Jallikattu Season Begins In TN With Pudukottai Leg

Pudukottai: Over 900 bulls and nearly 300 bull-taming participants on Saturday took part in the year's first Jallikattu event in the state in Thachankurichi village in this district. Jallikattu is a bull-taming event held in Tamil Nadu as part of the Pongal festivities.

Ministers S Regupathy and Siva V Meyyanathan, and District Collector M Aruna formally inaugurated the event. Motorcycles, bicycles, traditional cooking and storage pots for the successful bull-tamers and also for the owners of the bulls are up for grabs, the organisers said.

The event is being held under the banner 'Punitha Vinnerppu Annai Alaya Thiruvizha' here, in which 300 bull-taming participants wearing uniforms enthusiastically turned up to tame the beasts charging out of Vadivasal (entry points) into the sporting arena, with 800 bulls from various districts, including Pudukkottai, Trichy, Madurai, Thanjavur, Sivaganga, Dindigul, and Theni. A bull-tamer is declared the winner based on how long he manages to hold on to the hump of the animal. The same yardstick is applied to pick the owner of a bull as victorious. Two-wheeler vehicles will be awarded as prizes to the best bull tamers and the best bulls in this Jallikattu competition.

Tamil Nadu's unique sporting event 'jallikattu' is held coinciding with the Pongal festivities, and the marquee event in Madurai's Alanganallur and Avaniyapuram during the Pongal week (mid-January) is a global attraction, drawing audience from different parts of the world.

Also Read:

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2. As Thai Month Nears, Madurai's Bull Tamers Brace For Jallikattu, The Grand Annual Show