. Hence they calculate an approximate age of 3500 years to these paintings.Since the art tells the culture of the time and space, this lead us 3500 years back, when there was a custom, chasing the bulls, which may or may not be the practice of the time. There have been a number of folklores regarding such sport all through Tamil Nadu, as popular warriors used to practice this game as a part of their training and exhibition. Legends tell that women of royal families chose their grooms, by conducting such bull fights, in which the successful ‘matadors’ get the royal brides. This is somewhat similar to the ‘swayamvara’method (choosing the groom out of the invited many by the bride) practiced in ancient imperial palaces.
In the ancient Tamil tradition, there is the mentioning of a custom practiced at the time of pongal, a sportive game called ‘manju virattu’, meaning ‘chasing the bull’. Another version spotted is ‘eruthu kattsu’, denoting ‘lassoing the bulls’. During the harvest festival, the decorated bulls would be let loose in the roads and the village youths would take pride in chasing them and out running them. Women, children and others watched this fun game from the side lines. Nobody was got injured. The youths would take delight in lassoing the sprinting bulls with rope.
Festival is verbally and practically equated always with celebrations and celebration always ties up with revels. Thus while letting loose the tethered animals, they enjoyed the freedom to run apart from the stipulated path without a plough upon their shoulder. The youths also enjoyed playing with them in a sportsman spirit. Others reveled on watching it passively as well as actively. Teeming and bombastic rhapsody reverberated all along. This is what is called a celebration, the relaxation period after a long and tiresome labor.
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